Chicken Vesuvio

I was watching an episode of Andrew Zimmerman’s Delicious Destinations the other day and the show was from our recently visited Chicago area.  One of the places he showed was an Italian restaurant and they were cooking a Chicago invented dish called Chicken Vesuvio – origins unknown and debated.

This restaurant’s recipe was not available to me so I went on-line and found the Saveur recipe which had very similar ingredients to what I saw during the show, but I cut the recipe in half.  I also looked at the recipe from Chicago’s Marie at Proud Italian Cook and preferred her directions so I adapted the two of them to get the following.

Chicken Vesuvio 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil (approx), divided

5 cloves garlic

3 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or two Dolly sized cut in half crosswise)

¾ cups white wine

1⁄6 cup finely chopped parsley

½ tbsp. dried oregano

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

¾ cups chicken stock

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Instructions:

I made it a one pot meal and cooked everything in our seven quart, cast iron Dutch oven.

1.  Add some oil to the bottom of the pan over medium high heat, add the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Brown on all three sides and set aside on a plate – it took me two batches and I added additional oil as needed.

2.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and coat lightly with flour (I did this since it was skinless chicken).

3.  Heat oven to 375° at this point.

4.  Repeat the cooking process in the pan for the chicken and I once again browned on three sides of the large breasts.

5.  Remove the chicken to the plate and toss in the garlic to cook for a couple of minutes until golden.

6.  Add wine to deglaze the pan and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes  

7.  Add stock, season with parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook a couple of minutes to get it hot.

8.  Add the chicken to the pan, top with potatoes, and cook in the oven (uncovered) until the chicken reaches a 160F internal temperature, then pour the peas over the top and return to the oven.

9.  When the chicken reaches 165F,  remove and plate: chicken-potatoes-sauce with peas.  

When I got ready to download my pics I found the card was in the computer and not the camera so here are a couple from the web that look very much like ours (my pan shot was deeper).

I thought it was very good and a pretty easy one pot meal.  I’d say from start of prep to plating, it took about 1½ hours, with about 30 minutes in the oven.  If I make it again, I’ll make the full recipe for a bigger group, using bone-in thighs, then serve it on a platter.  I think I'll also add some red pepper to give it a little more color like I saw in some of the photos like this.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

4/21/17 Meal Date