Chicken Scapariello with Sweet and Sour Vinegar Peppers
I paired mine with some Risotto from a Previous Analysis
Although I had never heard of this dish and there were no pictures in the book, I decided to give it a try.
Time: 1hr 45 minutes
Difficulty: 1/5
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
This recipe caught my interest because of the simple ingredients list. I was looking thought the Italian American cook book to find something to cook for the week and I came across this. Although it had no pictures and I had no idea what Scarpariello was, I liked the thought of chicken and sausage together in one dish. After a little research, it turns out that this dish is a classic Italian American dish made in one pot, another bonus.
Key Ingredients and Omissions:
I didn’t have vegetable oil, so I used grape seed oil (not shown)
I didn’t have any fresh vegetable oil, so I used grape-seed Oil instead. I also just used 4 chicken thighs instead of 6 as the recipe requests.
Tools:
Dutch Oven
Cooking Review:
Prep: 16 Minutes
I cut up the peppers and garlic, as well as formed the sausage into meatballs and seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper.
Browning the meats: 14 Minutes
After heating the oil on medium high heat until just about smoking, I added the chicken skin side down and let brown for 8 minutes until very crispy. I removed the chicken and added the meatballs to brown on all sides for a total of 5 minutes before being removed.
Veg and sauce: 29 minutes
The poblano peppers were added immediately after the sausage was removed and cooked for 2 minutes before the oregano, fennel seed, and garlic were added to cook for about a minute. All the liquid and sauces were added at this point (except for the lemon juice) and stirred before being brought to a simmer. (Note, I only had a little over 3/4 cup of juice from the cherry peppers) The mixture was left to simmer for 10 minutes and I stirred it occasionally as it reduced.
Cooking Chicken and Meatballs: 27 Minutes
The chicken was added to the sauce and covered to cook on low for 12 minutes before the meatballs were added to cook for another 10 minutes. I checked the chicken’s temperature and it was over 180 degrees Fahrenheit, so I knew it was done. The butter and lemon juice were added last. It wasn’t kinda hard to stir everything together at this point, as there wasn’t much liquid.
Analysis:
I really enjoyed the flavors of this dish. Not only is it intensely savory, it is also slightly sweet, all while not being too salty. It’s interesting that it is so flavor without all that much salt being added directly. The meatballs had a very nice crust from the browning step, giving them intense flavors, as well. The chicken was very tender and was a great companion to the glaze. I also really liked the peppers, which had a nice texture even though they had shrunken significantly, still retaining very good flavor. There is a very small amount of spice here, which isn’t a problem at all. Overall, this dish gets a 10/10. It’s one pot, easy, and tastes great. Not much else I could ask from it.
