Composed of rosemary, garlic, and white wine, al potacchio appears on restaurant menus all around Le Marche, a central Italian region on Italy's Adriatic coast, just northeast of Rome. Pork, poultry, fish, and even eggplant can all be prepared al potacchio style.
One of Le Marche's oldest recipes, potacchio derives from the French word potage, a soup method that arrived in Italy during the 16th century. It features on the menus on countless trattorias, especially those in Le Marche's inland provinces, and chicken al potacchio is a Sunday lunch staple. Here are some recipes. Tip: If you let it rest after cooking, it tastes even better the next day.
The recipe for Chicken in Potacchio
The cuisine of Le Marche relies on simple ingredients and slow cooking due to its history as a “survival cuisine.” Measurements are often established by eye, and cooking times, although not specific, remain reliable, hence expressions like tornare in olio, which means “going back into oil,” to indicate the moment it’s cooked.
The traditional potacchio is told to us by the chef Gianmarco Boemio, who has been cooking it for years in typical restaurants in Le Marche region. For a whole chicken of about two kilos, you need a glass of extra virgin olive oil (the one from the oil mill is certainly preferable) and a lot of garlic, strictly unpeeled. Cut the chicken into pieces, the meat is browned in an aluminum pan (copper or cast iron is also good) over high heat. The browning is fundamental and ends when the chicken is golden brown. The advice is to avoid non-stick pans because the chicken, including the skin, needs to stick to the bottom of the pan creating a glaze. When it’s reached the right point of golden brown, salt and pepper are added to the meat. At this point, a full glass of wine is added to the chicken and left to simmer until it reduces. The better the quality of the wine, the better the chicken will be (a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi with its great structure will be fine) and, once evaporated, it will deglaze the bottom of the pan, creating the cooking juice. Once the wine has evaporated, add a whole head of garlic (you will find that the unpeeled garlic will be as good as the chicken), a bunch of rosemary tied with string so the needles don’t disperse and, if desired, some tomatoes cut into pieces. At this point, the chicken should be covered with water, flush, and left to continue cooking for about an hour. Cooking is complete not before the chicken "returns to oil", that is to say when the water has completely evaporated.
Potacchio "Tre Stelle" by Mauro Uliassi is made with seafood
"Monkfish in potacchio, made in the style of farmers from Senigallia" is the dish contained in chef Mauro Uliassi's menu, listed also in a rather eclectic version ‘la mandibola del rombo in potacchio’, literally meaning ‘turbot jaw in potacchio’. "It is the wonderful Le Marche sauce", explains the 3 Michelin stars chef. "Born as the perfect way to cook farmyard animals such as rooster, goose, rabbit, or pigeon. Women of The Marche countryside, when they had fish, gradually began to treat this raw material in the only way they knew how. It is for this reason that the same sauce has also been combined with seafood. Taking up this tradition, I chose the turbot jaw because of its resemblance to the rabbit's shoulder, even in its shape".
In this versatile way of using the potacchio, the constant element is the cooking in wine with lots of garlic and rosemary. Then, like most traditional recipes, there is customization. The tomato, to give a touch of color, and the addition of more herbs, such as thyme, or even olives. The right wine for the potacchio for Uliassi is a structured white wine like Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi or a young Rosso Conero.
Potacchio ravioli by Errico Recanati
Errico Recanati is another Michelin starred chef who has the potacchio on his menu. His chicken ravioli in potacchio and raspberry vinegar is in full view of the list of first courses. They are handmade ravioli (very thin pasta made with 18 eggs for every kilo of flour), with a filling made with chicken previously cooked in potacchio. A double consistency for the filling: the boned chicken is partly chopped with a knife and partly reduced to a very fine mashed potato. The ravioli are then boiled in rosemary-scented water and sautéed in the juices of the chicken in potacchio. On top, some crunchy onion to give aroma, and next to it, some morsels of ‘raspberry caviar’ as a nice surprise. Furthermore, if you prefer there is the tacos version, which is the crunchy chicken skin as a small "potacchioso” appetizer.