Summer Stuffed Chicken with Heirloom Tomato Eggplant Salad

Dear Reader(s?),

Sometimes I get a little freaked out about making stuff I have never made, especially when there is a country at stake, like Paella and Spain, and in my case Ratatouille and France. I was thinking to myself, 'self, wow I have the perfect amount of ratatouille fixings in my fridge, however I have never made it before and well there seems to be big arguments online about how it's made- what if I make it wrong and then someone leaves me a smug comment on here and it's the end of my shot lived blogstar career' 

Thankfully the Indian Summer heat decided to roll in and the idea of sauteing and roasting ect. seemed unbearable, especially being as unsure of myself in the process....my weakness? anyways I went a different route with the same stuff, but different.

Summer Stuffed Chicken

What you need:

Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless)

Zucchini

Tomato

Olive Oil

Wine (if you have it in the fridge)

Fresh thyme

S&P

Step 0: pre-heat the oven to 350˚, wash and dry the breasts. Prep a backing dish with a smear of Olive Oil and a dash of white wine.

Step 1:  Butterfly the breasts and cover with S&P inside and out. On a different cutting board slice tomatoes and zucchini into thin slices.

Step 2: Add Sliced tomatoes to one half of the chicken, layer herbs on that, and then cover with zucchini, add a bit more S&P on the stack.

Step 3: Fold the halfs together and place in backing dish. Make another layer with the tomato and zucchini on top of the chicken and more pepper. Put in oven.

Step 4: periodically check baste the chicken with the pan juices, after about 25min.  check for doneness, if you poke the largest part and juices run clear you are good. You want the veggies to look like this:

Step 5: (optional) cover in parmigiano reggiano and place back in a 400˚ oven till browned.

Heirloom Tomato Eggplant Salad with a Balsamic reduction vinaigrette 

what you need:

eggplant

zucchini

heirloom tomato

sweet pepper

fresh basil

valbreso feta

Balsamic reduction vinaigrette 

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

S&P

Step 1: cut eggplant and zucchini into 1" squares (the general idea), place in a bowl and  toss with EVOO and S&P, put on a baking sheet and cook at 400˚ till brown (you can also double up if you are making the chicken too)

Step 2: cut pepper and tomatoes into nice chunks, put in same bowl you used to toss eggplant with, top with basil and some chunks of feta, place in fridge to chill while waiting for the roasted veggies.

Step 3: Once Eggplant is done toss let it sit for a few moments to cool off, then toss into tomato mix.

Step 4: put some balsamic vinegar in a pot and reduce it down till it looks like it is coating the pot.

Step 5: remove from heat and in a separate bowl whisk some olive oil and S&P in, it should look pretty dense almost molassesey, toss in salad once the vinaigrette is emulsified.

Step 100:

Plate food and eat!

I love stacked food!