Easy Chicken and Polenta

This easy recipe for chicken and polenta is an old family recipe from my Italian mother in law. It’s the perfect comfort food on cold nights. The mixture of butter, sage and chicken broth make a tasty bagna to go with the creamy polenta and cheese to create a delicious meal the whole family will love.

You might also like this Spanish chicken and rice recipe.

I learned how to make this easy chicken and polenta recipe from my mother in law. She always told people she was FBI — full blooded Italian. She has a lot of interesting stories about her childhood and growing up with 9 brothers and sisters. Can you imagine? She also has a lot of unusual recipes like sticky cheese, bagna cauda and stuffed raw peppers.

This warming and comforting Italian dish is one of my family’s favorites when it’s cold outside and you want something that will stick to your bones. The polenta is soft with a layer of cheese in the middle (brick or blue cheese) and topped with the stock from the chicken (bagna). It’s one of those recipes we can make anytime since I always have chicken in the freezer and cornmeal in the cupboard.

(By the way, from what I can gather from the interewebz, bagna means “wet” or “bath”. Not sure if this is the correct terminology but this is what my MIL has always called it.)

Recipe ingredients and substitutions.

You only need a few ingredients to make this chicken recipe. I used bone in, skin on chicken thighs, butter, sage, salt & pepper, chicken broth, yellow cornmeal, olive oil and cheese. I usually use brick chicken but today I could only find muenster or havarti and they worked just as well.

Chicken
I like to use bone in, skin on chicken thighs as in creates to the most juicy meat. You can of course use boneless and/or skinless if you wish. You could also use skinless chicken breast but my family prefers thighs for this dish.

Butter, Sage and Chicken Stock
hese ingredients create the bagna or sauce for the dish. The main seasoning for this dish is sage and you could use fresh sage but I just use dried sage. I would not eliminate this herb because it gives it a lot of flavor that is distinct to this dish. Most people have butter and chicken stock or broth in their pantries so there really are no substitutions for these ingredients.

Corn Meal
This is what the polenta is made with. You just follow the directions for making creamy polenta on the package. You usually just add water and a pinch of salt. This is a creamy polenta and you make it on the stove.

I have never used polenta slices that you can buy in a roll at the grocery store. I don’t think it would work as well. What we are using today is just the ground corn meal and some water to make a creamy soft polenta.

My mother in law likes to add cheese to this dish. What she does is puts a serving hot polenta on a plate, then adds a piece of brick cheese and the spoons a little more polenta on top of that. The cheese melts from the hot corn meal.

Brick cheese is hard to find sometimes where I live so you can use muenster slices or havarti which are both similar. My mother in law sometimes likes to use blue cheese instead of brick. So if you are a fan of blue cheese try that sometime. Also parmesan cheese would work as well.

How to make easy chicken and polenta.

Step 1: Place a dutch oven or big pot on the stove and heat to medium high heat. Add the olive oil and let it heat up too.

Step 2: Using paper towels pat the thighs dry and season with salt and black pepper on both sides. When the oil is hot, place the chicken skin side down and let them sit there for about 3-5 minutes until nice and golden brown. You want crispy skin. Then turn the heat down to medium heat and flip the over.

Step 3: Next add the butter, dried sage and chicken broth. Mix the butter until melted, then cover and cook over medium heat until the chicken is nice and tender. This should take about 20-25 minutes. You want the meat to be fall apart tender. Cooking time may vary.

Step 4: Once the thighs are cooked, get out a medium saucepan and make the polenta according to the package directions. Mine said to use 4 cups of water to 1 cup of corn meal.

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Then add the cornmeal to the remaining 1 cup of water, plus 1 teaspoon of salt and mix. Add that cornmeal mixture to the boiling water slowly. Stir constantly until it thickens and then cover, turn down low and cook for 5 more minutes. That’s all there is to it.

Some people add milk or butter but we are just keeping this meal very simple but still tasty.

The polenta will harden as it cools so you want to make this just before you eat. It only takes about 10-15 minutes so plan on making it 15 minutes before you sit down. We don’t even spoon it into a big bowl and serve it out of the pot.

Step 5: To serve, put a helping of polenta into bowls or on a plate, cover with a piece of cheese or blue cheese if you like. Then add another helping of polenta and top of the cheese. Lastly ladle of the delicious sauce from the chicken (bagna) over the top. Serve with a piece of the chicken.

Polenta —> Cheese —> Polenta —>Bagna —> Chicken on the side.

Store leftovers in an airtight container. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

More comforting Italian recipes to try.

I still have to learn how to make my mother in law’s fabulous raviolis and pizzelles. However here are a few more delicious Italian recipes that are comfort food to our family.

• my mother’s awesome lasagna (see pic below)
• pasta e fagioli or pasta fazool
• creamy red pepper and shrimp pasta or fresh tomatoes and basil pasta
• tortellini with spinach and brown butter or vodka sauce and sausage
• stuffed banana pepper pasta
• slow cooker braciole or pork ragu

I love my own mother’s lasagna recipe which you can see above. One pan will feed ALOT of people and leftovers are just as good!

Well this was my beloved MIL Penny’s delicious chicken and polenta dish. She was such a wonderful person and we miss her so much. However when we sit down to eat this dish we always think of her. And we tend to eat this a lot in the winter time. I hope you like it as much as we do. Enjoy!