Ok, this one contains dairy. If you can’t handle it, please just look away now instead of tempting yourself! Also, please accept my apologies in advance. I have been receiving requests for recipes involving cheese lately, and I finally let a personal craving push me over the recipe-creating edge. The result is a ridiculously good complete meal that worked out (and looked) much better than I expected. Please keep in mind that I stacked my dish neatly in my slow cooker, then strained some of the excess fat, and then let the crock cool on the stovetop for an hour before removing the contents with 2 spatulas and surgeon-like precision. The only downside to this dish is that you need to have at least an hour ahead of time to soak your eggplant slices and then let them dry out for a bit. This process is a must as it helps remove some of the bitterness from the eggplant. I only soaked mine for about an hour, and let between some paper towels for half an hour tops, and everything worked out fine. Just don’t let me Italian grandparents know that I cut some corners!
What you need:
- 1 medium eggplant (about 1.5 pounds), sliced about 1/4 thick, soaked and dried.
- 1 pound of thinly sliced chicken breast, pounded flat with a meat mallet.
- 3 cups of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce.
- 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced.
- 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning.
- 1/2 pound of thinly sliced pepperoni.
- 1 cup of black olives, sliced.
- 1/2 cup to a cup of Parmesan cheese, grated.
- 1/2 cup to a cup of Mozzarella cheese, grated.
- sea salt as needed.
- Italian parsley for garnish.
Kitchen tools needed:
- Mandoline slicer or thin knife (for slicing eggplant).
- Large bowl for soaking eggplant.
- Colander or strainer for draining eggplant.
- Paper towels or a clean kitchen towel for drying the eggplant.
- Meat mallet for pounding out your chicken.
- 6-quart slow cooker.
How you make it:
- Slice your eggplant and place slices into a large bowl of water. Allow to soak for at least an hour.
- Strain your eggplant, sprinkle with sea salt and place between paper or cloth towels to remove excess moisture. Let sit for a half hour.
- Mix your minced garlic and Italian seasoning into your tomato sauce.
- Add your tbsp of olive oil to you slow cooker, then add a few large spoons of tomato sauce, enough to coat the bottom of your slow cooker once stirred around.
- Use a meat mallet to pound your chicken breasts as thin as you can. Ideally they should be as thin or thinner than your eggplant slices. Set them aside.
- Start layering in this order starting from the bottom. Sauce, eggplant, parmesan cheese, chicken, sauce, mozzarella cheese, black olives, pepperoni, more cheese.
- Repeat until ingredients are used up, you should have about 2 chicken layers, 3 tops. Try to set aside some sauce / cheese / olives / pepperoni for the top.
- Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 hours.
- Once finished cooking, remove ceramic crock and place on your stovetop to let it cool with the lid cracked.
- Drain excess fat with a turkey baster.
- Remove with a pair of spatulas if you want to get the beast out in one piece like I did!
- Enjoy!
This sounds amazing. I am thinking some sweet Italian sausage cut thin too. If I wasn’t making your wings this weekend this would be it. Next weekend!!!
Wow, this looks so good. I am on vacation all next week but when I get back, I’m making this. Thank you!
Operation Soaking of Eggplant about to commence! I am stressing on how to get this out later in one piece!
Easy. When cooking is done, remove the ceramic crock from the cooker and rest it on your stove to cool. Use a turkey baster to remove excess fluid from the bottom of the crock. Use 2 spatulas, one under each long end to lift out your eggplant bomb. Worked for me 🙂
It came out great and I had it stacked pretty high . I am thinking of adding Italian sausage next time. Wish I can add a picture to this reply!
Nice! That does sound good! Let me know how it comes out!
This looks great! I’m trying to figure out the nutritional info per serving based on the ingredients. That means I need to know approximately how many servings (or maybe how many cups) this makes. What do you think would be a good number to use? Thanks!
Yum, Yum, YUM!!! Had my hudband put this together on his day off and I received all kind of “complain-y” emails about eggplant, etc. I promised if he didn’t like it, I would order him a real pizza. When dinner time came, he had two helpings! This was so tasty and makes plenty of delicious leftovers! This is going on the keepy list.
Holy Cow was this good! I have made it twice in the last week (still had left over eggplant). The carb loving boyfriend even thought it was awesome!
How many does this serve?
Did I miss something? Garlic? Italian seasoning?
Thank You!! http://wp.me/p2UyfL-mb <– gave you some props today!
This looks so amazing! Thank you! 🙂
This was amazing. I agree some Italian sausage would be icing on the cake. My finicky husband loved it.
This sounds wonderful, and I’m not a fan of eggplant at all! Hoping the soaking trick will truly get rid of the bitterness, so I can change my mind about it.
This is what I’m cooking today! Tip: when soaking the eggplant then tend to float. I put a small saucer on top with a small can on top of that. Doesn’t squish them but keeps emersed. 😉
Just found your site today!! Thanks to your site, my menu plan is now complete for next week! First up: Paleo Pepperoni Pizza Chicken and Eggplant 🙂
Melisssab it is amazing. I make it at least two times a month and it works out great for lunch. I have had a ton of Eggplant in my garden this season which worked out great for this recipe and the buffalo eggplant recipe on this site.
This was an awesome recipe- I didn’t bother with the slow cooker as I was a little pressed for time- I browned the chicken and eggplant (which I did soak- although only for 20 minutes- rinsed…) I layered the chicken on the bottom, then the eggpplant (didn’t want it too mushy!) Baked it for 30 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered (to brown it) Served it to a 13 year old, who asked for seconds! My husband loved it too- will def make again!
I have made this recipe 4 times in the last 3 months. Everyone loves it.
Made this and it was bomb! I dint like olives,so I left em out. It wasn’t as greasy as . Was expecting from the ingredients. Next time I’m gonna try adding mushrooms and sausage instead of olives and pepperoni. The whole family enjoyed it, even though the kids don’t love eggplant like me.
I don’t often leave replies for recipes, but this was THAT good! I think you could definitely omit the pepperoni and cheese if you’re eating squeaky clean and it would still be delicious! Could easily add peppers and onions too! Thanks so much!
Delicious!! Loved by 2 and 4 year old and my husband and I. Thank you!!!
Wow – amaze-balls! Now you’ve got me craving eggplant!
I wonder if I can pass this off on my teenage son and his friends, hmmm!
Thanks for contributing the recipe to my 125+ Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Recipes post!
Here’s the deal. If you have issues with cheese/milk products, you can use daiya ‘cheese’. Check out http://us.daiyafoods.com/products/dairy-free-cheese-shreds/mozzarella-style-shreds
I’m going to try it.
I’ve never tried the Daiya and therefor can’t form much of an opinion on it. As always, do what works best for you.
So this is what I am making for dinner it sounds great! But here is my question, as a beginner paleo eater, since the pepperoni is a processed food and there is dairy in it is this truly paleo?
No, it’s not super truly paleo. The cheese is optional and ideally you’d want to find a pepperoni like applegate farms that is simply salt cured. Processed is a subjective term, for example coconut oil made by hand could still be classified as a processed food. Hope this helps!
made this tonight and we all thought it was delicious – thanks!