Cook's Illustrated now has a feature on their website where paid members can watch videos. I love them! I watched a 60 second video on how to cook this meal. It's easier to understand what to do when it's shown to you rather than only written. In addition to the main video, there were others to help, too! Showing tips on browning chicken, cutting bone-in chicken breasts and what size knife to use. Fantastic!
The tricky part of this recipe is finding pickled hot cherry peppers. I found pickled sweet cherry peppers, but not hot. I also couldn't find bone-in chicken breast from the SuperHEB which has sold it before. The recipe did say I could use bone-in chicken thighs instead of breasts, so I took that option. It also said banana peppers instead of cherry peppers, but I had left the article at home with the name of the alternative. Sheri suggested using the sweet peppers, but instead of sweet Italian sausage, using hot. Since I had already bought the sweet sausage, I figured I'd go with that for now.
This was a very yummy dish! I was mildly disappointed in the chicken, but only because the pieces were thighs. I think chicken breasts would have been much better. If you want a non-spicy dish, this was the way to make it! However next time, I would use hot Italian sausage if I couldn't find hot cherry peppers. We doubled the cornstarch as the sauce was extremely thin. In my opinion, "4-6 servings" is a bit of a stretch. I'd say it's 4. I bought some orzo pasta as one of the suggested sides, but then forgot to make it.
This dish did take awhile to make, but it was very nice having a 25 minute break while the chicken cooked in the oven. I took the opportunity to call my grandmother. She asked what I was cooking, so I told her. She quickly replied, "I'll be right over!" Too bad she lives so far away.
Ah! I just remembered the most important lesson learned. At one point, Jay was reading the instructions aloud to me while I was at the stove. "Add sugar, vinegar and broth." "Broth??? What broth???" It turns out I had missed four ingredients listed at the top of a second column. YIKES! It turned out to be just fine. I hadn't planned on using parsley anyway. I had the cornstarch, chicken broth and fresh thyme on hand. Phew!
- Italian-Style Chicken with Sausage, Peppers and Onions (Cook's Illustrated, May & June 2007, p. 10)
