Rosemary Chicken Ragù Recipe (2024)

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.

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!

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?

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!

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.

Has anyone tried this recipe with ground chicken ?

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!

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?

For having so many flavorful ingredients, it turned out fairly flavorless and boring (even after a much longer simmer and concentration than the 30 minutes called for in the recipe). I don’t think the chicken thighs added anything for flavor/texture; something like Italian sausage or ground pork may be a better fit, and equally quick to cook. A bunch of Calabrian chilis and a splash of cream were not out of place, but this needs some work.

I’ve got some already cooked meat from a rotisserie chicken on hand. Thoughts on whether I could use that instead? What adjustments would I make?

I cooked this recipe as is and it was lovely. I served it over a can of white beans which I sautéed with onions and garlic and a fair amount of EVOO, added fresh, chopped oregano, parsley and some Aleppo pepper. I then mashed some of the beans, took it off the heat and added and folded in a big handful of arugula. Top that mix with a drizzle of EVOO and some more Aleppo pepper and Maldon salt and it was a lovely complement to the chicken Ragu. A highly recommend combination.

Geoff, briny black olives work.

What is umami?

This was pretty good. I strongly feel a pound of pasta is too much for the amount of sauce the recipe makes, at least with spaghetti, which I used. I think a flat noodle would be a better one for next time, and I'll only use 3/4 pound. I upped the rosemary (1 1/2 sprigs) and anchovy fillets (5), and really liked the flavor of the sauce.

This is a delicious, satisfying and easy recipe. I already had all the ingredients in my pantry except for anchovies, so I substituted fish sauce (1/2 tsp per fillet, so total of 2 tsp). I added it in step 2. It's much easier to shred the chicken outside of the pot on a cutting board and then add it back in. I forgot to reserve some of the pasta water which I regretted because it would have made it a bit saucier. Will definitely add this to my rotation though.

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.

It was delicious, but here are a few tips to make it even better:Marinate the chicken in rosemary beforehand to make it even more flavorfulUse fresh cherry tomatoes instead of cannedUse white miso paste instead of anchovies (About 3 and a half teaspoons)Don't use the pasta water if you want a creamier sauce.Make a little less pasta then it calls for

What did I do wrong? The chicken is raw!

I was hesitant to make this based on other reviews that mentioned it wasn’t very flavorful, but my husband and I really enjoyed this dish and thought it had great flavor. I did add two additional cloves of garlic based on suggestions here and it tasted great (and even better the next day). Will make again.

Love this recipe. Easy, non-fussy work night dinner for the fam. Sure you could do x,y,z on top of it - but as is the recipe is exactly what it promises and it delivers.

I'm sorry this was not a hit in our house - four anchovy filets is way too many, it was all I could taste. I tried adding in a whole can of marinara sauce to try to salvage it and it was still extremely fish-forward, we had to throw it away :(

Maybe this is good with crushed tomatoes, but using whole peeled the sauce is way too thin to retain any flavor, even with a ton of garlic, anchovies, rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Tastes like disappointment.

Add five or six shallots or 2 onions first.Brown the chicken.Chop rosemary and add with the onions.

After reading the comments, I made the following modification and it turned out flavorful and delicious! Would definitely make it again.I added a medium yellow onion dicedIncreased garlic to 8 clovesSubstituted 2T anchovies paste for 4 anchoviesBrowned the chicken thighs in extra virgin olive before sautéing the onion, garlic, tomato paste, etc. in addition to the sprig of Rosemary I added a sprig of fresh oregano and a sprig of basil.Added 2 cups pasta water.

I used Cento tomato purée that I had on hand. I liked the flavor, but a little acidic. Stirring in some Parmesan at the end would have rounded it out.