Skillet Chicken With Tomatoes, Pancetta and Mozzarella Recipe (2024)

I have made this dish twice, delicious. Changes I made: The second time I added a layer of fresh market greens and sat the chicken on top. When I browned the bacon I also crisped the chicken skin. I slow baked the dish. After 2 hours at 300 degrees, the chicken melted off the fork. The greens were a nice contrast to the red sauce. I also added green olives. I served the dish sprinkled with the bacon and crispy chicken skin and then added daps of goat cheese instead of the bocconcini-Guest worthy

Hi MelissaJane - if the sauce was thin it's probably because you only baked it for 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes, which makes sense for the boneless breasts, but doesn't give the sauce enough time to thicken and reduce properly. Next time cook the sauce a little longer on the stove top before adding the chicken to the pan and baking. Also using diced tomatoes is perfectly fine. Whole tomatoes results in bigger, irregular chucks, which I prefer, but you should use what you like!

Perfect! I used 1/2 tsp of anchovy paste instead of anchovies because I don't keep them in my pantry. Anchovy paste can keep in your refrigerator for a long time when you use very little in recipes like this.

Wow!!! Served it with a plateful of creamy polenta. Outstanding!! Oh no, might have added another 1200 calories. Guess I'll have to make it again next week.

Good Evening: This recipe doesn't just go into the standard repertoire, it goes into the secret-weapon-for-dinner-parties repertoire.

Jim, I've found that people who hate anchovies think of them as whole fillets on pizzas. If you mash them up and mix them into the sauce, as I've done with several other recipes, the "anchovy-haters" don't even realize they're in the meal ... just some indescribable and delicious flavor.

I've made this twice and the second time I made the following amendment, or enhancement actually: sauteed 1/2 onion with bacon (thick sliced), then set it aside, browned the chicken and then added the bacon/onion to the tomatoes and then proceeded as directed. This gave a deep, smokey, bacon flavor to the dish that you wouldn't have just sprinkling pancetta (or bacon) over the dish.

Made this last night and we all loved it, even my sometimes fussy 3yo. I didn't have any anchovies, so a few drops of balsamic vinegar and tamari gave the sauce an umami boost. I used a smaller tin of tomatoes and quartered some fresh plum tomatoes. Used 2lb chicken thighs (boneless, skinless) and seared and oven-cooked it for less time. The cooking time of 45 min is not accurate, the steps add up to 53 min and there is prep time involved as well. Start to finish for me was 1h15min.

Cauliflower 'rice' ('riced cauliflower'?) serves nicely as a sauce-y vehicle, steamed broccoli rabe if you'd like a more assertive supporting cast, and regular broccoli to split the difference. Or: slice green cabbage into noodle-widths, blanch (or nuke) it for a few minutes, drain well and give it a quick hard saute - to develop a few nice brown edges, y'see - in a bit of the oil poured off in Step 3, plus maybe some garlic. Al dente cabbage is mild and delicious.

I didn't expect this dish to be so spectacularly delicious. The tomato sauce was complex and soul satisfying...it could be used on its own over pasta or polenta. The mix of aromatics (anchovies, garlic, hot red peppers) gives the sauce a very different character from other typical Italian sauces. I used boneless/skinless thighs to cut down on calories/fat and they were tender and delicious. Just cook them a little less. Lastly, I added a some chix broth & a TSP of sugar.

I was happy my Wednesday dinner was solved after reading the NYT. I am a long-standing member of the Melissa Clark fan club. Made the recipe, and thought it was good, not great. More of an unbreaded chicken parmigiana than a pizza chicken. That said, it was easy, tasty, and made enough for two dinners. Delicious tomato sauce was even better the second night with more chicken flavor. Thanks for the inspiration. My favorite is Melissa's sheetpan roasted chicken with potatoes and arugula.

To use boneless chicken, I would follow the same procedure but reduce the tomato sauce a little bit more before adding the chicken, then simmer very gently, covered, on top of the stove, before finally putting the pan, uncovered, in the broiler to melt the mozzarella. It's basically ariff on chicken parm.

I substituted 2 tsp anchovy paste for two anchovies - gave a great depth of flavor to the sauce, does not taste anything like anchovies. Used 4 chicken thighs and 4 legs with skin. To reduce fat, left only a small amount of pancetta drippings and did not add olive oil when cooking chicken. Left only about 1 tsp oil in pan at end of Step 3. Great recipe!

Made tonight exactly as written except felt like the sauté garlic and anchovies needed to be deglazed so added a little vermouth before the tomatoes. This was outstanding. Served with garlic bread, some left over pasta and a salad. Flavors were excellent

Tomato sauce too bland

Top top top recipe. If I could give it 6 stars I would!

We ABSOLUTELY LOVE this recipe. But my partner doesn't dig chicken. Has anyone substituted for another protein with similar success? Wondering about pork, lamb, beef.

absolute star of a recipe. Followed it exactly other than I only used 2 bone in chicken breasts. Can't believe how rich and flavorful the sauce is with only 4 ingredients. Cooked in a dutch oven to minimize splatter. Plated it over a ton of arugula per another commenter -- great suggestion. It was so delicious that I forgot to put the pancetta on it. I will tomorrow for leftovers!

This was so bad! I had high hopes when I saw it was rated 5/5. It was a 2 at best. A few key missteps in this recipe like using bone in chicken (and so much of it), super thin sauce, not enough oven time and overall weak flavors.

This recipe was delicious. I made the following changes:I cooked it completely in a dutch oven on the stove top--turning the heat low for an hour or more rather than cooking it in the oven. This allowed the sauce to thicken. I used Boar's Head turkey bacon instead of pancetta--and doubled the amount. Boar's Head has a lovely smokey flavor which added to the overall flavor depth. I also used chicken breasts without skins to reduce the fat.

I love MC’s recipes and am always v grateful that she specifies exactly how much salt. I wonder, though, what kind of skillet she owns that could possibly fit in all that chicken and get a good sear without too much crowding. I used two skillets and even then it took forever to sear and I ended up with dry chicken. The flavors here are very similar to her pan-sheet recipe with chicken thighs, pancetta, and cherry tomatoes, which is less work and one of my very favorite recipes.

Wonderful with polenta. (Or a bit of pasta on the side) When doubled, needed to add 14 oz can tomatoes. Try another’s advice to bake on top of sturdy greens for 2 hours at 300.

Delicious!

This meal was fabulous. My only question is how big is your skillet that you can fit 3.5lbs of bone-in, skin-on chicken in the browning process? I used a 12" skillet and had to work in two batches, which added time. But it was SO worth it.

I made this yesterday and it was fantastic. Next time, I will break up the tomatoes before adding them to the sauce. I substituted anchovy paste for the fillets since it seems a waste to open a whole can of the fillets for only 2 fillets. Mopped up the sauce with some warm Italian bread. This is a real keeper.

Used canned San Marzano tomatoes. Fantastic. Made enough for two meals. It was even better on the second night than the first. I used the amount of bocconcini in the recipe and felt it probably wasn't enough. Next time I will use I will probably use bigger pieces of mozzarella.

I love this recipe. It comes together quickly and so flavorful. We get lots of wild pheasant which works well here as long as you greatly reduce the poultry cooking time to accommodate the smaller size and leanness of wild game birds. I've also substituted pepperoni for the pancetta when that was all I had and it was fabulous too! I like to think it's similar to "Aurora's Chicken Pepperoni" from the movie "Seems like Old Times". :-)

I recommend simmering the tomato sauce much longer than 10 min, or leaving out much of the juice from the can of tomatoes. Mine turned out all soupy.