Chicken Pizzaiola

Chicken Pizzaiola is a flavorful Italian dish where tender chicken breasts are simmered in a rich tomato sauce with garlic and capers. This easy-to-make recipe brings robust flavors to your table, perfect for a hearty dinner.

Have you ever tried pollo alla pizzaiola in Italy or chicken pizzaiola at Jamie’s Italian restaurant? If not, you have some homework to do! This recipe is a beautiful twist on chicken dinner with Italian flavors and it is simply mouthwatering.

The best part? It is a one-pan comfort food for the whole family that comes together in about an hour.

Why Is It Called Pizzaiola?

Pizzaiola from Italian means something like pizza-style or pizza maker-style, probably referring to the thick tomato-based sauce that we use for Chicken pizzaiola that reminds original pizza sauce.

Authentic Neapolitan Chicken Pizzaiola is traditionally seared chicken breasts served with a rich flavorful sauce made of tomatoes, wine, aromatics, olives, anchovies, and capers.

Ingredients Notes

Chicken

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts or tender chicken cutlets.
• Kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
• Olive oil to sear the chicken.

Pizzaiola Sauce

• Large onion, thinly sliced for building the sauce.
• Minced garlic or garlic powder. If you really love garlic flavors, you can swap olive oil with garlic-infused olive oil.
• Crushed tomatoes – canned tomatoes are easier to use for this recipe. You can buy whole tomatoes in a can and crush them by hand. San Marzano tomatoes are the best. To enhance the tomato flavor and thicken the sauce you can add extra tomato paste.
• Drained Capers. This delicious meal is a deluxe version of the chicken pizzaiola, but it will be still the same recipe without capers. Rinse, drain, and pat dry capers before adding them to the sauce. If you don’t have them, simply skip without replacing them with anything. If you want a replacement, you can use olives.
• Herbs and spices: dried oregano, dried basil, red pepper flakes (optional)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese. Sliced mozzarella can also work but not inside the sauce – to top the chicken breasts. If it comes in a bag with lots of liquid, drain it well.

Garnish

• Chopped parsley, fresh.
• Fresh basil.
• Grated Parmesan cheese or grated Grana Padano for serving.

Kitchen Equipment

• Oven-safe large skillet to sear the chicken. It is a one-pan meal so we have minimal clean-up afterward.

How To Make This Chicken Pizzaiola Recipe

To make chicken pizzaiola we simply need to sear the chicken, build up the sauce in a pan, and add pre-cooked chicken back to the pot to let it all simmer together. The last step will be cheese, as it takes just a few minutes to melt.

Serve on a beautiful serving plate with fresh basil leaves and extra virgin olive oil drizzle.

Let’s review the cooking process step by step.

1 – Sear The Chicken

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-safe skillet, over medium-high heat. 

Add the chicken breasts and cook until browned, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

At this step, we don’t need to cook the chicken through as we will finish the cooking process together with the sauce and cheese.

If cooking more breasts, add more olive oil when needed.

2 – Prepare The Sauce

In the same pan, add the sliced onion and cook until softened –  about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional 1 minute.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes, capers, oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes. Bring the sauce to a simmer for a few more minutes.

3 – Cook The Chicken Pizzaiola Together

Return the chicken breasts to the skillet, nestling them into the sauce.

Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and let the dish simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender.

4 – Broil To Melt The Cheese

Before serving, preheat the broiler of the oven. 

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over each chicken breast. Broil just until the cheese has melted and is lightly browned.

Let the dish rest for a couple of minutes before serving.

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with grated Parmesan cheese on top.

What Do You Serve With Chicken Pizzaiola?

This chicken recipe is versatile and works for any occasion from family dinner to Christmas gatherings. You can simply eat it as it is, or serve it with:

• crusty bread (plain or toasted with garlic butter, mmmm! perfect for dipping in the sauce) or homemade focaccia or ciabatta.
• pasta, of course, in the best traditions of Italian cooking.
• mashed potatoes for a more American-style dinner.
• green salad or some steamed or roasted veggies.

Storage

Store leftover chicken pizzaiola refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

Reheat in a saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave with a splash of tomato sauce or water.

You can serve leftovers with garnish or make a sandwich (or panini), drizzled with some extra virgin olive oil.

Freezing Leftovers

Chicken pizzaiola can be stored in the freezer in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.

To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat as usual.

Substitutions

• Adding wine to the sauce is a very Italian touch. Add a 3/4 cup of wine of your choice to deglaze the pan before cooking the sauce.
• Chicken broth helps achieve the desired consistency of the sauce.
• Italian seasoning is a substitute for spices and herbs, although the ones that are used are in the Italian seasoning mix anyway.
• Fresh tomatoes, like Roma, can also work in this recipe, especially if you’ve just harvested some garden tomatoes. You can crush or puree them. Fresh tomatoes take longer to cook, keep that in mind.
• I don’t use breaded chicken, but you can use panko or seasoned breadcrumbs. You can also simply coat the chicken cutlets with flour before frying them. It is optional, and I rarely do that, but it can be done!
• Pizzaiola sauce can also include olives if you like them. For more texture, you can also add bell peppers and mushrooms but it is more of an American take on the Italian classic. For a heat kick, you can add chili peppers.
• Another Italian classic is steak pizzaiola – when we swap the chicken with beef or veal steak. The recipe will be the same.

Tips To Make This Recipe

• The mozzarella cheese can also be melted using a kitchen torch, or heat gun, or by placing the lid over the skillet for a few minutes.
• An alternative way to cook chicken is to pre-bake it in the oven at 400 F. In this case, use a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. This method usually works when we do breaded chicken breasts.
• To get the softest and most tender chicken, you can pound the breasts. Cut each in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, wrap with plastic wrap, and pound until 1/4 and 1/3-inch thick. Evenly pounded chicken meat will cook better. Cooking time for pounded thin slices of chicken is much shorter.
• Marinating your chicken in herbs overnight will infuse it with flavors and make this recipe restaurant-level good.
• If you have whole canned tomatoes, you can easily crush them using the back of a wooden spoon.
• You can tell that the chicken is done if its internal temperature is at 165°F and the color is golden brown.
• If you want to make it easier, for a midweek dinner, swap the whole sauce preparations with store-bought pizza sauce.

If you love this chicken recipe, you’re going to love these other chicken dinners too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

More Great Pasta Dinners

Cream Cheese Pasta

Broccoli & Pasta

Pesto Pasta Salad

Triple Cheddar Chicken and Pasta

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