Pollo e patate al forno (Oven Roasted Chicken and Potatoes)

By Frank / 5 December 2025 / 34 Comments / mains/secondi piatti / baked, chicken, Nana

Here’s a dish that bring back fond memories of Angelina’s Sunday dinners: pollo e patate al forno, or Oven Roasted Chicken and Potatoes. She served this homey dish as a kind second secondo, after her inimitable lasagna and alongside the meats from her ragù. Even though I was usually already full by the time we got to the pollo e patate, I pushed through the pain and had myself a good helping. It was that good.

Stupidly easy to prepare, pollo e patate al forno is basically just chicken and potato, both cut up and tossed together with olive oil and seasonings, then roasted in the oven. The recipe usually calls for a garlic and rosemary seasoning. but Angelina has her own take on this classic dish. She used more onion than garlic, which gave the dish a pleasant, mellow sweetness, and substituted parsley for the rosemary, which back in her day was hard to find Stateside. She would also sprinkle in a bit of parmigiano-reggiano or pecorino cheese—not too much—for extra savor. And she sometimes added a bit of tomato, again not too much, for color and flavor.

Pollo e patate al forno isn’t trendy and, if I’m honest, not terribly photogenic. What it is, howver, is honest, unpretentious cooking. And it sure is delicious eating. Easy as it is to prepare, it’s always a hit any time I serve it to guests.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

1 young chicken, cut into serving pieces
4-6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 médium onion, finely sliced
50g (1/2 cup) grated parmesan cheese
a handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Optional:

A few ripe cherry, tomatoes, halved, or plum tomatoes, roughly chopped

Directions

Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Be very generous with the salt, pepper and especially the olive oil.

Arrange the chicken and potatoes in a baking dish or sheet pan large enough to accommodate the ingredients. The chicken should be in a single layer, with potatoes strewn around them, as pictured here:

Drizzle over any remaining oil from the mixing bowl.

Roast in a hot oven (200°C/400°F) for about an hour, or until the chicken and potatoes are cooked through and lightly brown, and any excess juices have evaporated. (On convection, 190°C/375°F for about 45 minutes.)

Turn the ingredients once or twice while they’re roasting for even cooking. But leave them alone for the last 10 minutes or so to allow a nice crust to form on top.

Let the dish rest for 10-15 minutes or so before serving.

Notes on pollo e patate al forno

The secret of making a delicious pollo e patate al forno? Don’t go light on the seasonings, in particular the oil and salt. Yes, I know, I know… but if you want that old fashioned taste, you just can’t skimp on either. Since you’re cooking with onions, do take some care that they don’t burn during roasting. You can lower the heat a bit or add a splash of water or white wine if that seems to be happening.

When you take the dish out of the oven, it will seem to be swimming in oil. That’s the way it should be. After the dish rests—and resting is the other key step here—the oil will be drawn back into the chicken and potatoes and infuse it with unctuous deliciousness.

One final detail: It’s best to use a shallow baking pan or, even better a sheet pan, large enough to hold all the chicken and potato pieces in one layer, This will help ensure nice browning and rapid evaporation of any excess juices. (Yes, Angelina made sheet pan meals before they were a thing!) Other than that, as you will have seen, the dish practically cooks itself.

Choosing your chicken

You want a young chicken, a ‘fryer’ rather than a roaster, cut into ten pieces: two drumsticks, two thighs, two wings, and each breast (bone in) cut into two. Each piece should be small enough that the seasonings can really penetrate the meat. For the same reason, you should give the chicken a fairly long cooking time as indicated in the recipe. Don’t worry, the generous amount of oil should keep the chicken from drying out, so long as you turn and baste the pieces as directed. Of course, an organic, free range bird will taste best. Here in the US, I’m partial to D’Artagnan’s Green Circle chickens.

Finally, some chickens, especially the factory farmed variety, tend to exude a serious amount of liquid as they cook. If this happens to you, just keep roasting until it’s mostly cooked off perhaps raising the temperature a bit. Again a shallow pan or sheet will help the liquid to cook off more quickly. A bit of liquid at the end of roasting is fine, as the potatoes will absorb them durng the final rest.

Variations

If you want to make the standard version of pollo e patate al forno, omit the onion and grated cheese, and substitute fresh rosemary leaves for the parsley. Some standard recipes also call for splashing a little white wine on your chicken and potatoes before placing them in the oven.

Long-time readers may recognize pollo e patate al forno as a close relative to another meat and potato dish: agnello e patate al forno, which we featured way back in 2010.

Making pollo e patate al forno ahead and leftovers

You can make pollo e patate al forno ahead, then put it back in the oven to gently reheat before serving. In fact, that’s what Angelina usually did. The rest only makes it more delicioius. For the same reason, leftovers are just as good as the freshly made dish.

Pollo e patate al forno (Oven Roasted Chicken and Potatoes)

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