Why you need to fall in love with my Chicken & Aubergine Parma

Nobody in Australia, where munching cheesy chicken bakes lush with rich tomato sauce is a national pastime, calls it Chicken Parmiagiana. To every Aussie worthy of the name it’s called a chicken parma (well, sometimes).

Chicken parma is as common in Australia as meat pies or a burger “with the lot”. It’s the number one meal in every pub and in many homes and you only have to eat it once to see why. Aussies love a diminutive, so as well as calling it a chicken parma it’s sometimes called a parmi or a parmy, and things can get pretty heated when Australians from different states argue that their chosen diminutive is the right one, or the best one.

A YouGov poll (yes, there was actually a YouGov poll about it) found that Queenslanders prefer to call it a parmi spelt with an ‘i’, while in Victoria as many as 72% of people polled called it a parmy, with a ‘y’. Why do these things matter? I have no idea; best you ask an Australian to try to explain it. But be prepared to have your ear bent for a while.

The tradition really comes out of the Italian diaspora (Australia has a sizable community of expatriate Italians). Everywhere outside of Australia, it is commonly called Chicken Parmesan or Chicken Parmigiana.

Americans will claim, rightfully, that Chicken Parmesan/Parmigiana is all their own, and that it isn’t even quite Italian at all. There are many instances of supposedly Italian dishes actually coming from the Italian-American community. The original Italian dish on which it is based is melanzane parmigiana: brinjals (melanzane in Italian) baked with rich tomato sauce and melting cheese. Americans switched it over to chicken, and that happened in Australia too, although doubtless you can also get the original in both countries.

It’s doubtless because South Africa has a much smaller Italian population that the tradition never took hold here. But this is an age of food and recipes travelling from one country to another, just as we humans fly off to far-flung places when we can afford to. So there’s no reason why we cannot take it on.

Let me share a recipe with you so that you can see why this is a good idea. My recipe is not traditional and there’s no reason why it has to be. It’s a concept that you can be creative with.

And here’s my own switch-up: I used both chicken and brinjals (which Americans prefer to call eggplants and other nations such as Britain call aubergines). And then I rested the baked chicken and brinjal dish on top of a delicious slice of garlicky aubergine too. I don’t remember eating a more delicious parma, parmi or parmy anywhere. So, how about we take this on as our own South African version of it? 

And while on that subject, any suggestions as to what diminutive we might use for one? Let me know.

Now that I’ve made them once, I will be doing it often. It was one of those moments when you think, why the hell haven’t I been making this all my life? A eureka moment. I suspect you might want to as well.

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

4 chicken breast fillets

2 tomato slices per chicken breast

Dried oregano, olive oil and garlic salt for the tomatoes

1 large aubergine, sliced lengthwise

Garlic salt and olive oil for frying the aubergines

Mozzarella or other cheese, grated, to cover the fillets (mature cheddar is fine)

Grated Parmesan cheese

Breadcrumbs such as Panko or cornflake crumbs, enough to coat all the chicken breasts (don’t use soft bread)

Salt and pepper as needed

Method

Fry tomato slices in olive oil with oregano and garlic salt until just cooked but not sloppy. Set aside.

Fry aubergine slices in olive oil with garlic salt until just cooked and lightly browned. Set aside. (Retain one extra slice of cooked brinjal for each serving. Fry extra slices if not enough.)

Mix breadcrumbs with more dried oregano, garlic salt and black pepper: retain some to go on the cheese.

Season chicken breasts lightly with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken fillets in the breadcrumbs. Spray their tops with olive oil spray.

Preheat the air fryer at 180℃ for 5 minutes.

Spray the base of the air fryer basket with non-flammable cooking oil spray. (Best to invest in a spray bottle and decant oil into it for air fryer use).

Fry for 5 minutes, turn, and then cook for another 4 minutes.

Add cooked aubergine slices, top those with tomato slices, and add grated cheese on top, followed by a sprinkling of grated Parmesan and a sprinkling of leftover breadcrumbs. Give the tops a spurt of olive oil spray which helps prevent breadcrumbs from flying around during cooking.

Cook for a final 3 or 4 more minutes for the cheese to melt. 

To serve, place a slice of aubergine on the plate and top with the chicken and brinjal parma. Parmy. Parmi. Whatever. DM/TGIFood

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.