Chicken Scarpariello is one of the most important dishes in my family, and the source of no small amount of disagreement. Some would say that the original, and perhaps “iconic” and “best” version is still served by Don Peppe’s in Ozone Park, NY, near where my grandparents lived — the original Crosby and Roamann — but I’ve come to prefer my uncle’s version as well as my own version(s) better. My uncle’s version stays true to the original — or at least, what he considers to be the original — Don Peppe’s recipe: very small chickens, cut up into small pieces, marinated in olive oil and garlic, and fired in a very hot oven for about 30 minutes, often with sausage, peppers, and potatoes.

I should add here and now that while many of the Chicken Scarpariello recipes you will find online call for the addition of pickled hot cherry peppers — Don Peppe’s does not use them. For this reason, neither does anyone in my family. My hunch is that Chef Frank Pellegrino Jr., whose family owned the restaurant Rao’s in Harlem, was the one who made this dish famous originally, and he included both sweet bell peppers and hot cherry peppers in his recipe. You can find a video on his recipe on YouTube, here — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl3i3ZLgIFM. Later chefs, like Lidia Bastianich, added these hot peppers to her own version of this classic Italian American dish (which she cooked on the stove top however, in a single pan) and it caught on.

Look — there’s no end to Chicken Scarpariello recipes — everyone has one — but Don Peppe’s does not use hot cherry peppers, so neither do we.

Now, there’s a lot more to say about Chicken Scarpariello, and my family’s history — and argumentation over it — and I will … at some point … but for today, I just wanted to focus on this recipe, which I call the “West Coast Style.” What we do here is take the generic Scarpariello recipe (small chicken cut into many small pieces, Italian sweet sausage cut into chunks, with a large number of whole garlic cloves, and strips of red bell pepper) and add capers, green olives, and lemons. Why? Because it’s delicious. Heretical? Maybe.

Bon appetit!

Ingredients:

1 small chicken, about 2.5 pounds, cut into 12 pieces: 2 legs with the knuckles removed; 2 thighs, each breast cut into 3 pieces through the ribs, and wings without tips.
1 pound good Italian sweet sausage without fennel, or 3-4 links, cut into 4 pieces each (about 1.5” in length each)
8-10 garlic cloves, whole but lightly crushed
2 red bell peppers cut into 1” wide strips
1 small jar capers, about 2 ounces (discard pickling juice)
1 cup fresh whole green olives pitted
1 cup good olive oil
1/4 lemon cut into very thin slices (1/4” each)
1 tablespoon kosher salt to season everything
Freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

In the morning, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, and mix gently by hand with your fingers covering all with olive oil, and let it rest in the fridge, covered.
Preheat oven to 500F (60 minutes) and remove the ingredients bowl from the fridge to come up to room temperature.
On a large baking sheet (approximately 18″x26″): space out the dark meat skin side up and 1/4 of the sausage and cook on the top shelf for 10 minutes, well spaced apart. Do not turn the meat.
At the 10 minute timer, add all the rest of the ingredients, with the chicken pieces skin side up, to make one layer in the baking sheet, well spaced out. Cook for 10 minutes more on the top shelf. Do not turn the meat. The skin will brown up nicely.
At the next 10 minute timer, move the baking sheet to the middle of the oven, so the meat doesn’t get too charred, but will continue to roast nicely at this heat.
Plate in a medium sized bowl, with the chicken seared-skin side up.

What to drink with Chicken Scarpariello

This recipe was originally developed to accompany Crosby Roamann Chardonnay. The wine’s bright acidity and citrus notes complement the sweetness of the garlic and seared chicken while balancing the richness of olive oil and garlic.