This quick braised One Pan Chicken and Eggplant recipe is going to be on repeat for dinner on nights when you want a delicious healthy meal but don’t feel like investing too much time with hands on cooking. It’s hearty and comforting and customizable based on what you have on hand. It’s gluten-free, low-carb and Paleo and Whole30 friendly.
One Pan Chicken and Eggplant Recipe
Easy dinner alert! This One Pan Chicken and Eggplant dinner is a delicious seasonal dish! It’s as simple as chopping up a few veggies, sautéing in one pan, letting it quickly braise and then dinner is serve! It’s also pretty customizable based on what you have on hand. You can serve it as is for a low carb dish, or you can pair it with rice, cauliflower rice or pasta!
What other veggies can be used in this dish?
The best part about this dish is that you can swap out other seasonal veggies for what you have on hand!
Summer:
- Zucchini
- Summer squash
- Kale
- Chard
- Fresh Tomatoes
Winter:
- Carrots
- Cabbage
- Root Vegetables
If you like this one pot recipe, check out these others:
- Instant Pot Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Asparagus
- One Pot Turmeric Chicken and Rice
- One-Pot Apple Cider Braised Chicken with Brussels Sprouts and Bacon
- Creamy Tuscan Chicken (Paleo & Keto)
If you like this eggplant recipe, check out these others:
- Tomato, Eggplant, and Chickpea Stew
- Eggplant Lasagna Rollatini
- Moroccan Eggplant (with Chermoula)
- Eggplant Meatballs
Watch the video:
One-Pan Eggplant Dinner
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 medium-sized eggplant, cubed
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
- 1 15 oz. can organic diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- 3 cups fresh organic spinach
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil
Directions
- Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and eggplant and let cook for 5 minutes, stirring often until onions are translucent and eggplant is beginning to soften.
- Add chicken and let cook until no longer pink on the outside, about 5 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and spices and let simmer until chicken is cooked through and the sauce has slightly thickened, about 7-10 minutes.
- Add in fresh spinach, mix and let cook until spinach wilts.
- Garnish with fresh basil and season to taste.
Recipe Notes
- *Vegan? Simply sub out chicken for zucchini and other veggies of choice!
- **Photos updated April, 2017.
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57 comments on “Easy One-Pan Eggplant Chicken Dinner [VIDEO]”
I love eggplant, but I don’t use it near enough! Love the ease of this dish! Pinning!
Can’t wait to make this!
I love eggplant so of course I’m going to make this.
Just finished making. Absolutely delicious and easy! Going devour a bowl right now!
I love eggplant, but I always have a hard time finding yummy recipes! This looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it out!
This looks so good! We always have waaaaay too much eggplant from the garden every summer and I struggle with finding new (and healthy) ways to use it all. Pinning this and can’t wait to try it.
Would this be good with a side of quinoa ?
Made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious.
I will be freezing left overs for another night.
This looks awesome, I love eggplant and definitely don’t use it enough in a variety of ways!
Made this for dinner last night. I did not have spinach so I used kale. I like how the kale held up. Family loved it. Thanks Lexi
Was running out of dinner ideas – I am so glad I stumbled upon this page!
We will be fixing this for dinner tonight!
Just made this for the family tonight and it was a hit! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
So good! This was a great use of our CSA veggies..
This is a do-over! Delicious! Thank you!
Just made this for dinner tonight. It is definitely added to my list of go-to recipes! I think I will leave the red pepper flakes out next time, though. It was almost too spicy for me.
I made this last week and loved it! Today my 3 year old requested it again and I’m more than happy to oblige. Thanks!
How many servings?
I am going to take a guess that this recipe serves 4 people based on 4oz of chicken each serving?
Making this now! Going to serve it with quinoa w/red peppers..
This is literally the best recipe I’ve ever cooked! So healthy and delicious!! My one year old and my husband ate it faster than I could blink! Thanks for all your awesome recipes!
How many servings does this make?
I randomly found this recipe when searching for chicken and eggplant recipes. I subbed arugula for spinach and didn’t have canned tomatoes so used fresh cherry tomatoes and about 3/4 cup of basil tomatoe spaghetti sauce! Sooo yum! I am excited to see your other recipes. 🙂
Recipe was pretty good. My husband, who likes spicy food, thought the seasoning was just right, but I thought it was a little too strong. Next time I will cut back on the spices by a third. But all in all, it was tasty.
Dear Lexi, I came across your site by chance, and I am glad I did. I will make this dish and sure it would be a great meal. Thanks for that. I have one obervation: I found it quite stupid to talk about Himalayan SEA salt. Every salt was millions of years ago sea salt. But the Himalayans ARE mountains, no sea. Tha Himalayan salt is mined, not evaporated sea water. So please, use the correct term, as the incorrect one reflects negatively on you.
Lexi, I found Klaras reply to you about himalayan sea salt offensive. This particular salt was formed by the ocean into salt caves over 250 mil. yrs ago. The ocean salt settled into geologic pockets. Apparently this formed caves from which the salt is mined. So I think maybe this says something negatively about Klara. Not you. Thank you for your recipe. I’m making it for dinner tomorrow.
You are sweet, Ann! Any salt will do, I personally prefer pink salt, though 😉 Enjoy!!! XO
Himalayan Pink salt is a pure, hand-mined salt that is derived from ancient sea salt deposits, and it is believed to be the purest form of salt available.
So before you leave such comment, do your research first.
I like it and my fiance said its pretty good too.
I’ve made this a couple of times. It’s super easy, pretty tasty, and good for you. Unfortunately, I live in an area where finding decent eggplant that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg is difficult, so I often substitute the eggplant for other similar vegetables when I need to. I’ve used zucchini, but my favourite substitute has to be portobello mushrooms.
Love the sub!
I made this dish and I have to say that it has been moved up to one of my favorite for my list of meals. It’s also tasty the next day for a lunch with plenty of protein and a nice balance of carbs and fat. It’s also a perfect meal to feed to my 20-something twins when they visit. I served this with quinoa.
I like the fact that you can switch out the protein and even the veggies and it will still be awesome.
Easy peasy….I had all the ingredients already and was just looking for something different. I had some bok choi that I had to use up as well. Served over quinoa….very good
Made this tonight, it was delicious. I added mushrooms & substituted tomato sauce. I will be making this again in the very near future!! Thank you, Lexi
My neighbor gave me an eggplant from her garden today so I made this tonight and had it over whole wheat pasta was SO good!!!
So glad!!!
This dish was such a huge success! I’m on a mission to incorporate more veggies into my families diet and stumbled upon this recipe and even my VERY picky 7 years old son loved it! Every one wanted seconds! Thank you for this delicious dish! Definitely going to be cooking this again.. and again..and again 😊
I will be trying this tonight, but will be serving it over pasta. Very nice blog, but I dislike being forced to sign up in order to view a recipe.
You aren’t forced to sign up! You can X it out 🙂
Fantastic! I substituted 1/3 cup of sun dried tomatoes in oil for the canned tomatoes. I didn’t have Italian seasoning or fresh basil, so I put in 1 Tbsp of Trader Joe’s Pasta Seasoning blend. I didn’t have plain spinach, but I did have half and half spring greens and baby spinach, so I used that instead. Sometimes creativity works! It was so delicious and low fat. I put it on My Fitness Pal as Eggplant Chicken Dinner, 325 calories per serving with my modifications.
Love it!
I am a vegetarian with a family who like to eat meat sometimes. I’m a terrible cook and burn too many things but twice in two weeks I”Ve cooked this for extended family and everyone has raved about it. I use half the tomato// eggplant sauce and add chickpeas or butter beans for a veggie dish. So yummy! Thank you.
I made this for dinner tonight and it is AMAZINGLY delicious. I followed the recipe with the exception of decreasing the red pepper to 1/4tsp (I have little ones) and I subbed Italian seasoned diced tomatoes (they were all I had on hand). It was EASY and YUMMY. This will definitely make it into my dinner rotation. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
This was AMAZING! I added zucchini and with the leftovers the following night, I added brown rice. My children loved it too! They are 8 and 2.
So glad it was a hit!
Do you have nutrition info for this dish? It was really good by the way!
Recipe so easy and Delicious! Instead of chicken I used eggplant and instead of spinach I used mustard greens. This was my first eggplant recipe to make, definitely will make again!
Hey Lexi this looks delish! I’m having to follow a Lowe fod map diet right now.. nothing I can i can sub for onion and garlic or should I just leave into it?!
Thanks :))))
What’s the macro count on this? it’s amazing!
As luck would have it, already had ingredients and googled chicken and eggplant. Easy and yummy. Thanks!
I know I am late to this recipe but its so good!! Eggplant and basil are in season as the summer ends and this was a super great way to use both! Thanks!
Looks delish! Is there anything that I could use in place of the tomatoes perhaps?
Hmmm this is a main part of the dish!
Would chicken thighs work well with this recipe by any chance?
This was awesome! Subbed rainbow chard leaves for the spinach since that’s what came in my Misfit Market veggie box yesterday along with the eggplant!
This dish is so easy to make and absolutely delicious. We will make this again
Just made it tonight. Used rotisserie chicken, cabbage, eggplant, as I didn’t have spinach. Was delicious!
Made it tonight using leftover turkey and frozen spinach. I did not have fresh basil and felt it was missing something. I put a teaspoon of curry and that gave it whatever it needed. Fabulous we will be making it again for sure.