Giambotta & Other Pan Roasted & Chicken Recipes

Giambott' the slang for Giambotta is much more than a stew or "mixture" as translated in some Italian dialects.  In our family it was a catch all dish made with any variety of leftover and uncooked meats and poultry.  Whenever mom rummaged through our freezer, we assumed we were having giambotta for dinner soon.    

Originated in southern Italy, many view giambotta as a vegetable only dish.  Mom and our relatives made it with a variety of meats and poultry along with vegetables.  In its simplest form, they mostly made it with chicken and Italian sausages but often included pork, rabbit, beef, lamb, veal or other poultry.  Potatoes, bell peppers, and onions were their most favored vegetables but could include zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, etc.  Our giambotta started with lots of olive oil, garlic and Italian spices.  Final dish not only has those flavors but includes natural cooking juices to be enjoyed with bread.  Other Italians made giambotta with a tomato base.  Theirs were more like stews.

Even small communities had their own version of giambotta.  Seggiano in the Tuscany region make "Scottiglia alla perscinale".  It traditionally has a sauce of ground tomato and a mixture of beef, pork, chicken, turkey rabbit and/or lamb and traditional Battuta ingredients, carrots, onion, and celery but cut in hunks not minced.

Even the name giambotta isn't without controversy.  Some regions spell it ciambotta.

Any way you call it, it's delicious.  I'm partial to the way mom prepared her giambotta.  I especially love the texture of her sautéed chicken and sausages, crisp vegetables, roasted potatoes, plenty of flavored olive oil and heat from lots of red pepper flakes.  Fortunately, all versions are really good.

I know I'm being repetitive, but garlic and olive oil are so basic in Italian cooking that I almost always use "Pete's Garlic Oil" as my base.  It is olive oil infused with slowly cooked pan roasted garlic and Tuscany seasoning (sage and rosemary).  Salt and red pepper flakes add additional intensity.               

         

Giambotta is a terrific belly satisfying home style meal.  It's rustic Italian and ingredients needs to be preped in larger pieces, usually requiring knives and forks when eaten.

Be sure to also check out another recipe below, "Pan Roasted Chicken, Rabbit or Meatballs".  Technically not Giambotta but is prepared similarly.  It was a frequent staple and favorite in our house.  Mom also prepared it with olive oil and garlic, and lots of heat from hot red pepper derived from "stringed" dried cherry peppers available in most North End grocery stores.  It was always served with a large loaf of Italian or French crusty bread.       

     

Although mom would use any variety of vegetables for this dish, I prefer peppers and onions.  They go best with Italian sausages and neither are mushy when cooked properly.  Use of potatoes are a given.

One technique our family used to cook sausages was to cover them in water first when pan cooked.  Under high heat the water would evaporate and the sausages would begin to brown.  I still use that technique but usually use chicken broth and only cover them less than half way up their sides.  Once the broth evaporates, add oil and lower heat for final cooking.

I don't like overcooked vegetables.  Because cooking times differ by vegetable, I usually cook each separately and combine at them when finalizing the dish.  For giambotta, potatoes can either be cooked in the same pan used for all the other ingredients or can be oven baked while cooking the rest of the dish.  Where they take a little longer to brown and cook through, I usually favor oven baking especially in larger quantities.   

Lastly, I like to add some chicken broth to the final dish to moisten the potatoes slightly, add additional flavor and increase the volume of sauce.  That's a personal choice. 

Olive oil alone flavored with herbs, lots of red pepper flakes, salt, and concentrated juices from vegetables was too precious to dilute with other additives for my family.

     

This is very quick and simple dish made with few ingredients, and like the other recipes in this section, one skillet meals.  The French have a similar version called Poulet Sauté Provencal.  There's usually includes shallots.  I hate to generalize but when a recipe uses lots of garlic and oil, I think Italian; using shallots shouts French! 

This recipe can be made with a whole chicken, trimmed and cut into convenient serving size pieces or with chicken breast halves.  I like to cut breast halves into two or three hunks depending on their sizes. 

My family didn't seem to be overly concerned about cholesterol like most of us are now.  Perhaps they should have.  They rarely removed chicken skins.  You certainly can go skinless but the skin does add additional taste and texture.