Chicken Pepperoncini with Creamy Wine Sauce

Don’t throw away those tangy little peppers which come in boxes of pizza from restaurant chains. The pickled pepperoncini peppers make a “bright” addition to my recipe for “Chicken with Creamy Wine Sauce.” This dish is one of our favorite supper meals and I have been making it for years with lots of variations. My recipe begins with chicken tenderloins. Then I add a creamy wine sauce which gives a flavorful touch. Last, the creativity begins and I have several favorite ingredients to “jazz” up the chicken entree. This time I snuck in a few wrinkled, little pepperoncini peppers. The peppers add a lively flavor “pop.” I grew these peppers in my garden last summer and then was stuck with the question of how to use the them. So, I pickled them! In addition to adding the pickled peppers to chef salads and as an accompanyiment to pizza, I discovered that they perk up this chicken and pasta dish, too.

Pepperoncini peppers

Pepperoncini peppers are easy to grow in a summer garden. In fact, last summer they were one of the “star” peppers in my garden. You probably won’t find raw, shriveled-up looking pepperoncini peppers in farmer’s markets or grocery stores. However, the pickled peppers are quite easy to find in grocery stores. The peppers have “bite” and are tangy, Quite delightful. They range from 100 to 500 units on the Scoville heat unit scale. So, they are not as hot as a jalapeno pepper, but definately hotter than a bell pepper. The pickled peppers are the ones which usually come with Italian salads in restaurants and in pizzas boxes.

These little peppers are grown in the Mediterranean areas of Europe, namely Greece and Italy. They actually originated in Central and South America, and were brought to Europe by Spanish explorers. However, they really aren’t as popular in Latin American these days as in Europe.

Here are a few fresh, ripe peppers from last year’s garden and the peppers after they were pickled. I pickled the “whole” peppers.

“Chicken with Creamy Wine Sauce” Recipe

“Chicken with Creamy Wine Sauce” makes an easy supper meal. I use chicken tenderloins because they cook quickly and are always tender. I bread the chicken in seasoned flour and fry the pieces first. Next comes a creamy wine sauce wich adds flavor and makes this dish “shine.” I like to use a sweet marsala cooking wine. To add more flavor, I add either chicken bouillon or beef bouillon. Sometimes I skip the cream and just make a “Wine Sauce.” Last comes the fun part. Many ingredients can be added to the entree to make it memorable such as artichoke hearts, pearl onions, shallots, bacon bits, mushrooms and/or Parmesan cheese. At the very end of the process, I stir in half-and-half cream.

Serve this chicken and sauce over pasta. Not much else is needed to complete the meal — perhaps a salad and some French bread.

Making the Recipe

Over the years, I have made this recipe many different ways. I’ve tried to simplify the process and write down the steps for one variation. The basic steps to making my recipe are:

Get ready: Mix up the seasoned flour in a small bowl which is used for breading the chicken tenderloin pieces.

For this recipe, I use paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. (This is a variation on my Cajun seasoning — just no cayenne pepper.)

Prepare the chicken tenderloin pieces. Using a small knife, remove the tendon which goes down the center of the chicken piece. Toss and coat the chicken in the seasoned flour breading.

Sear the breaded chicken pieces. Gently fry the chicken in a small amount of oil over medium-high heat in a heavy skillet, adding more oil as needed. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Remove and set on a paper towel-lined plate. (Do this in 2 batches, if needed.) The chicken pieces will not be competely cooked, but we will finish cooking them in a later step.

Add all the flavorful ingredients and let the chicken simmer away. Add a beef bouillon cube dissolved in water and Marsala wine to the skilllet, scraping down the drippings in the bottom of the skillet. Stir to combine. Then add a sliced shallot and the pepperoncini peppers plus a bit of the brine to the skillet. (No need to fry the shallot, it is very mild.) I added thyme for seasoning. The beef bouillon has plenty of salt, so I din’t add extra salt. The pepperoncini peppers add “zing,” so I skipped adding black pepper to the sauce. Last, layer the browned chicken pieces back on top of everything. Partially cover and simmer away until the chicken is tender and cooked completely.

Finish making the cream sauce. Once again, remove the chicken pieces to a plate. In a separate bowl, combine flour with a little cold water to make a slurry. Then stir the flour slurry into the skillet over low heat — very slowly to avoid clumping — and simmer away to thicken the gravy. Last, stir half-and-half to finish the cream sauce.

Once the cream is added, stir and cook over low heat, Don’t boil.

Transfer the sauce to a serving bowl and place the chicken tenderloin pieces on top.

I usually serve this chicken dish with pasta, sometimes with rice.

There are so, so many ways to vary this recipe. Some of my favorite variations include:

• For “crunchy” chicken, cook the battered chicken pieces completely in the first step. Don’t add them back to the broth/wine to simmer away. Just layer them over the “Creamy Wine Sauce” when serving.
  
  
• Substitute 1 cup sodium-reduced chicken broth for the beef bouillon cube dissolved in water.
  
  
• Skip the half-and-half. Just make a “Wine Sauce.” This works well when using artichoke hearts, and/or pearl onions. The cream really isn’t needed with these ingredients.
  
  
• Add fresh Parmesan cheese to the Cream Sauce.
  
  
• Substitute other ingredients for the pepperoncini peppers such as artichoke hearts, pearl onions, bacon bits, mushrooms.
  

Well, we have a new use for pepperoncini peppers. They add just a little “zing” to this chicken and pasta dish. I rarely order pizzas these days, but when I do — here we go and I’m not throwing those peppers away.

This dish is one of my “go to” supper meals. I have been making variations of it for years. This is definately one of my favorites recipes and I finally decided it was time to write it down. Enjoy!