Not your ordinary chicken a la king

It is a chicken dish and it’s named after a king, but that’s about all it has in common with the chicken a la king that we’re used to seeing.

I found this recipe in a book called “I sapori di Abruzzo e Molise” (the flavors of Abruzzo and Molise) that I picked up here in Italy. And while it does say the recipes are from this area, there are few that I recognize as having eaten here so they must be from other parts of Abruzzo.

Of course, like a lot of other Italian recipes, it doesn’t really give a lot of detail on how to cook the dish, basically saying, cook the chicken, sprinkle it every once in a while with white wine and add some giardiniera. The ingredients were also just a hodgepodge of items with no measurements. So, I had to fiddle with it a bit to find the right ratios.

The dish is called Pollo alla Re Francesco II or Chicken a la King Francis II. According to the story, Francis II tasted this dish while on a hunting trip in Abruzzo. Now, the dish was also served by a pretty peasant woman, so there is some doubt that the king only praised the dish in order to conquer the girl.

I found the dish to be quite tasty with an interesting mix of flavors considering the use of giardiniera (Italian mixed pickled vegetables). But give it a try yourself and see if it deserved such praise from Francis II.

Ingredients

1 chicken cut into pieces
1 cup white wine
1 cup giardiniera (Italian mixed pickled vegetables), drained
1/3 cup sliced green and black olives
1 tablespoon capers
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 bay leaf
½ hot red pepper
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat and brown the chicken on all sides. Lower the heat to medium, add the garlic, rosemary, bay leaf, hot pepper, salt and pepper and simmer for a minute or two, turning the chicken to distribute the spices evenly through the pan. Add the white wine and lower the heat again to the lowest setting, cover and cook the chicken and vegetables for about 20 minutes. Check the pan occasionally and if it starts drying out, add some water. Once the 20 minutes has passed, check the chicken to see how close it is to being fully cooked. If it is almost done, add the giardiniera, capers and olives and cook for another 10 minutes, adding water if necessary to keep it from drying out. Remove the chicken to a platter, remove the hot pepper and discard, then spoon the giardiniera mix and juices over the chicken and serve.

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