Roman-Style Chicken

     

    

What to do with chicken?  The eternal question.  There are whole cookbooks devoted to chicken recipes, and I own a few of them.  This recipe, from Giada De Laurentiis, proposes braising browned chicken along with prosciutto and sweet bell peppers. Hard to go wrong there and it is quick and delicious.  Capers added at the end can send this dish in a direction of other traditional chicken preparations such as chicken piccata cooked with lemon and capers.  I switch things around, as should you, depending on how I'm feeling any given night.  For example, last night I did not add the recommended diced tomatoes.  No particular reason, just didn't feel like it.  Similarly, many times I will use just yellow peppers, which are a little sweeter than the red peppers Giada suggests adding.  Adding red with the yellow bell peppers make a nice visual presentation, but the taste will be a little different.  Again, up to you.  I do suggest one switch in the preparation order, which I think improves the dish.  Giada recommends browning the chicken first in just the hot olive oil and then cooking the bacon.  I recommend cooking the bacon and peppers along with the garlic first, and then browning the chicken in that fat combination.  You can imagine how much tastier that will be!  Serves 2.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3 ounces prociutto, or 2 slices of bacon

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips

1 clove garlic

2 skinless chicken breasts pound to 1/2 flat

salt/pepper

1/4 cup wine

1/2 a 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tsp capers

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Descriptions:

Heat oil in a large saute pan over low heat and cook bacon, onions, and peppers until onions are softened and bacon is browned.  Add garlic and cook for a further minute.  Remove mixture with a slotted spoon to a plate, raise the heat to medium, season the chicken, add and cook a few minutes on each side until browned.  Remove the chicken to the same plate as the bacon mixture and add the wine to the pan, scraping up the browned bits to deglaze.  Return the chicken and bacon mixture to the pan and add the tomatoes, stock and spices.  Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes to finish the chicken cooking process.  Before serving, add the capers and parsley, stirring to combine.