Sicilian Lemon Chicken with Raisin-Tomato Sauce Recipe

Can’t believe how little effort it took.

My family really enjoyed this dish! My kids thought it was a little too spicy, so for their sakes I might decrease the cayenne just a tad. I thought it was the perfect amount of heat. I cut the chicken into strips and tossed with the lemon juice, salt and pepper, and some fresh basil before cooking. Next time I will quadruple the olives. We love olives and couldn't taste them. I only cooked 1/2 lb of pasta which comfortably served 5 (2 adults and 3 kids). Any more than that would have been too much. This would also work well with Brown rice or quinoa if you are not a pasta fan.

This has great flavor. I would double the sauce next time. I call this a dry pasta vs. a saucy pasta. I would also decrease the pasta. My changes were-decrease raisins to 1/2 cup, do not drain the tomatoes and added 1/2 cup chicken broth. I did use chicken tenders. I did not think the olives gave it much flavor.

The flavor of this recipe was great. Next time I tried cutting up the chicken but sliced is better. Try cutlets, they cook more evenly. It was also good without the cheese. I did save and use the tomato liquid and added it to the sauce. You can simmer it down to thicken but I wanted all the sauce I could get to put on the pasta. I agree with someone who said it was restaurant or better quality. Used sliced instead of chopped olives and almonds instead of pine nuts. BTW angel hair cooks in only about 4 min. Thanks, Larry from Susie

A wonderful sweet and spicy recipe that is a nice departure from the usual tomato or cream sauces. I doubled the amount of sauce as recommended by some reviewers and cut the chicken into bite-size cubes. I also left the tomato juice in and cooked the sauce a bit longer than recommended to really let the flavors blend. I didn't have any golden raisins on hand, so I used regular raisins and it came out great! I recommend using sweet onion to blend with the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar and raisins. This dish will definitely be a regular menu item from now on!

Amazing! This dish was fantastic! I normally look for the gourmet recipes on here. I didn't see if this one was in the gourmet category, if it isn't, it should be. I excluded the olives, and added the juice from the tomatoes to the sauce as suggested by some of the other reviews. I also marinated the chicken first in Italian dressing, and used a basil infused fettucini noodle. It was superb! I will absolutely make this meal again, and next time I'll submit a photo. It looked beautiful.

I just made this dish tonight and it was pretty good! It was a bit on the dry side but that makes the flavors shine through and you can really taste and enjoy the dish. All the flavors taste amazing together. I added 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes for more juice. While chicken was cooking on pan I began to slice it up so it would cook faster and added salt and pepper and seasoning salt. The lemon makes the chicken nice and moist. Was a great dish over all!!!!

This is a really tasty recipe. I really like it because it has a quite different flavor from a typical tomato sauce. The cayenne pepper adds a real kick of spiciness and the raisins add a nice sweetness. After reading reviews, I made a couple of modifications: (1) I reduced the raisins to 1/2 a cup which I think was right; (2) I decreased the amount of pasta by about 1/3; (3) I added a couple of fresh small heirloom tomatoes to the can of diced tomatoes and like other reviewers, I did not drain the diced tomatoes. Other than that, I followed the recipe to a T and it really did come out very tasty. I like how different the sauce is from most other pasta sauces I've made. I'll be using this one again, definitely.

I was really impressed with the flavor of this recipe. I only made two changes (due to a lack of ingredients on hand): I left out the olives (don't like them anyway) and substituted chopped cashews for the pine nuts. My husband thought it was too sweet and suggested that next time we use double the tomatoes and half the raisins. I really like the sweetness of the raisins, though, so I guess it depends on how sweet you like your sauce. I also cut the chicken into strips before I cooked it, just because the pieces I had were really large, and it came out just fine. I will do this again, with some sort of compromise between the raisins and tomatoes so that my husband doesn't have a little pile of raisins on the side of his plate by the time dinner is over. This would be a great dish to serve for a dinner party, and you could easily make the sauce in advance, even the night before, which is what I think I'll do next time.

This was very full of flavor and was a big hit at my dinner party. I didn't use olives and I didn't drain the tomatos per previous suggestions. I also added crumbled bacon right before I served. The bacon was wonderful with the pinenuts and was a nice balance to the sweetness. Also served with the shredded brussels sprout recipe.

So good!!! I made this recipe as shown except I added the juice from the tomatoes, homemade chicken broth, decreased the pasta by 1/3 and omitted the olives because I didn't have them on hand. Next time I may even try grilling the chicken.

Used less raisins

We liked it but it was too dry. I did use regular instead of the golden raisins. They were on hand but that may have caused the problem. I’ll try it again and post next time. We liked the flavors and nutritional value.

Agree that the flavors were fantastic! Surprising combo. Only two changes I made - added an extra dash of balsamic vinegar and used pecans [or walnuts] instead of pine nuts [just not a fan of pine nuts - and yes - aware that pine nuts are not nuts!!]. Fun texture. Lemon zest key, too. A must do recipe!

needs more liquid, different but good.

I wanted to do something with chicken and raisins, and this recipe came up. This is such a great dish that you can change some things here and there and it will still turn out great. I didn't have golden raisins, so I used regular ones, and I only used about 1/2 the amount, and I used green olives instead of black. I also didn't have any basil, bay leaves, or pine nuts, so I just left those out. It still turned out to be delicious. I thought it would just be alright--something I'd try once b/c I can't think of what to make for dinner, but this will become one of my go-to recipes. My husband loved it. I think next time, I won't drain the tomatoes so much. Also, I only used 2 large chicken breasts, and it was just the right amount of sauce; if you use 4 chicken breasts like the recipe calls for, you might want to make more sauce.

This sounds like it would be an odd combination, but it was surprisingly good. Nice summer dish.

Delicious! I was a little afraid of the lemon zest (I thought it would be too bitter) but it complemented the flavour perfectly. I didn't drain the tomatoes, cut the chicken in bite - sized chunks and cooked it that way and used spaghetti instead of angel hair pasta, because we like it better. Thanks for this interesting recipe!

very yummy. i make large quantities when i make this dish always a crowd pleaser

I really like how the chicken tastes - being soaked in lemon juice before being cooked. Makes me want to do this to all the chicken I make! But the raisin-tomato sauce is just alright. Kind of took away from the fantastic chicken taste a little...