Chicken Scarpariello is another mouth-watering classic Italian-American dish with tender chicken thighs, hot Italian sausage, pickled cherry peppers, browned vegetables, and sweet and sour sauce.
This easy one-pan meal requires simple ingredients that provide a budget-friendly alternative to eating at your favorite Italian restaurants - Perfect for the whole family to enjoy on a busy weeknight.
Serve this chicken Scarpariello recipe with rice, pasta, roasted vegetables, or crusty bread.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- This chicken scarpariello recipe is a one-pan dish you can enjoy as an easy dinner on a busy weeknight, but it’s also great for hosting guests!
- The quality of this dish is what you’d expect from Italian restaurants, minus the expense of eating out!
- Easily adapt this recipe by following easy ingredient substitutions I’ve listed below for your convenience.
Italian cuisine this good shouldn’t be missed! Juicy chicken thighs with crispy skin are nestled in a mixture of hot Italian sausage, pickled cherry peppers, veggies, and a white wine broth.
🛒 Ingredients
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Note: The full list of this braised chicken with sausage and peppers recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are in the recipe card below.
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat the oven and place the oven rack to center position.
- Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper.
- Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large skillet over medium-high heat and brown skin-side down (about 8 minutes in total). Lower the heat if the oil starts to smoke excessively. Flip the chicken and brown lightly on the other side for 3 minutes.
- Transfer the tender chicken to a large plate. Return the hot pan to the heat without draining the remaining oil or fat, and add the sweet Italian sausage.
- Cook until browned well on both sides (about 1 ½ minutes per side).
- Remove the sausage from the heat and place on a cutting board.
- Add the onion and red peppers to the pan and cook for 4 minutes until softened and slightly brown in color. Add the sage and garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the pickled cherry peppers and the cherry pepper juice, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.
- Add the chicken broth and sugar and stir to combine. Add the wine and cook until the liquid is reduced by half (about 2 minutes).
- Cut each sausage link into 3-4 slices.
- Return the sliced sausage to the pan and toss to combine.
- Add the chicken pieces to the pan, skin-side up, and transfer the pan to the oven for 30 minutes until the chicken is crisp and tender.
- Serve this braised chicken dish immediately, spooning sauce, vegetables, and sausage around the juicy chicken thighs.
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Dutch oven or a deep skillet
- Tongs
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Liquid Measuring cup
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making this Southern Italian braised chicken recipe.
Chicken Scarpariello is a classic Italian-American recipe made with juicy chicken thighs, sweet Italian sausage, peppadew peppers, and a reduced mixture of white wine and chicken broth. Some variations of this Italian-American classic use other types of pickled peppers.
“Scarpariello” means “shoemaker”. Scarpariello chicken translates as shoemaker chicken. The name is likely to depict the image of chicken bones protruding from the mouth while enjoying the dish, similar to how a shoemaker might hold tacks in his mouth while working.
There are 845 total calories in this chicken scarpariello recipe, with protein and fat being the higher of the 3 macronutrients. The total calories will change if you add side dishes to this classic Italian-American dish.
“Cacciatore” means “hunter” in Italian. Hunter’s chicken is an Italian dish with bold flavors. It comprises tender chicken, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and white wine.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- I’ve also used the pickling liquid from the jarred cherry peppers to brine chicken breasts for other recipes, such as fried chicken sandwiches!
- It’s important to scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon while cooking the ingredients to ensure that any browned bits are incorporated back into the mixture and don’t burn.
- Check the internal temperature of the chicken if you’re unsure whether the meat is cooked. Cooked chicken should register at 165F.
📚 Variations
- Use boneless chicken thighs or chicken breasts instead. Boneless chicken cooks faster, so you will need to adjust the browning of the chicken and overall cooking time.
- Use Italian seasoning to season the tender chicken.
- Add red pepper flakes to the sauce for an extra kick of heat.
- Use peppadew peppers or other hot peppers instead of pickled cherry peppers.
- Use mild Italian sausage instead of hot Italian sausage.
- Omit the white wine and increase the chicken stock, or add vinegar instead.
🥫 Storage
Store leftover shoemaker's chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Reheat chicken scarpariello in a large saucepan with remaining sauce over medium-low heat or in the oven, covered with aluminum foil to prevent the juicy chicken thighs from drying out.
📗 Related Recipes
- Classic Chicken Cacciatore With Mushrooms - A traditional Italian secondo piatto consisting of braised chicken in a rich, savory sauce of tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and white wine.
- Creamy Tuscan Chicken - This one-pot dish bursts with flavor and looks incredibly eye-catching with the baby spinach and sweet sun-dried tomatoes mixed throughout the creamy garlic sauce.
- Marry Me Chicken - This dish is so good it’ll leave a lasting impression! You just need a few pantry staple ingredients and 25 minutes!
🍽 Serve with
Enjoy this chicken scarpariello recipe with creamy polenta, risotto, rice (white or brown), roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, plain pasta noodles, or bread!
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
So, miei cari amici, whether you're a novice in the kitchen or a buongustaio (gourmet), this chicken scarpariello recipe will undoubtedly wow you and your loved ones. Remember, cooking is an art, and every dish is an opportunity to unleash your creativity. Feel free to adapt this recipe to suit your own taste preferences and let it become a reflection of your personal culinary style.
Now, it's time for you to get into the kitchen and whip up the best chicken scarpariello or shoemaker's chicken you've ever tasted. Embrace the journey, savor the flavors, and remember that the most important ingredient in any recipe is amore!
Tutti a tavolo, è pronto!
What's new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy.
📝 Recipe Card
Chicken Scarpariello is an easy one-pan dish consisting of juicy braised chicken thighs, softened onions and red bell peppers, pickled cherry peppers, and a mouth-watering sweet and sour sauce. Enjoy this Italian-American classic as a family dinner or to impress guests.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Chicken Scarpariello With Sausage and Cherry Peppers Recipe
Equipment Needed
- Dutch oven or straight-sided sauté pan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs .68kg 4 large thighs or 6-8 smaller thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 15ml
- 1 lb hot Italian sausage links or sweet about .4536Kg
- 6 oz. medium onion thinly sliced (170g)
- 6 oz. large red bell pepper thinly sliced (170g)
- 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh sage leaves about ¼ ounce; 8g
- 6 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 8 hot or sweet pickled cherry peppers thinly sliced, along with ¼ cup (60ml) pickling liquid from the jar
- 1 cup dry white wine 240 ml
- 1 cup homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock 240 ml
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 28g
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 4- to 5-quart straight-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.
- Add chicken, skin side down, and cook, without moving, until well browned and crisp, about 8 minutes total, lowering heat if pan starts to smoke excessively.
- Flip chicken and brown lightly on second side, about 3 minutes.
- Transfer chicken to a large plate and set aside. Return skillet to heat without draining it and add sausage. Cook until well browned on first side, about 1 ½ minutes, reducing heat if it starts smoking.
- Flip sausage and cook on second side until browned, about 1 ½ minutes longer. Remove pan from heat, transfer sausage to a cutting board, and cut each link into 3 to 4 slices.
- Return pan to heat, add onion and bell pepper, and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon, until softened and starting to brown, about 4 minutes.
- Add sage and garlic, stir to combine, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add pickled cherry peppers and their liquid, stirring and scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan with a wooden spoon.
- Add wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 2 minutes.
- Add chicken stock and sugar, and stir to combine.
- Return sausage to pan, toss to combine, then return chicken pieces to pan skin side up, nestling them down among sauce, vegetables, and sausage.
- Transfer to oven and cook until chicken is crisp and tender, about 30 minutes.
- Serve immediately, spooning sauce, vegetables, and sausage around chicken pieces.
Notes
Nutrition
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