Chicken Tikka Masala with Eggplant
It is quite ironic that I received a special request to write a recipe that included eggplant the day after I ate this dish. I promised that I would post the dish asap, so here it is. In fact, I shared this dish with a client of mine and I received an email asking me to marry him. I take that as, it’s good, wouldn’t you? (I didn’t say yes by the way! LOL)
I received this dish title from an amazing company called ZEN Foods that actually delivers food to some of my clients. They have my clients on a low GI/PALEO diet which gets them lean, muscular and energetic. But in the event you have to cook your food for yourself, it is best to learn some great easy to make meals that align with the JZ FITNESS stamp of approval. You deserve to have a wealth of knowledge about optimal eating and good health. I pledge to you that I will always do my very best to provide you with amazing, easy-to-make meals that you and your family love.
So check it out! This dish has two parts to it. The chicken and the eggplant.
Whatcha need:
- Eggplants (2)
- Grapeseed oil
- Nonfat Greek plain yogurt (1 cup)
- Lemon (fresh squeezed)
- Dash of cumin
- Dash of paprika
- Dash of cinnamon
- Dash of cayenne pepper
- Dash of black pepper
- Dash of ginger (you can do fresh but I didn’t)
- Dash of cilantro (you can do fresh but I did the shaker diddly thingly)
- A dabble of salt to taste
- Free range or Kosher chicken breasts (as many pieces as you need based on how many mouths you’re feeding)
- You could do skewers but I did it in a pan for time’s sake
- Nutiva coconut oil (1 tbsp)
- Fresh ground garlic (1 clove)
- Jalapeno pepper (1 finely chopped)
- Tomato sauce (8 oz)
- Heavy cream (1 cup)
What to do:
Like I always say, I never take my time to measure anything because I do not claim to be a gourmet cook, even though my dishes are pretty dang delish. This is my trick to good time management with my meals. I just toss stuff in and pray to the food Lords that it will taste great. 99% of the time, it does. The 1% of the time it doesn’t, I don’t even waste your time reading it on JZFITNESS.com. So with that said, you will notice that I wrote a dash of this and a dash of that. Simple!
So, get two pans: one for the eggplant and one for the chicken. Also grab a big bowl. Put all the ingredients into the big bowl MINUS the grapeseed oil and the eggplant. Dump the chicken into this barrage of stuff and let it sit in your refrigerator for 10 minutes. While that is soaking up the “love”, skin the eggplant and then cut it into horizontal discs. Place the discs into approximately 4 tbsp of grapeseed oil. You will see that the eggplant sucks the oil right up. Don’t use too much oil otherwise the eggplant gets soggy and nasty. (yes I learned this).
After about 10 minutes, grab the chicken and put it into the skillet. Use the marinade as the coating of the pan. Here is where it gets tricky: if you do what I did at first, you will burn the pan. I put the flame at a very very high heat. It came out great, but I spent time brillo padding the dang skillet after soaking it overnight. That is the truth. Out of that came a delicious dish, but I advise you take a slower cook of the chicken (about 15 minutes but make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked by cutting it into pieces which will increase the surface area and cook it quicker). Once the eggplant is cooked, place it on a plate that is lined with a towel. Once the chicken is cooked, put the chicken pieces on a plate too. Divvy up into several servings placing 3-4 discs of eggplant and a chicken breast on each plate and enjoy with your company. I advise you serve a side green salad prior to this meal just to ensure you get enough veggies for this meal. Just a thought. Enjoy!
