Many of my favorite reipes bring back memories.  I often remember exactly where I found a recipe – or who gave it to me and about when.  This recipe for Chicken Marengo is one that I remember making when I was in High School. I was glad to make a meal for my mom, dad, and two sisters.  I do not actually recall where I found the recipe, but I believe it was in a magazine.  I had a favorite cookbook when I first started to cook – it was Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cookbook.  The recipe could have been in that, but I did a web search and don’t see that it was…Nontheless, I liked it enough to submit it to a “favorite cookbook” at Pymatuning Yacht Club in 1982 when I was in college.  PYC was a special place we spent weekends where we learned how to sail and race competitively.  It was really a glorified campground filled with families just like ours.  We shared lots of meals together as a big group.  I have the 1982 cookbook and enjoy pulling it out to make Chicken Marengo.

Apparently the history behind this dish hails back to Napoleon in the 1800’s.  His cook, during battle, made the recipe up by foraging for ingredients in the countryside of Italy.  There are many versions – some fancier and many more simple.  I prefer bone-in chicken for this recipe.  The flour and spice coating makes a lovely crust on the chicken and gives it lots of flavor.  The addition of onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes and olives (optional if you don’t like them) add plenty of color, texture and more flavor.  It’s a comforting dish but it could easily be served at a dinner party.

My original notes suggest serving this with rice or noodles.  For some reason I prefer noodles.  My mom used to make egg noodles that she would drain and toss with browned buttered bread crumbs.  They taste wonderful and once you toss the noodles into the bread crumbs and butter, they will not stick together!  You really could omit the noodles or rice and serve a nice crusty bread to sop up some of the delicious sauce.

The process takes a little bit of time and makes for a heavy dish cleaning night afterwards but it’s worth it!  When I made the dish on Sunday I decided to layer everything into a baking dish and finish it off in the oven.  The dish is equally good finished on the stovetop in a dutch oven – or high sided skillet.

Another trick I’ve learned when I use chicken thighs is to cut off almost half of the skin.  There is a lot of fat under the skin that can be trimmed before browning too.  The flavor of thighs is so good, but I like to eliminate as much fat as possible.  Its more difficult to remove skin from chicken legs without drying out the meat when cooking.  The original recipe called for dicing all of the vegetables.  I prefer to slice them into strips, or larger pieces.  Sometimes if there is leftover coating mix, I will add that to the sauteed vegetables before adding the chicken stock and tomato paste. It gives a thicker sauce.  If too much is added you may find that you need to add more chicken broth or water to get the proper consistency.  I like the taste of the olives, but they can easily be eliminated.  The original recipe called for black pitted olives – but I like the green olives and even greek kalamata olives – they have more flavor. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, canned ones can be used – but the consistency and color will be very different.

Chicken Marengo

Serves 4
Preparation time about 30 minutes, cooking time additional 25 to 30 minutes.

Ingredients

8-9  pieces of bone in chicken – I prefer legs and thighs

1 good size onion diced or sliced thinly

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 red, yellow, green or orange sweet peppers – or about 12 mini peppers, diced or thinly sliced

2 medium tomatoes, cut up or about 2 cups mini tomatoes sliced into small pieces

3 Tbs tomato paste

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup sliced, pitted black or green olives

fresh herbs, chopped for garnish (I used lovage, oregano and chives – but parsley, tarragon and basil would also be delicious)

coating for chicken:

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika

approximately 1/3 cup olive or vegetable oil to brown the chicken, additional for sauteeing vegetables

brown butter bread crumb noodles to serve

 

 

Instructions

Mix coating ingredients together in a zip lock bag.  Heat up a non stick fry pan with 1/3 cup olive or vegetable oil over medium high heat.  Place half of chicken into the coating mixture and zip the bag closed.  Shake to distribute the coating evenly onto chicken pieces.  Place chicken into the hot pan and allow each side to brown, approximately 5-7 minutes per side.  I am usually able to do the chicken in two batches with 4-5 pieces per batch.  When the chicken pieces are browned well, remove them from the pan to rest and finish browning the remaining chicken then set aside.

If there is no oil remaining in the pan, add an additional 2-3 Tbs and heat over medium to medium low heat.  Add the onions and peppers and gently sauté, trying not to brown the vegetables.  After about 5 minutes, add the garlic and cook for 2-3 additional minutes.  Add chicken stock, tomato paste and olives.  Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of the good flavor from the browned chicken.  Return the chicken to the pot and stir.  Bake the pan – or simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through (temp should be at least 165′).  Add the tomatoes for the last 5-10 minutes just to soften them up but not let them fall apart. Top the chicken and vegetables with finely chopped fresh herbs – this can be done during the simmer or oven baking – or just before serving.

While the chicken is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add desired amount of noodles and cook until al dente.  In a saute pan, brown about 3 TBS of butter into a pan – add 1/4 to 1/3 cup bread crumbs to the pan and stir well until the bread crumbs just get lightly toasted and buttery.  Add the noodles and stir to coat and warm.

Serve the chicken and vegetables over the buttered noodles.

Notes

I have adapted this recipe from one I found in a magazine when I was about 17 years old.  It’s a comforting dish that is good in the winter – but with nice bright colors and fresh herbs, it works just fine for a weeknight or Sunday meal in any season. I submitted the recipe to the PYC Family Cookbook “Galley Gourmet Repeater” c. 1982.