Villa Sentieri

Pollo alla Romana (Chicken with Sweet Peppers)

Traditionally this dish would be made with a cut-up chicken. I prefer to use just thighs as I think they take well to braising, which breasts don’t. You can use cut-up chicken parts if you prefer. When a dish says something should be fall-apart tender, I take that literally. It’s the way I grew up eating chicken cooked by my Italian-American mother. That means, for me, the chicken should braise in the liquid for at least 90 minutes if you’re close to sea level and longer if you’re at a higher elevation. You can short-circuit that if you want but I think the texture of the dish will suffer.

CourseMains, Poultry
CuisineItalian

Servings	Prep Time
8-12people	30minutes

Cook Time

2 1/2hours

Servings	Prep Time
8-12people	30minutes

Cook Time

2 1/2hours

Ingredients

4-5cloves garlicbruised
1/4cup extra virgin olive oil
12 chicken thighspreferably skin-on and bone-in
3 red Bell peppers
3 yellow Bell peppers
3/4cup dry white wine
1cup chicken broth
128 ounce can whole tomatoes in pureepreferably Italian plum tomatoes
1teaspoon dry oreganoplus more to taste
salt
black pepperfreshly ground
3/4cup Pecorino Romano cheesefreshly grated

Instructions

Pass the can of tomatoes through a food mill to remove seeds and hard bits of tomato. Reserve the tomato puree.
Slice the peppers into triangular pieces or thick strips.
Using a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan, sauté the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until medium brown. Discard the garlic.
Sauté the chicken in the garlic-flavored oil over high heat, starting skin side down to render additional fat from the skin, flipping twice, until well browned. Remove and reserve chicken.
Add the peppers to the oil and sauté briefly over high heat to put a light char on some of them. Remove and reserve peppers.
Add the wine to the sauté pan, bring to a boil, and scrape up all the brown bits.
After the wine evaporates, add the broth, tomato puree and oregano. Mix well.
Add the chicken, skin side down, along with any accumulated juices. Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer, partially covered, approximately 30 minutes (or, if you live at high altitude as I do, 60 minutes). Turn the chicken over. Remove and discard the skin (the skin adds lots of flavor as well as collagen to the sauce for a great mouth-feel so please use bone-in and skin-on thighs).
Add the peppers and continue to braise, partially covered, for approximately another hour until the chicken is literally fall-apart tender. During cooking, taste and adjust salt, pepper, and oregano.
Transfer the chicken and peppers to an oven-proof casserole.
If the sauce is not thick, boil quickly to reduce it. Pour the sauce over the chicken.
Sprinkle the top with Pecorino Romano cheese.
Bake at 350°F to brown the top, approximately 15-20 minutes.

Recipe Notes