Sweet and Sour Chicken and Eggplant / Pollo in Salsa Agrodolce

Name: Sweet and Sour Chicken and Eggplant / Pollo in Salsa Agrodolce
Ingredients: 1/4 cup Filippo Berio olive oil; 1 large leek, root end and top discarded and leek sliced into thin rings; 1 small eggplant, peeled and diced; 1 pound boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch wide strips; 3 large plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced; Salt to taste; Freshly ground black pepper to taste; Ingredients

What I like about this dish, besides how fast it goes together, is the marriage of leeks and eggplant, a sensational taste of bitter and sweet, or what Italians call agrodolce. It is the perfect foil for the chicken, which without cleverly used ingredients, would be just chicken.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Filippo Berio olive oil
1 large leek, root end and top discarded and leek sliced into thin rings
1 small eggplant, peeled and diced
1 pound boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch wide strips
3 large plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Ingredients

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat; add the leeks and eggplant and cook until the leeks are very soft and creamy, and the eggplant begins to brown. Transfer to a dish.
Season the chicken strips well with salt and pepper. Brown them in the same pan, adding more oil if necessary. Return the leeks and eggplant to the pan along with the tomatoes. Cover and cook over low heat for about 8 minutes or until the chicken is fork tender.
Cooks secret: small size eggplant have fewer seeds and are less bitter than their larger relatives so there is no need to “sweat” them with salt to remove the bitter juices.