Delia Smith Chicken Puttanesca Recipe

Delia Smith’s chicken puttanesca recipe is from The Delia Collection: Chicken, and it takes her famous puttanesca pasta sauce and uses it to braise skin-on chicken breasts for 40 minutes until the olives, capers, garlic, and tomatoes cook down into something thick and gutsy that clings to the meat.

I had only ever made puttanesca as a pasta sauce until I found this recipe, and the surprise is how much better the sauce gets when it has chicken fat and juices simmering into it for the best part of an hour.

More Chicken Recipes:

• Chicken Cacciatore
• Chicken Basque
• Spanish Chicken

Not Just a Pasta Sauce

The puttanesca sauce you make for pasta is sharp and punchy, but when you simmer chicken in it for 40 minutes the edges soften and the chicken fat rounds everything out. It ends up tasting richer and deeper than the pasta version, which is why I now make this more often than the original.

Leaving the skin on matters because the fat renders into the sauce as it cooks and the skin goes golden on top where it sits above the liquid. Taking the skin off turns this into a completely different, much drier dish.

Chicken Puttanesca Ingredients

Part-boned breasts give you the best of both worlds: the bone keeps the meat juicy and the breast shape looks good on the plate. If you can only find boneless, they work too but cut the simmering time to 30 minutes.

• 4 part-boned chicken breasts (about 225g / 8 oz each), skin on
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 400g (14 oz) tinned Italian chopped tomatoes
• 1 rounded tablespoon tomato purée
• 175g (6 oz) pitted black olives, roughly chopped
• 1 heaped tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, plus extra sprigs to garnish
• 350g (12 oz) dried spinach tagliatelle, to serve
• Salt and freshly milled black pepper

How To Make Delia Smith Chicken Puttanesca

1. Brown the chicken: Get the oil nice and hot in a large solid frying pan, pat the chicken breasts dry with kitchen paper, season them well, and fry them over a medium heat until they are a rich golden colour on both sides, which takes about 5 to 6 minutes in total. Lift them onto a plate.
2. Fry the aromatics: Add the garlic and chilli to the oil left in the pan and let them sizzle for about 30 seconds, just until the garlic starts to turn pale gold.
3. Build the sauce: Tip in the tomatoes, tomato purée, olives, capers, chopped basil, and some seasoning, stir it all together, and bring everything up to a gentle simmer.
4. Simmer the chicken: Nestle the chicken breasts back in skin side up, pushing them down into the sauce and spooning a little over the top. Let the whole thing simmer uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced and thickened.
5. Cook the pasta: About 15 minutes before the chicken is done, boil the tagliatelle in well-salted water according to the packet, then drain.
6. Serve: Plate the chicken with the sauce spooned over and the tagliatelle alongside, finished with a few fresh basil sprigs.

The Tagliatelle on the Side

Green spinach tagliatelle is what the recipe calls for, and the colour against the dark red sauce looks brilliant on the plate. Serve the pasta alongside rather than underneath so the sauce stays on the chicken where it belongs.

Warming It Up Tomorrow

The sauce thickens overnight and the olive and caper flavours settle deeper into the chicken, so this is a good one to make ahead. Reheat gently on the hob with a splash of water if the sauce has gone too thick. Cook fresh pasta on the day.

Frequently Asked Questions

You Might Also Like:

• Chicken Chasseur
• Chicken Marengo
• Chicken Paprika

Nutrition Facts

• Calories: 490 kcal
• Fat: 22g
• Carbohydrates: 28g
• Fibre: 4g
• Protein: 44g

Nutrition estimated per serving based on 4 servings including tagliatelle.