The famous Neapolitan tomato sauce—packed with olives, garlic, capers, and anchovies—is traditionally paired with long pasta. In our version, chicken legs are gently oven-braised in the puttanesca until it's nearly falling off the bone. It’s a low-maintenance, one-skillet dish that is easy to pull off on a weeknight.
Recipe information
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
3
2
6
4
½
2
1
¾
2
2
3
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°. Pat chicken dry with paper towels, then season all over with salt.
Step 2
Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium-high until shimmering. Cook chicken, turning occasionally, until it has rendered some of its fat and skin is golden brown all over, 7–10 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate. You’ll have a pool of fat left in the pan. Spoon out all but 3 Tbsp. fat from pan. (Use it for roasted potatoes, in cooked bitter greens, or add to stewy beans.)
Step 3
Reduce heat to medium and add garlic and anchovies to skillet. Cook, stirring often, until garlic is softened and anchovies have disintegrated, 2–3 minutes. Sprinkle in red pepper flakes, then stir in tomato paste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tomato paste begins to split and stick to pan, about 3 minutes. Add olives, wine, capers, bay leaves (if using), and lemon peel and bring to a simmer (still over medium heat). Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the wine has evaporated, 5–7 minutes.
Step 4
Snuggle chicken (skin side up) into sauce in a single layer. Pour in 1 cup water and bring to a simmer. Transfer skillet to oven and bake, uncovered, until sauce is thickened and chicken is cooked through, 20–25 minutes (if using whole legs, it’ll take closer to 30–35 minutes). Taste a spoonful of the sauce—it should be plenty salty between the anchovies and capers, so you most likely won’t need to season with more salt.
Step 5
Transfer chicken to a platter and spoon sauce over. Drizzle with oil and serve with lemon wedges alongside.
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Reviews (86)
Back to TopLong story short: this was fantastic and worth the trip to Whole Foods for the olives. Definitely make this, it's perfect for a weeknight meal.
Anonymous
12/17/2019
Maybe one of the most impressive, dinner-party worthy things I've made—and it came together quickly in just one skillet! Will definitely make again.
Anonymous
New York
12/17/2019
made this last night and it was tremendous, used a second skillet to make country style roast potatoes using the fat from the first. Lovely stuff
areed_josh
London
12/18/2019
I wanted to love this dish but it certainly didn’t turn out or look like the picture in this recipe. I cooked chicken thighs six minutes per side and they still weren’t brown. The sauce was very watery. Perhaps I didn’t let the wine evaporate sufficiently. I wished I hadn’t added the water .
Anonymous
West Virginia
12/18/2019
Delicious. Ended up only using chicken thighs, and my cast iron skillet did not fit all 3lbs. The sauce, though seemingly thin like another reviewer suggests, was not watery. I also opted to salt my raw chicken 12 hours in advance. The recipe needed no salt otherwise. Might add more red pepper flakes next time as the spice was mild. Used the extra chicken fat for a side of sautéed sweet potatoes. And event cutting the amount of chicken down I have enough for left overs tomorrow. I think for a dinner party this is an impressive entree.
Anonymous
Chicago
12/20/2019
Mostly I really enjoy Bon Appetit recipes. Sadly, this specific recipe is poorly thought out, ill described, and fundamentally pathetic. The resulting "meal" was wretched, and I am quite comfortable stating that whomever dreamed up this concoction gave me a nightmare. I am a novice cook, so I followed this recipe TO THE LETTER and the surprising event was that when done, the contents of the dish did not crystallize into sheer layers of salt! Maybe the poor, salty, watery puttanesca sauce prevented crystallization. Even the chicken itself was so salty that I could barely eat a piece. Did I throw it all out? No! I ground it all up in the garbage disposal for fear that if I simply put whole pieces in the garbage, some vile, unfortunate rats might get poisoned eating the "stuff". My review reflects my anger at having spent the money and invested the time to prepare a meal recommend by a supposed cook!
CaesarNo.1
Pa
12/21/2019
This is a delicious recipe, had no major issues and it was easier than I expected! I did half castelvetrano olives and half Kalamata. Used anchovy paste. Would recommend doing less than a cup of water (maybe 3/4) or baking at 400. At 350 it didn't simmer hard enough to thicken into sauce. (so I removed the chicken to a serving dish and simmered on the stove top before pouring over the chicken.) People for whom it was too salty likely got too much of the brine from their olives and capers into the sauce. You've got to drain them.
NM
12/21/2019