Agrodolce (sweet and sour) Chicken Thighs with Peppers, Olives, and Saffron Rice

This is a take on a classic Italian recipe, but simplified for a weeknight.

Agrodolce (pronounced agro-dole-chay) means sweet and sour. In Italy you can buy these peppers cooked and jarred in a sweet vinegar solution. If you’re lucky enough to live near an Italian market that stocks them, hurray! You can make them from scratch, Sicilian style like this, but for a quickish weeknight recipe I use regular jarred roasted red peppers and vinegar.

Agrodolce Chicken Thighs with Peppers, Olives, and Saffron Rice

There are a lot of possible variations on this dish. Skin-on or skin-off chicken thighs. Bone-in or boneless. You could also make this with chicken breasts - just adjust cooking times accordingly (internal temp should be 165 F.) For the peppers you can use fresh peppers, little peppadew peppers from the olive bar, or jarred roasted red peppers….

For the “sour” I use vinegar or olive brine. The “sweet” can be just the peppers, but more traditionally you would add about a teaspoon of sugar to the pan when you add the peppers - totally up to you. I kept it simple with olives, but if you’re feeling wild you could also add capers, pinenuts, and/or raisins - a traditional “sweet” note in Sicilian savory dishes (ideally golden raisins, but dark will work too.)

I made this recipe three times in the last couple weeks. Some nights with skinless thighs, other nights with skin on thighs. I served it over plain rice; with roasted potatoes and a simple salad another night; and with saffron rice the last time - I’m including that version in the recipe below. If you don’t have saffron, you can substitute powdered turmeric for saffron threads and get the same gorgeous yellow hue (as well as some anti-inflammatory goodness.) I served that with broccoli mainly because I wanted to get something green in the kids, but tbh it didn’t need broccoli and I preferred it with salad.

three different nights of agrodolce chicken

Yields: 4 servings Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 25-30 minutes