Skip to main content

Chicken Vesuvio: More Than Just Meat and Potatoes


Chicken Vesuvio--chicken, potatoes, and sometimes peas baked in a white wine sauce--takes simple ingredients and turns them into something delicious. While its exact origins are unknown, the dish was popularized at Chicago's Italian restaurants beginning in the 1930s. Chicken Vesuvio is definitely filling; order it at a restaurant and you will not go hungry. It's also the perfect meal to help fuel you through long workdays and harsh winters.

According to The Chicago Food Encyclopedia, Chicken Vesuvio may have first been served at Vesuvio restaurant, once located on Wacker Drive. According to the Chicago Tribune, the dish may have been created by Nick Giannotti of Giannotti's restaurant, which used to be located in the 'burbs. However, Gina Capitanini, owner of Italian Village restaurant in the Loop, believes her grandfather may have brought the dish over from Italy sometime before he opened his restaurant in 1927. The dish is named after either Vesuvio restaurant or Mount Vesuvius, the volcano located near Naples, Italy. Some say the name is from the volcano-like eruption of steam that comes from the pan when the the white wine is added while cooking. Capitanini claims the name comes from the dish being so flavorful it bursts in your mouth.

Food writer Kevin Pang has marveled at how Chicken Vesuvio's humble ingredients can, via a recipe that is simple enough to make at home, be transformed into what is often a pricey entree served at classy restaurants.

By the latter half of the twentieth century, restaurants serving Chicken Vesuvio could be found on practically every block in River North and the Loop. The popularity of Harry Caray's restaurants grew on their reputation for having the best Chicken Vesuvio, as declared by both the Tribune and WLS-TV. Today, Chicken Vesuvio is one of the most popular Chicago dishes and is found on menus across the country and around the world. Variations on the dish include Steak Vesuvio, Pork Chops Vesuvio, or simply Vesuvio Potatoes. 

Chicken Vesuvio embodies Chicago's no-nonense approach to food. It's straightforward, hearty, and satisfying. Here's a recipe for making your own Chicken Vesuvio at home. You can use a roasting pan or casserole dish for baking. While it's good at any time of year, Chicken Vesuvio makes the perfect cozy dish  for a winter meal--and it also gives you a good excuse to buy a bottle of wine. 

Chicken Vesuvio

*Based on a recipe from the book Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. chicken pieces (bone-in and skin-on is fine)

salt and pepper

1 tbsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. garlic powder

6 tbsp. olive oil

2 russet potatoes, cut into wedges

5 garlic cloves, peeled

3/4 c. white wine

3/4 c. chicken broth

1/2 c. frozen peas

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 F.

2. Season chicken with salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic.

3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Place seasoned chicken and potato wedges in skillet and heat on high to brown. Remove from skillet and place in a roasting pan or baking dish.

4. Add garlic cloves to the skillet and cook until golden.

5. Add wine and chicken broth to the skillet. Simmer uncovered until desired consistency, and pour over chicken and potatoes.

6. Bake for 60 minutes. Add peas and bake for 15 more minutes. 

Sources:

Monica Eng and David Hammond, Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites (3 Fields Books, 2023). 

Kevin Pang, "An Ode to Chicken Vesuvio, the Ultimate Expression of Chicago, " RESY Chicago (September 8, 2020).

Margaux Laskey, "Chicken Vesuvio," New York Times (May 19, 2020).

"From the Pages of History Come Chicago Classics," Chicago Tribune (June 16, 1994). 

Amy MCCauley, "Chicken Vesuvio: A Chicago Classic," The Hinsdalean (March 1, 2023). 

Mike Riccetti, "Chicken Vesuvio: A Chicago Classic That Hasn't Really Traveled Far from Its Home," Mostly Food and Drink (July 22, 2017).

Billy Parisi, "Chicken Vesuvio Recipe," Chef Billy Parisi (August 30, 2024).

Don Ruane, "Chicken Vesuvio," 12 Tomatoes (May 1, 2023).

Wikipedia, "Chicken Vesuvio,"


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malort: The Drink Chicagoans Love to Hate

  Jeppson's Malört was once a niche liqueur consumed mainly within Chicago's Swedish community. Now it's a Chicago favorite that can be found throughout the city and beyond. What caused this change? Turns out all it took was for someone to promote the comedic value of this extremely bitter-tasting drink. Malört is a Swedish liqueur similar to absinthe that is made with wormwood, a bitter herb. It has traditionally been used to treat intestinal parasites and other maladies such as indigestion, hangovers, and nausea. The word malört is Swedish for wormwood .  In the 1920s, Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson started making his own version of Malört. (He came from a region in Sweden where wormwood grows wild.) Jeppson sold his liqueur door to door in Chicago's Swedish community on the North Side. He got around Prohibition laws by marketing his product as a tonic to cure stomach worms and parasites. Law enforcement concluded that because of its awful taste nobody would drink Mal...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Chicago-Style Bloody Mary for the City's Most Famous Ghost

There's a special tradition at Chet's Melody Lounge, a neighborhood bar located on Archer Avenue across the street from Resurrection Cemetery in southwest suburban Justice. Every Sunday, the bartender makes a bloody mary and leaves it in front of an open stool at the end of the bar. The seat and drink are reserved for none other than Resurrection Mary, Chicago's most famous ghost. I'll give you a recipe for a special Chicago-style bloody mary that you can use to make your own offering to this legendary ghost, but first here's a little more about Resurrection Mary. Chicagoans from all walks of life know about this vanishing hitchhiker ghost who haunts Archer Avenue and surrounding areas. Various songs have been written about her,* and her story was even featured on an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" in 1994.  The most common Resurrection Mary story goes something like this: A driver picks up a young woman in a white dress, often after a dance. When the car ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green River: The Chicago-Made Soda with the "Bubbling Snappiness" of Champagne

It has a distinct lime flavor and color. It was once the second most popular soda in the Midwest. There's a rock song named after it. What is it? Green River soda, of course. Chicago-based Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company, maker of Edelweiss beer, bought the recipe and sales rights for Green River from Davenport, Iowa, businessman Richard C. Jones in 1919. Jones, the owner of a candy store with a soda fountain, had created Green River several years earlier. Jones wanted to create a soft drink with the “bubbling snappiness" of champagne and decided that lime flavor was the way to go. A local teenager was the first to use the name “Green River” when he ordered the drink at Jones's soda fountain and the name stuck.  During the Prohibition years (1920-1933), breweries were turning to manufacturing and selling non-alcoholic goods like soda, yeast, malt syrup, carbonated coffee and tea, and ice cream. Once Schoenhofen Edelweiss started making and distributing Green River, ...
Post a Comment
Read more