Pollo Alla Pugliese

Pugliese-style chicken. Quick and easy, inexpensive and 100% Italian. 

Preparation

Marinating 30 minutes + 20 minutes

Cooking

60 minutes

Difficulty

Very easy

Portions

4 people

Cost

Economic

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This Pollo Alla Pugliese recipe works every time. A Puglian (heel of Italy) take on Chicken Cacciatore (Hunter’s Chicken). Perfectly suited to a falling oven at a temperature of 200 – 250°C this one is a crowd pleaser for family and dinner guests alike. Mix it all up in a bowl, refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes (longer if possible), cook it for half an hour, turn the ingredients and cook it for another half an hour. Serve with crusty bread, a gentle red and some salad on the side. Strap yourselves in. This one’s a dinger!

Ingredients

  • 1 kg Chicken
  • 400 g Potatoes
  • 10 cherry tomatoes
  • Half a Glass White wine
  • 2 tablespoons Taggiasca olives (If you can, otherwise any small stoned olives will do).
  • 2 tablespoons pine nuts (LIDL do these at a reasonable cost).
  • 3 cloves Garlic
  • 5 bay leaves
  • 1 sprig Rosemary
  • 1 tsp Dried Oregano
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Coarse salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. Wash and dry the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half.
  2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into large enough pieces.
  3. Remove the central core from the garlic cloves and cut them in half.
  4. Put the chopped chicken, garlic, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, olives, pine nuts, all the aromatics (herbs), pepper and a little coarse salt in a bowl.
  5. Add plenty of extra virgin olive oil and mix well with your hands to season the whole chicken.
  6. Let it rest for about 30 minutes covered with cling film.
  7. Transfer the chicken and all the seasoning to a large enough pan and spread it well.
  8. Cook the Pugliese-style chicken in a preheated oven at 200°C for about half an hour.
  9. Open the oven, deglaze with white wine, turn potatoes and chicken with a spoon and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
  10. Once the Pugliese-style chicken is well cooked inside, take it out of the oven and serve it hot or lukewarm.

Other Useful information

If you want even softer chicken, place a pan full of water next to it in the oven to prevent the chicken from drying out too much. In this instance, I used chicken, but this recipe can also be made with turkey, or how about enhancing the flavour with a leg of lamb. Pugliese-style chicken can be kept in the fridge for up to two days. You can reheat it in the oven.

Download and sharing

Click here to download a PDF version of the recipe.
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Peter Cashell