Chicken Scarpariello, also known as Shoemaker’s Chicken, is an Italian classic made with chicken, sweet sausage, crispy roasted potatoes, mushrooms, and artichokes in a lemony white wine sauce.
You’ll find countless variations of my Chicken Scarpariello recipe online, some with added vinegar and others using bell pepper or cherry peppers in their chicken scarpariello recipe.
As I always say, there are as many ways to make a dish as there are Italian grandmothers.
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Although it has its roots in Italy, its popularity grew as a Classic Italian-American dish created by Italians who helped build this country. After a long day at work, Pollo Scarpariello (chicken scarpariello) was a fast and easy dinner to prepare and would have often been served over pasta.
Pasta or rice is a delicious way to soak up that delightful scarpariello sauce.
Chicken Scarpariello is bursting with flavor and cooks in under 30 minutes, making it the perfect dish for a busy weeknight dinner.
Two of my other favorite chicken and pasta dishes are Chicken Pepperoni and Tuscan Chicken with Sausage.
Ingredients
Gather the ingredients needed to make our Chicken Scarpariello recipe. Culinary professionals call this the Mise en Place, which means “Everything in its Place.”
Setting up your ingredients not only helps speed up the cooking process but also helps ensure you have all of the ingredients on hand to make the recipe.
If you’re not a fan of one of the ingredients, you can leave it out. You can always add or take out ingredients to make this dish your very own. Spinach would go nicely in this dish, and roasted red peppers would add a little color.
Remember, recipes are guidelines, have fun in your kitchen being creative!
Individual Ingredients
- boneless chicken breasts
- all-purpose flour
- olive oil
- sweet Italian sausage
- potatoes
- mushrooms
- chicken stock
- onion powder
- sea salt and black pepper
- lemon juice
- fresh rosemary
- white wine (optional)
- unsalted butter
- Italian parsley
How to Make Chicken Scarpariello
The first step is preparing the potatoes. Once prepared, place them into a 375-degree preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Time this so that you’re ready to add the potatoes to the dish when they’ve finished cooking.
- Dredge the chicken breasts in flour seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Add the floured chicken to a large skillet (or Dutch oven) and cook for 3-4 minutes over medium-high heat. *This step will season the chicken and help make the sauce.
- Add the sliced sausage to the pan and brown the sausage while the chicken continues to cook, stirring occasionally.
- Turn over the chicken and sausage and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and saute for 3-4 minutes as the chicken and sausage continue cooking.
- Add the chicken broth and seasonings to the pan. Stir the pan, scraping the bottom to release the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 2-3 minutes.
*If you want to add wine, add it before the chicken stock. - Add the roasted potatoes, artichokes, and lemon juice to the pan and simmer for 2 minutes.
- To help thicken the sauce, coat the butter with flour (push the flour into the butter) and add it to the pan. Chefs refer to the butter-flour mixture as a beurre manie.
To ensure proper cooking, use an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the chicken. The thermometer should register 165 degrees or more.
You can make our recipe with other parts, such as skin-on chicken thighs.
My version of Chicken Scarpariello will surely please your friends and family, and I promise you won’t hear your family say “chicken again” when you serve this dish.
For an even heartier version of this dish, serve the chicken scarpariello over linguine. It’s the perfect Sunday dinner!
Recipe FAQs
Scarpariello literally translates to shoemaker-style.
Some chefs attribute Chicken Scarpariello to Sicily and Calabria. They prepare it by sautéing chicken in olive oil and adding white wine, lemon, rosemary, and potatoes to complete the dish.
Potatoes are the traditional choice for this dish. They’re roasted (or air-fried) separately, and the crispy potato soaks up some of the lemony sauce, making them even more delicious.
You can use pasta as an alternative to potatoes; it goes well with this dish.
More Chicken Recipes You’ll Love!
Chicken Scarpariello
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless chicken breasts or boneless thighs
- ½ cup all-purpose flour for dredging chicken and for beurre manie.
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ pound sweet Italian sausage sliced on a diagonal (do not remove casing)
- 2 medium potatoes skin on – cut into medium cubes
- 6 ounces mushrooms sliced
- 4 ounces artichoke hearts sliced
- 1 cup chicken stock
- ½ teaspoon granulated onion
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 lemon juice from lemon
- 2 stalks fresh rosemary
- 1 ounce white wine optional
- 1 – 2 tablespoon unsalted butter for beurre manie
- 1 tablespoon Italian Parsley chopped for garnish
- 1 lemon cut into circles for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place cut potatoes in baking dish and add one tablespoon of olive oil and a good sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper. Mix well and place in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes to roast. (they should get good color)
- Allow a large saute pan to get hot then add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan.
- Dredge the chicken in flour seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Add the floured chicken to a large saute pan and allow the chicken to cook for 3-4 minutes
- Add the sliced sausage to the pan and brown the sausage while you continue to cook the chicken.
- Turn over chicken and sausage and continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and saute for an additional 3-4 minutes as the chicken and sausage continue cooking.
- Add the chicken broth and seasonings to the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes.*If you want to add wine, add it before the chicken stock.
- Add the roasted potatoes, artichokes, and lemon juice to the pan and continue to simmer for 2 minutes.
- Coat the butter with flour (push the flour into the butter) and add to the pan, to help thicken the sauce. The butter-flour mixture is known as a beurre manie.
- Garnish with rosemary, lemon slices, and chopped parsley. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Dan D says
I’ve made this recipe now several times, esp for company, and it gets rave reviews. Leftovers taste better second day! I aim for all the ingredients to “meld together” and I am amazed that there is a certain “scarpariello” flavor in their combination — but only with THIS version, so I am so very glad for Chef Dennis. The variations I do: I double the artichokes (when from a can rather than frozen or fresh, I let them soak a bit to get rid of that ‘canned’ flavor), and instead of sausage I use a hot dog sliced very very thin, and roasted alongside the potatoed (I find the thyme or rosemary spices in sausage too strong for this dish.) But all those tiny variations of this recipe end up fantastic. I’ve even bought a big covered pan just so I can make this, for a crowd!
Mark Heller CEC says
Great recipe had to add some fresh garlic and Greek oregano.
Jennifer says
This was delicious!! Only comment was that no way were my potatoes cooked in 25 minutes at 350 degrees–I cranked it up to 400 and let them go another 10 minutes and they were good to go. I used marinated artichoke hearts and some roasted red peppers, too. Skipped the granulated onion because I didn’t have it, and it was still wonderful. Great recipe!
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thanks for the great review and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the dish. Thanks for passing on your experience in creating the dish.
Susan says
Chef Dennis,
Can’t wait to try this but wondered what your thoughts be on using marinated artichoke heats instead of regular for an additional burst of tart with the lemon flavor?
Chef Dennis Littley says
hi Susan
Marinated hearts will work well in this recipe, I use them from time to time.
Theresa Mongiello says
Thanks so much, Chef, for this recipe. The nice thing: I can use my soy butter in place of real butter due to my horrific dairy allergy and it will still be yummy. Thanks for all of the recipes. I get bored quickly with food so I always enjoy creating something new.
Let’s Cheer for Spring and looking forward to cooking and dining outdoors.
All the best to you and your family!
Chef Dennis Littley says
you are very welcome Theresa. I’m happy to hear that you can use your soy butter in the recipe, I used Earth Balance for awhile and was surprised at how good it really was.
Cheers!
Dennis
joe says
Your website is my go to for trying new recipes. Made this one tonight, added 12 medium shrimp and served it with a side of risotto. It was amazing. Rosemary is tough because if you add too much it absolutely takes over any other flavor. I loved this dish because each bite can you be different. You can throw 3 pieces of potato on the fork one bite, take a bite of Italian sausage and artichoke the next, and a bite of chicken and mushroom the next. Can’t wait to try my (your) next recipe!
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thanks Joe, I’m very happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe and adding shrimp just made it even more delicious!
Deb says
This was AWESOME!!!!! It is way too funny as I did hear “chicken again?” …. that was when I was making it – – whole different story when I served it. Leftovers tonight (I doubled the recipe) and I am already drooling just thinking about it 🙂 Amazing dish, thanks so much. Love your other recipes too, by the way
Chef Dennis says
hi Deb
I’m glad your family enjoyed the dish it really is a tasty combination! And I’m also very happy to hear that you’ve been enjoying my recipes, its always nice to hear!
Cheers
Dennis
Becki's Whole Life says
Love your story – that is awesome! This recipe sounds like a great meal. I love combining the thighs and chicken sausage with potatoes. Kind of like a fancy hash…which is a great dish in my book.
Chef Dennis says
Thanks Becki, it really is a very flavorful dish, and its hard to go wrong with all those delicious ingredients!
Dionne Baldwin says
This is something that we could really love and I know everyone would enjoy hearing this story. You have a great passion for food and I can imagine the chefs were jealous of your ability and there are some things that just cannot be taught. I have an overwhelming amount of potatoes so I will give this a try!
deana@lostpastremembered says
Lovely dish, chef. I’ve had it many ways but love adding artichokes, delicious idea.
Chef Dennis says
Thanks Deana, I think that’s the beauty of this dish, that it has so many variations!
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
I love these flavors, and chicken with artichokes is always a winner!
Chef Dennis says
thanks Laura, my wife loves artichokes so any opportunity I have to add them into one of creations makes her very happy.
anne says
what a great story chef! Love to hear about the old days 🙂 and this looks spectacular! anne
Chef Dennis says
Thanks Anne, it was a very tasty dish!
Larry says
Great story Dennis and this dish looks like a real keeper – on the try list it goes.
Chef Dennis says
Thanks Larry, it was fun remembering how I learned to make that dish!
Abbe@This is How I Cook says
I just featured chicken scarpariello a few weeks ago. Your rendition is a bit different than mine but I’ll bet both are divine. Mine doesn’t have potatoes-I leave that for chicken vesuvio. Great story!
Chef Dennis says
Thanks Abbe, I’m sure there are as many versions as here are Italian Grandmothers!
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
This is my “go to” dish whenever I dine out and I’m not fond of the specials for that evening. It’s so comforting and I just love all of the flavor combinations. This dish looks fantastic, thanks for sharing!
Chef Dennis says
there really is a wonderful array of flavors in this dish, thanks for stopping by Carrie!