Chicken Scarpiella

Between an early morning appointment at the doctor and meetings lasting the rest of the day, I was very tempted to call in for take-out or put on a pot of plain spaghetti on for dinner and call it a day. But this is actually the first night all week that we have all been able to sit down and have dinner together, and I thought I should do better than take-out.

Luckily, knowing how the day was going to go, I had a plan ahead of time and usually that really is half the battle. In the February issue of Family Circle magazine, there was a recipe for Chicken Scarpiella. The only time consuming part of the recipe was chopping all the vegetables and, really, who can’t handle that? Nicholas did his homework in the kitchen to keep me company while I set to work.

After two platefuls, The Husband finally came up for air and said how much he liked the dinner, proclaiming these potatoes the best ones to date. He’s pretty picky about potatoes … french fries or roast potatoes, and that’s pretty much it. What’s more, he thought the vegetables were so good, he ate all the green peppers too, where usually he would pick around them. They were moist and flavorful, and they certainly smelled amazing while baking, conjuring up memories of sausage and peppers, which, I think, is going to have to be on tap for the weekend now.

As written, each serving has 403 calories, 12 grams of fat and 5 grams of fiber. The only change I made was to double the amount of chicken, but I kept all the other ingredients the same, so our nutritional stats might even be a slight improvement on theirs.

Easy to make, nice hearty food, and a thumbs up all around … go on and dig in. A keeper for sure.

Chicken Scarpiella
Recipe courtesy of Family Circle magazine, February 2008
Makes: 4 servings Prep: 20 minutes
Bake: at 400 degree F for 50 minutes

4 fully cooked Italian- or sun-dried-tomato-flavor chicken sausage (such as Al Fresco), about 12 ounces, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, peeled, halved and cut into 1/2-inch rings
2 green bell peppers, about 1 pound, cored, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
4 hot cherry peppers, trimmed, seeds removed and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 skinless chicken breast halves, bone in, cut in half crosswise, about 1-1/2 pounds total (I doubled)
1/2 cup chicken broth
Steamed broccoli (optional)

Heat oven to 400F. In a large roasting pan, combine sausage, onion, green pepper, potatoes, cherry peppers and garlic. Add olive oil and toss together. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Place on lower rack of oven. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, spray a baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place chicken in dish and season with remaining 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Pour broth into bottom of dish. Once sausage mixture has baked 10 minutes, add chicken to oven on top rack. Bake both dishes at 400F for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of chicken reads 160F on an instant-read thermometer and potatoes are fork tender. Stir vegetables twice during baking.

Add chicken to vegetables; cook an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until internal temperature of chicken registers 170F.

Transfer chicken and vegetables to a large platter and serve.