When I was a kid in the 70’s, my two favorite foods were spaghetti and fried chicken. Pizza was still uncommon in the house (unless it was the cardboard they used to call frozen pizza). Chicken nuggets, the mainstay of children for the last 30 years, had not been popularized yet by McDonald’s.
Spaghetti was pretty straightforward in our house, but fried chicken usually meant Kentucky Fried Chicken. Back before KFC and when the Colonel still ran the place, you had two choices – original recipe or extra crispy. You couldn’t go wrong with either choice. When a paper bucket of the glorious food came home it was always strategy to get a drumstick. If you were first to the bucket, and a drumstick could not be retrieved from the top, you were out of luck, as it was considered bad form to move chicken to get one. Of course, if you held back and the drumstick was on top, you lost.
Sometime in my teens, the desired piece went from drumstick to thigh. It is still my favorite today. The kids can have the drumstick, the partiers can have the wings, the adults can have the breast, but leave the thighs for me. When I can, I look for recipes that feature this piece.
Chicken Scarpariello brings together not only thighs, but Italian sausage and my favorites, red peppers and onions.
The recipe calls for cherry peppers that you dice, I found already diced ones. Also, it calls for bone in thighs, but I used boneless ones. You just need to watch the cooking time as it may cook faster than the bone in ones.
Cook up the sausage.
Make sure there is a healthy amount of salt and pepper on the chicken.
Now I’m home….red peppers and onions in a frying pan!
A great combination of tastes.
And a beautiful plate too. I served this with the Broccolini Matzo Crumble. It works great over a bed of pasta.
Chicken Scarpariello
Ingredients:
- 1 link Italian sausage per person
- 2 1/2 lb chicken thighs with skin and bone
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 red bell peppers, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 2 to 4 jarred hot cherry peppers in vinegar, drained and finely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Directions:
Cook Italian sausage in skillet over medium heat until done. Set aside and keep warm.
Hack each thigh in half (or into thirds if large) across the bone with a cleaver or a sharp heavy knife. Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté chicken in 2 batches, beginning skin sides down, turning occasionally and adjusting heat to keep from burning, until cooked through and well browned on all sides, 10 to 12 minutes (add another tablespoon oil to skillet for second batch). Transfer chicken as cooked with tongs to a plate and keep warm, covered with foil.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet. Add remaining tablespoon oil and cook onion, bell peppers, and cherry peppers (to taste) over moderate heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes. Add wine and broth and boil, uncovered, until most of liquid is evaporated, about 4 minutes. Add chicken (with any juices accumulated on plate) and parsley and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until heated through, then season with salt.
Add back Italian sausage and serve.
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
Fabulous! Everyone in the family likes thighs, so I usually just buy that.
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A recent thigh convert myself….discovered that chicken tandoori is way more tender with thighs than the traditonally used breast. Thanks for this recipe!
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Looks delish. I’m a thigh gal myself. I love cooking with thighs because they have more flavor, but cot less. Win-win!
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im a thigh guy myself 🙂 nice lookin recipe!
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Same here..love the thigh
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I must give this a shot, looks delicious. Thanks for another great recipe!
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Me too!
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Well, I love that boneless, skinless thighs are easy to find in the grocery store now. It makes life so much easier.
When I was a kid, we had a landmark KFC not too far away called “The Big Chicken.” It was a big, red building in the shape of a chicken, and every place you went (before GPS) was described in relation to The Big Chicken. If you got to eat there? Extra bonus.
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I use chicken thighs in most of my recipes too… so much flavor.
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Looks great. If you were to add some white beans nstead of pasta you would have a chicken cassoulet.
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This looks delicious. I usually have chicken breast for dinner every night, but I think I’m going to have to give thighs a try now…
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Thigh girl here! ;p
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YUUUUUUM!
I’m a thigh girl, myself. I keep a stock of boneless thighs in my freezer 😉
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Oh boy, you may have just given me the recipe for a dinner party this weekend.
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It sounds wonderful! And looks like something I may even get my daughter to eat. I’ll have to try it out. Thanks!
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Love thighs. I haven’t had one in over a year due to a really strict diet I’ve been on. I may have to try this recipe the next time we want to try a new recipe. This is beautiful!
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you crack me up and your food looks delicious!
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Well I’m a breast man(someone had to say it) but this sounds great, I think you may have converted me.
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Oh yeah, I love the thigh meat too. It’s funny, we may need to get some dry ice and take some bulk chicken down to NC for Memorial Day. Probably 10 to 12 lbs of chicken breast and I’ll sneaks some boneless chicken thigh in there too.
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Enjoyed reading this one! I plan on cooking something tonight that consists of chicken, sausage, potatoes, and a big skillet. Looks like you gave me a muse! Thanks!
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This looks delicious! Not really into bone meet myself but I’d try it with breast meat. Also I’m all over onion and peppers, basically the starting point of every dinner I make! Great post!
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I’m always scared with the titles to your posts!!!
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I’m a dark meat girl too! This looks great. Love all the colors!
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This sounds great! I will definitely try thiss
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I’m so with you, when I as a kid I was all about the extra crispy thigh. Why is it that it tasted so good when we were kids and it’s so bad now?
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This recipe sounds delicious and will certainly try it!
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Reblogged this on Cmblake6's Weblog and commented:
And I, at my age, am in total agreement. Love nibbling on thighs, oh yeah. 😈
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Looks delicious, recipe simple to follow, just can’t go wrong!
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Funny, since at our house you’re still known as ‘the guy that ate the leg off a dead chicken”.
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LOL. Says the woman who I profiled her younger version in my story about zucchini bread!
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Thighs are indeed the most flavourful part of the kitchen and take up the flavors around them the quickest. Most chefs will tell you that thighs, though cheap, are the best to work with for many reasons.
I am enjoying your blog and find it akin to mine 🙂 though i tend to over-sexualize my food posts and document my mishaps in the kitchen. It is always nice to run across a fellow passionate chef.
Courtney
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That looks so good, I had to reblog it. 🙂
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Sounds delicious but what are Italian sausages? Are they spicy? is the meat raw when you buy them? I’m not sure I have seen them over here in England and i wonder what I could use instead?
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Hmmm….how to describe…. The sausages are typically sold as sweet or hot. Really any flavorful sausage could work (braturst?). You can buy them already cooked, but the ones I bought were uncooked.
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Thanks – I think I can find something similar! I’ll let you know how the recipe goes – it just sounds so yum!
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Lois, Sainsburys do a whole range of different sausages, I’d say the sicilian ones would work well.
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I am SO with you on the thigh thing–the most flavourful part of the chicken, and cheap to boot!
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Chicken thighs are so under rated. Everyone goes for either the wings or breast which can get really stringy and dry out. Thighs however have so much flavor. And they stay moist no matter how you cook them. Thighs will always be my choice. Yeay!
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That looks lovely, I’ll have to give it a try myself!
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Love the title! lol
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*drools*
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Totally agree old chap – thigh is definitely the best cut. It is the moistest, most flavoursome, and lends itself very well to stuffing and rolling.
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Thighs are my favorite, too. (But drumsticks might be a close second. :))
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