My Secret Recipe for the Most Underrated Chicken Dish in America

[00:02] world, to me this is one of the most criminally underrated of them all. A dish that proves every great Italian-American recipe has a link back to the old country, even if Italy pretends it doesn't. It's built on a

[00:15] that's ever served it. Back in the day in southern Italy, chickens weren't eaten until they were too old to lay eggs. By then, the meat is tough, but >> byproducts of grapes they were already

[00:29] growing. And they used those things to braise that chicken to make a tough thing succulent and tender. Fast forward to the northeast where Italian immigrants arrived, and suddenly scarcity turned into abundance. They

[00:41] added sausage, and they spiked it with cherry peppers. It's a northeast [music] staple that remains largely unknown, under-ordered, and under-appreciated. This is the legend chicken scarpariello. Now, classic to chicken scarpariello,

[00:56] they always had beautifully crispy roast potatoes. So, we're going to take a potato here. Now, if you watched the last video, you know I'm kind of banged up now. I went to the doctor, think it's a compressed nerve in my neck, and so

[01:08] they're pumping me full of steroids. I got an MRI coming up, so I'm going to be trying to take it easy when I cook. So, trying to get good at using my left hand. Now, I remember it being fingerling potatoes. I only seem to find

[01:20] it's too early for that, so I'm using russet. I kind of just want to cut them into almost like [music] big pieces like that, big circles, maybe like an inch thick. And these potatoes will kind of be able to lie kind of on the plate

[01:33] Just going to rinse those in water, drain that water, fill it back up with cold water, season them with salt, then we're going to add just a touch of baking soda. That sort of breaks apart the outside of the potato, and we're

[01:46] just going to get them onto the stove, bring it up to a boil, drop it down to a till they're kind of barely falling apart, and then we're going to chill them. And that craggily edge that the baking soda creates helps get the

[01:58] potatoes extra crispy. Now, I have a few tricks for my version for chicken you've seen on the channel, and it's my cherry pepper bomba. This is my ace in the hole. You can use this on eggs, you can marinate meats with it, you can use

[02:12] it for sandwiches, make sauces. There's so much to be done, I'm just starting to explore what you could do with something like this that kind of sits in your enhancer to anything. Super easy to make. I made it earlier in the day. You

[02:26] the stove, and you just want to cover the bottom in a nice layer with some peeled garlic. This is the only time you'll ever really see me use this my arm still hurts, so you're going to see me cheating for a while. Then, we

[02:40] just want to cover it with olive oil, bring it up to a frying temp, and this is my roasted garlic speedrun method. Usually, this happens real slow and slow, but I'm going to get it frying and hot fast to start. And what we're

[02:52] looking for is to create some light browning developing around the garlic. move it off the heat, and we're just going to allow the oil to cool down slowly. That slow cool down is going to continue to darken and finish cooking

[03:08] the garlic all the way through. So, in about half the time, you get a very similar result to low and [music] slow. Into a blender, we're going to throw in the roasted garlic. We're going to put in about 3-4 tablespoons of the roasted

[03:20] garlic oil. Then, we're going to add in cherry peppers. You want a good amount in there, and you also want to add another 3 tablespoons or so of the juice wanted extra spicy, you can go ahead and add in a tablespoon of Calabrian

[03:35] add in a tablespoon of Calabrian chilies. that until smooth, and you should have a paste like this, powerful flavor enhancer. And since chicken scarpariello is a cherry pepper based sauce, it's

[03:49] what gives it that tang, this is going to be the base in our sauce. Now, before we go any further, you guys are aware I'm dealing with a little bit of physical pain, so the body is top of mind. And I plan on taking care of my

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[05:23] AG1 for sponsoring this video. And now, like I said, abundance, right? So, we use chicken thighs and a sweet Italian sausage. I'm going to roll those need to prep the chicken. So, we're going to take our chicken thighs,

[05:36] always, you know, these guys, they butcher these things so fast, there's always some nasty bits you kind of want to clean up. You want to feel [music] for any bone left over, and there usually is one. Just look for any hard

[05:49] bits. Once you're cleaned up, then we're just going to find that little groove kind of look to create some like nuggets, nice bite-size pieces. That's a perfect size. See this? It's a bone.

[06:04] bone. Got to get it out of there. >> Then, we can take our sausage. We just want to kind of turn the sausage meat into a meatball. Also a great method to just like, you don't want to make real

[06:18] stuffing and stuff, you just get sausage and roll them into meatballs, and you just got pork meatballs. It's beautiful. So, every dish gets a few meatballs, a few nuggets of chicken, some potatoes, some sauce. Beautiful. Now, another

[06:31] trick to my dish is I sort of have this idea of eating this as a kid as the chicken almost like velvety, sort of like Chinese takeout. So, we're going to take a cue from what we've learned from Chinese takeout on this channel to

[06:43] velvet this chicken. So, first it starts with some salt. Just like velvet chicken, we can kind of handle it roughly, and then a little bit of baking going to work in. They will be tender based on how long we cook them, but the

[06:56] velvet is a different texture, like silkiness. That's sort of what I'm going liquid left over from the cherry peppers. We're going to add that in. Not too much, we don't want it swimming in it. We just want it kind of soaking up

[07:10] the cherry pepper smell in the chicken. Then, some cornstarch. Start with like a Then, we're going to take some of the roasted garlic oil, and about 2 tablespoons. >> [music]

[07:28] meatballs are rolled, and then we need our bomba, chicken stock, of course our wine and our vinegar. I like to add a little lemon juice for some freshness at the visual of what this dish, the heart of it is, so I've got some more cherry

[07:43] peppers in there, and some more of that liquid that they're stored in. And we're nice pop of color. Only other thing I like to do is add a little bit of fresh comments, do you guys even know what this dish is? Have you ever had it?

[07:56] Everyone I talk to never knows about it. Slice it super thick. I like the roasted garlic and the fresh garlic cooked in oil sort of vibe, two types of garlic flavor. More flavor never hurt nobody. By now, our potatoes should be cooked

[08:10] gently, and then allow them to steam off. But if you could see all like the kind of [music] craggily edges, the apart, and then you can see the edges sort of getting white and starchy as

[08:25] bits, so they're kind of like loose starch on the potato that gets super crispy. And then, as you toss them, that white sort of starts to come out as you can sort of breaking up the edges, and then we can place them on a sheet tray,

[08:38] allow them to cool, place them in the fridge, let them set, and then we're Once those potatoes have fully chilled, we can pull them out and coat them with some of that reserved roasted garlic oil we had from earlier, and season them

[08:52] with salt. Toss them up, and then throw them into a 450° oven for about 30 to 35 minutes. While those potatoes cook, get your widest high-rim sauté pan out and Once hot, [music] coat the bottom with some of that garlic

[09:08] oil, and then add the sausage. Don't move it. Let it sit there undisturbed crust develops on the [music] first side. Once you see that, flip them, repeat on that other side. And since they are small, we want to sort of cook

[09:22] them hot [music] and fast to prevent them from overcooking. Once browned, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon to reserve that oil, and hold them that heat up a bit, and we're going to try and snugly fit all those little

[09:37] chicken pieces in a single layer on the bottom of the pan. And I don't usually suggest overcrowding a pan, but in this case, I'm not worried about overcooking case, I'm not worried about overcooking these thighs.

[09:51] back in the oven. >> [music] >> After about 4-5 minutes, we give them a check and we can see some color developing on that first side. They've browned nicely and we [music] can go

[10:03] ahead and flip them off. You'll see the edges of the pan brown much quicker than the center. We're going to cook them on that other side, try and get some color on the second side as well and once we're almost there, we're going to move

[10:15] little space and then we're going to drop in some of our sliced garlic. We're going to allow that like 2 minutes or so to soften up and become fragrant. Once the garlic has lightly browned around the edges, we're going to turn the heat

[10:29] off and we're going to pour in some white wine and deglaze the pan. Scrape up all those stuck on bits from the bottom of the pan and allow that wine to reduce by about [music] half. Once it has reduced slightly, we can go ahead

[10:43] stock. Along with that, we're going to add two to three tablespoons of our cherry pepper bomba. That's going to add a lot of spice to it so you can either add a little or none at all or just remove the Calabrian chili from the

[10:57] We're also going to add the cherry peppers the whole along with a few Then we're going to allow that chicken to braise slowly while simmering until there is [music] no resistance felt when it's poked with the thermometer and

[11:12] they're super tender. By now, our potatoes should be perfect, crispy and golden [music] brown. We can set those off to the side.

[11:29] give it a taste. I'm tasting a sauce that's garlicky, [music] tangy, bright, it's spicy and it's packed with flavor. To me, it's well seasoned, I don't need more salt and so we're ready to finish it. To do so, we must toss in some cold

[11:44] knobs of butter and slowly swirl that in until it's blended [music] the heat is off. Then we're going to finish with some fresh chopped parsley and then a squeeze of lemon juice to finish. Now that sauce looks incredible.

[11:58] It should be clinging to all of the ingredients. It should be mouthwatering just from the look of it but the aroma should make you drool. This is the craziest, most flavorful chicken dish that most people don't even know about.

[12:10] Now I like to serve it in a bowl the way I remember it being served to me with some crispy potatoes down at the bottom as a base, then all that chicken piled high on top [music] along with plenty of sauce.

[12:31] moist everything is. Perfectly cooked, bathing in that a spicy vinegar sauce. take a piece of bread, put a little sausage, a little chicken in there, some peps and then you got a little sandwich at dinner.

[12:46] It's a dream. This is what life's about, you know. It's zippy, it's got energy, acidity, spice, all punching you in the face with flavor. A masterpiece in my opinion and you have to try it for yourself. As

[13:00] always, the recipe is going to be down in the description. Get it out of here, I'll see you next time. Until then, take care of yourself, go feed yourself.