TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
Pollo all'Arancia Rossa di SiciliaChicken with Sicilian Blood Oranges
Chicken made with Moro blood oranges grown around Catania at the foot of Mount Etna. The sweetness and acidity of the blood-red juice blend into a butter and white wine sauce. Best in the January–March season, it is also delicious with ordinary oranges.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
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Ingredients (4 servings)
- Bone-in chicken thighsUse skin-on pieces.1200 g (4–6 pieces)
- Blood oranges (season: months 1–3)Squeeze 3 oranges and use 1, thinly sliced, for garnish.4 pieces
- Dry white wine100 ml
- ButterFor finishing the sauce.30 g
- OnionFinely chopped.1 piece
- Rosemary2 sprigs
- Extra virgin olive oil30 ml
- Orange blossom honey or regular honeySoftens the acidity and balances the sauce.15 g (2 teaspoons)
Method
Chop the onion
- 1 Finely chop 1 onion.
Brown the chicken
- 1 Season 1200 g chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- 2 Heat 30 ml olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, add the chicken skin-side down and cook for 7–8 minutes.
- 3 Turn, cook for 3 minutes and remove.
Ready when
Turn when the skin is deeply browned and remove after 10–11 minutes in total.
Sauté onion and reduce wine
- 1 Sauté the onion in the same pan over medium heat for 5 minutes.
- 2 Pour in 100 ml white wine and reduce by half.
Ready when
Continue when the wine has halved.
Add orange juice
- 1 Add and mix in the juice of 3 blood oranges, 15 g honey and 2 rosemary sprigs.
Simmer the chicken in orange sauce
- 1 Return the chicken skin-side up.
- 2 Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
Ready when
Continue when the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce has thickened slightly.
Finish the sauce with butter
- 1 Remove the chicken.
- 2 Add 30 g butter and stir to emulsify the sauce.
- 3 Plate with thin orange slices and pour over the sauce.
Ready when
Ready when the sauce is emulsified and glossy.
About this dish
Sicilian blood oranges—the 3 varieties Tarocco, Moro and Sanguinello—are shaped by volcanic soil and daily temperature swings at the foot of Etna. Anthocyanin pigments color the flesh and juice red, with astringency and complexity absent from ordinary oranges. During their January–March season, oranges dripping blood-red juice are piled in Catania’s markets.
Using oranges in a poultry sauce is also famous in French cooking, as in canard à l’orange, but the Sicilian version is more rustic and direct. Instead of the French approach of coating with butter and cream, the Sicilian method reduces the juice with white wine and honey, bringing Mediterranean ingredients themselves to the forefront.
Ordinary oranges also work. Their sauce lacks the red color and distinctive astringency of blood oranges, but the structure of adding orange sweetness and acidity to chicken is the same. Use blood oranges when available in season, and substitute ordinary oranges otherwise.
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