Chicken Marengo Recipe. A beautiful over the top braised chicken recipe that’s perfect for entertaining for your next dinner party. Hearty and with a sauce that’s full of amazing flavors.
History of Chicken Marengo
Before I prepared this Chicken Marengo Recipe, I googled Chicken Marengo. Wikipedia was the first result with the history: An Italian savoury dish, so named for being the dish that Napoleon Bonaparte ate after the Battle of Marengo.
According to history Napoleon demanded a quick meal after the battle and his chef was forced to work with meager ingredients. Chicken sliced up with a saber and crawfish were among the choices. Napoleon reportedly liked the dish and (having won the battle) considered it lucky. He refused to have the ingredients altered on future occasions.
After the history lesson, I reviewed about 10 different Chicken Marengo recipes. I guess we’re not as superstitious as Napoleon as each recipe I reviewed offered a different set of ingredients.
Not once did I see crawfish listed, but the common theme for Chicken Marengo is chicken braised in a tomato sauce.
For my final plan I referenced one of my most trusted sources, Dairy Hollow House Bed and Breakfast and found a less tomato-ey version. Perfect.
This definitely turned out to be a rich-sauced delicious dish. It took a total of about 3 hours from start to finish, but what better way to spend a cold and rainy afternoon?
Elegant enough to serve to guests for a dinner party, I believe this could be prepared in advanced and easily reheated for an impressive meal.
Serving the Chicken Marengo with a simple green salad with a flavorful vinaigrette and a delicious dessert should result in some impressed guests.
How To Make Chicken Marengo
In a large fry pan add 2 T each butter and olive oil. Add 8 chicken thighs and brown on both sides. As they brown, transfer them to a Dutch oven.
In the same pan that you cooked the chicken, sautee onion until soft. Add garlic and flour. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly, then add white wine and Chicken Broth
- Stir constantly for about 3 minutes until the pan is deglazed and the sauce is smooth and creamy. Then stir in the chopped tomatoes
- Pour this over the browned chicken in the Dutch oven. Sprinkle the chicken and sauce with golden raisins, fresh ground black pepper, thyme, basil and rosemary. Add a bay leaf
- Stir well to combine, bring to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer partially covered for about an hour. Meanwhile in 2 T. olive oil saute onions, mushrooms and carrots.
- When vegetables are slightly softened, remove them from heat and add them to the Dutch oven. Sprinkle the vegetables in the dish with the juice of one lemon and sliced black olives.
- Cover and simmer about 15 minutes.
Serve piping hot over buttered egg noodles or mashed potatoes, drizzling sauce over all.
Chicken Marengo Recipe
I hope you give this chicken marengo recipe a try. And if you do, please come back and let me know how you liked it and give the recipe a star rating.
Your feedback is valuable to me for developing future recipes. And if you have a favorite French inspired chicken recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
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Chicken Marengo Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
- 8 chicken thighs
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- ⅓ cup flour
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 ½ cups Chicken Broth
- 3 medium tomatoes rough chopped
- ½ cup golden raisins
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon each thyme and basil and rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 6-12 Pearl onions (optional ingredient) peeled, left whole
- ½ pound mushrooms sliced
- 2 large carrots sliced
- juice of one lemon
- 1 cup large pitted black olives sliced in half
- ¼ Cup brandy
Instructions
- In a large fry pan add 2 T each butter and olive oil.
- Add the chicken thighs.
- As the pieces brown, transfer them to Dutch oven. In the same pan that the chicken was browned, saute onion until soft. Add garlic, flour and cook abut 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the white wine and Chicken Broth
- Stir constantly for about 3 minutes until the pan is deglazed and the sauce is smooth and creamy.
- Stir in the chopped tomatoes
- Pour over the browned chicken in the Dutch oven. Sprinkle the chicken and sauce with raisins, pepper, thyme, basil and rosemary. Add the bay leaf.
- Move the chicken around so the sauce will surround them. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer partially covered for about an hour.
- Meanwhile in 2 tablespoons of olive oil saute the pearl onions, mushrooms and carrots.
- When vegetables are slightly softened, add them to the Dutch oven.
- Sprinkle the vegetables in the dish with the juice of one lemon and the olives. Add the brandy.
- Return the sauce to a boil, stirring often for about 15 minutes. This will reduce and intensify the flavor of the sauce.
- Fish out the bay leaf. Serve piping hot over buttered egg noodles or mashed potatoes, drizzling sauce over all.
Notes
Nutrition
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Why are there two lots of onion?
Hi Marie, thanks so much for your note. It was a mistake in the recipe and I’ve corrected it. The 2nd onion reference should be for pearl onions. Left whole.
With the chicken Marengo recipe 1/4 cup brandy is listed in the ingredients and not when to use it in the directions. Please let me know when to use it in the directions. Thanks
Hi Christine. I have changed the recipe instructions. Thanks for your note.
Chicken Marengo is one of my “go-to” dishes. I’ve been making it for years and we love it. Mine is a little different than yours, but I’ll have to try the raisins and carrots you’ve included. Funny, I almost always serve mine with English peas too.
Sam
I’ve only made it once and have never had it elsewhere, so don’t know how this one stacks up to other recipes.
what an awesome looking dish and I’m sure it’s just as tasty.
Thanks Chris, it’s loaded with exciting flavors.
Well I prefer mine to be sans crawfish, so this works for me! Looks great Lea Ann!
Gosh an absolutely delicious chicken:-)))
Am also here to tell u about my very first giveaway:-)))
http://brightmorningstarsfoodie.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-1st-sunshine-giveaway-thanxxx-aton.html
It looks really rich and satisfying and like a fun way to spend a stormy afternoon. 😉
that looks really good! perfect weekend meal
It’s a labor-intensive dish for sure, but well worth it. I really don’t mind spending that much time on a dish, but a rainy day helps!
Mmmmmmmm! Looks lovely! Definitely going to have to try this before the weather gets too warm here.
Well done. Looks delicious
More ingredients than I thought there would be..looks excellent!
I love the layers of salty-sweet in this dish. And it’s certainly cold enough to keep something cooking for 3 hours around here 🙂
I have to say, I have never heard of this dish before. But I love that it has raisins and olives (sweet and salty – umm AWESOME). Thanks for doing all of this research on it. It’s so cool when recipes have a historical backstory.
Oh my is this ever beautiful… I may have to actually buy a chicken for this recipe… looks terrific!
I heartily agree – cooking an “involved” sumptious meal on a drizzly day is just the thing! This looks so good and I’ll bet the house smelled divine all afternoon. Very nice post and beautiful photos!
This is my kind of dish…love the sauce with the raisins! Yes, it is definitely elegant enough for dinner guests.
what a nice looking dish – I love the name of this one!