Light & Easy Eggplant Milanese

I wanted to make crunchy chicken without frying one day. I'm not a fan of deep frying anything in my kitchen and make a mess of it. If I want fry food, I'd rather go out to a restaurant. So I went on a hunt for an oven fried chicken recipe and found the most delicious, flavorful and crunchy Oven-Fried Chicken Milanese. I liked it so much that I used the same method for making eggplant milanese.


The recipe calls for making a coating of parmesan and egg, and panko (Japanese bread crumbs), parsley and lemon zest. Instead of dipping chicken in it, I dipped half inch rounds of sliced eggplant (like an eggplant steak).

It worked just as well. The panko made the eggplant so crunchy. The parmesan added a salty bite, while the fresh parsley and lemon zest added a much needed brightness. I topped the finished product with some home-made tomato sauce I had ready in the freezer, and it was so satisfying. If I had mozzarella cheese, I'd take it further by sprinkling some on the eggplant and putting it under the broiler before adding the sauce. Yum!