Rosemary Chicken Ragù

I keep a tube of anchovy paste which adds that umami hit but goes completely undetected in the finished product. I don’t care for whole tinned anchovies but this goes lots of places!

It's not exactly that "some chicken is so juicy," it's that most chicken carcasses have been injected with ice-cold water, and about 5% of the water is retained in the chicken you buy. Buy air-cooled chicken, instead. It's tastier.

Browning bone in, skin on chicken thighs to start and adding them to the sauce makes a richer sauce. After the sauce cools down in the fridge, remove the thighs. Remove the bones and skin from the thighs and set aside. Cut up the cold thighs and add them back to the sauce.

Excellent. Used Whole Foods air dried chicken thighs. I did rinse out the tomato can and add about 3/4 cup of water. Slow simmer for 50 minutes produced the results I was after - a thickened sauce and chicken that shredded easily. Will definitely make this again.

I think you need some sort of umami. You might try white miso paste, about a teaspoon per anchovy. Or, as mentioned above, fish sauce. Also, Worcestershire sauce might work, as would a good salty olive.

Thoughts on either a non-seafood sub for the anchovies, or how much omitting them would change this?

Made this exactly as written, except before putting the chicken in the pot, I cut it up into pieces about 1 x 2 inches, making it unnecessary to shred the chicken later, and speeding up the final process. Delicious!

Delicious! Re: shredding the chicken. A whole lot easier to shred each piece of chicken on a board then slide it back into the sauce.

I just prepared this for Sunday dinner, and it was delicious. I didn’t have any anchovies, but fish sauce seemed a good substitute. I used fettuccine, but would love to try it with a wider noodle like pappardelle next time. Quick and simple, lots of flavor. Thanks, Ali!

Has anyone tried this recipe with ground chicken ?

This is a very easy, very delicious recipe. The anchovies are absolutely essential to the flavor… feel free to substitute, but then you are making something else, IMO. They provide the umami that your guests will not be able to identify, but they sure will like the taste. I made exactly as written, except I chopped the rosemary leaves instead of throwing in a whole sprig. Also, shred the chicken outside the pot and put it back in as others have suggested. Another great recipe by Ali.

Really delicious. I should have kept the pasta water since it was a little dry the second day. My other option could have been to only mix in the pasta on the portion that I ate each day. I knew that the recipe was too much for one person and could have adjusted it accordingly. But I love the deep rich flavors with a hint of heat. My boneless skinned chicken thighs took about 45 - 50 minutes to cook through enough for a good shred. I may do this again with bone in thighs for more flavor.

Without the chicken thighs it wouldn't be chicken ragu, would it? How do 6 cloves of garlic, 4 anchovy filets, red pepper flakes and rosemary turn out flavorless?

Pasta water is used to make a creamy sauce. The starch in pasta water emulsifies the sauce, making it thicker. It is not meant to dilute the sauce to make it watery.

Anyone who mentions not enough flavor simply did not add enough salt. Canned tomatoes require a great deal of salt, the pasta water also needs a very healthy dose of salt. If it tastes flat or dull, it needs more salt.