This flavorful and Easy Chicken Sorrentino with Eggplant and Prosciutto recipe is topped with tomato sauce and smoked provolone cheese. It’s a tasty, restaurant-quality chicken dinner to serve your family or friends. It’s gluten-free and low-carb.
Chicken Dinner Recipes
*The full recipe is at the bottom of this post in the recipe card.
Add this Chicken Sorrentino recipe to your chicken dinner recipes collection.
Pretty much any dish that has tomato sauce and melted cheese on top, like baked ziti with ricotta cheese or eggplant parm, is going to be wonderful!
I just love the idea of putting eggplant and salty prosciutto on top of chicken to begin with, but adding sauce and cheese is just divine! Doesn’t it sound and look wonderful?
The origins of this dish are questionable. A quick Google search says that this is a makeover of the Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, however Gnocchi alla Sorrentina isn’t made with eggplant and prosciutto.
As a matter of fact, my Italian cousin who’s lived and travelled throughout Italy for 30 years has never heard of it. But, that’ doesn’t mean it isn’t a delicious dish invented by an Italian-American or that the original dish did actually come from Sorrento, Italy in someway. I’m guessing the Italian-American that invented came from Sorrento?
Nonetheless, it tastes so good that it really doesn’t matter where it originated.
Disclosure: This may post contain Amazon affiliate links which means, if you make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission but, the price you pay is the same.
Chicken Sorrentino Recipes
What will elevate this dish’s flavor is using a good homemade tomato sauce. I must stress this because it’s so true. If you have time to make my homemade sauce, please do. You won’t regret it and you’ll have it to freeze for other pasta dishes.
Eggplant Slices
For the sake of making this recipe easy, I roasted the eggplant in the oven but, you can also fry it, which would be very tasty, but will take longer and add more fat and calories. However, it would be even more tasty!
One medium eggplant will suffice for this recipe. Cut the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices lengthwise so it covers the length of the chicken cutlets.
I salt my eggplant first to extract the brown bitter juices. After you slice the eggplant, sprinkle salt on it and then let it sit for 10 minutes. Then, pat off the brown juices with paper towels.
If you have brown juices, this is what it will look like:
Sometimes, there aren’t any and that’s good. When I made this recipe, I didn’t have any brown juices so the picture above is from another eggplant recipe- Fried Eggplant.
Olive Oil
I used extra virgin olive oil to pan fry the chicken for this recipe. The EVOO adds a good bit of flavor and you only need about 1/4 cup for a pound of chicken cutlets. They cook fast because they’re so thin.
Use a large skillet to cook the chicken so you can fit as many pieces as possible. After you pan fry them, add them to a 13″x 9″ x 3″ casserole dish.
Chicken Cutlets
You can buy chicken cutlets at the meat department of the grocery store. They’re boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are cut thinly into 1/2 inch or smaller in thickness pieces. The package will say “chicken cutlets.”
Chicken cutlets are used to make fried breaded chicken cutlets. They do cost more but, it’s hard to get the chicken as thin as you can buy them.
You can pound them before cooking if you wish but, I skipped that step. Cook them on medium-high heat for a few minutes per side.
Prosciutto Slices
You’ll need about 4-5 prosciutto slices to put on top of the cooked chicken. Put one slice of prosciutto on top of each of the chicken pieces unless they happen to be small pieces of chicken. Then, they can overlap. Always use good-quality prosciutto.
Marinara Sauce
As I’ve mentioned above, if you use a good homemade tomato sauce, you’ll have a better tasting Chicken Sorrentino. I make it and then freeze it so I can pull it out anytime I need sauce. It makes all the difference. It’s one of my most popular recipes too!!
Provolone Cheese
I used smoked provolone for this recipe but, you can use unsmoked provolone or mozzarella cheese if you prefer. I used two slices of provolone for each piece of chicken but, of course you could use more or fewer.
Then, put the casserole in the oven to melt the cheese and warm up the chicken, eggplant and sauce.
Pollo alla Sorrentina
Chicken Sorrentino recipes come with different but, similar names. Pollo alla Sorrentina is another name for this dish. “Pollo” in Italian means “chicken.”
If you see it named with way on a restaurant menu, it will likely be similar to Chicken Sorrentino or Chicken Sorrento, although there are different ways to make it.
Some recipes use white wine or marsala wine and coat the chicken in flour before pan frying. You could do this if you’d like.
Add some grated or shredded Parmesan cheese if you’d like.
What to Serve with Chicken Sorrentino
You may be wondering what to serve with this chicken dinner besides a green salad.
- Sauteed Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Lemon
- Air Fryer Parmesan Green Beans
- Grilled Zucchini
- a side of pasta
Substitutions
- Use unsmoked provolone if that’s what you have one hand.
- Use fresh or shredded mozzarella cheese instead of provolone.
- You can use Fontina cheese instead of provolone cheese. It melts well too.
- Instead of using roasted eggplant, use fried eggplant. You don’t need bread crumbs for my recipe.
Your family will LOVE this Chicken Sorrentino so don’t ponder too much about whether you should make it or not. It’s going to be a yummy gluten-free and low-carb Italian main dish!
I took this recipe to Weekend Potluck.
Easy Chicken Sorrentino with Eggplant and Prosciutto
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast cutlets- boneless and skinless (five pieces)
- 5 tbsp cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 lb eggplant or enough for five slices
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 4 oz prosciutto (5 slices)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 8 oz smoked provolone cheese about 10 slices
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 375F.
- Meanwhile, cut eggplant lengthwise about 1/4 inch thick. You only need one slice per piece of chicken. If you have more just cook cook it too or use it for something else. Place on a cookie sheet. Add salt to one side and set aside for brown juice to excrete. Use a paper towel to pat the eggplant of the brown juice. If no brown juice excretes after 10 min, jump to the next step. Drizzle 1 TBSP of oil, sprinkle garlic powder (1/4 tsp) and Italian seasoning (1/2 tsp) on top of the eggplant.
- Next, put eggplant in the oven and cook at 375F for 15 minutes or until the eggplant is soft. Thicker sliced eggplant will take longer than if it's thinner sliced. Do not turn off oven.
- Meanwhile, add 4 tbsp of oil to a large skillet. Add garlic cloves (4) and cook for about one minute.
- Then, add salt and pepper to taste to the chicken. Add chicken cutlets and cook for about 4-5 minutes per side. Cook in batches if needed. Remove and put in an oil sprayed 13" x 9" x 3" baking dish.
- Next, place one slice of prosciutto on each cooked piece of chicken that you placed in the baking dish.
- Then, place one piece of baked eggplant on top of each piece of prosciutto.
- Then, spoon tomato sauce on each piece of eggplant.
- Next, place two slices of smoked provolone cheese on top of piece of eggplant.
- Put the baking dish in the oven so the cheese can melt and the contents can warm up. It will take about 10-15 minutes at 375.
