The Best Chicken Murphy Recipe

Chicken Murphy, a New Jersey classic is made with bite-sized pieces of chicken, Italian sausage, potatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, spicy pepperoncini, and tomatoes. It is a plate of deliciousness that’s spicy, savory, and gluten-free.

If you love sausage and peppers, you are going to love this recipe for chicken murphy, and be sure to make extra because you will want seconds. It’s a super flavorful dish that is a combination of sausage and peppers that meets spicy chicken and tomatoes.

What Is Chicken Murphy? 

Chicken Murphy is a dinner that takes a little bit of time to make, but the time spent preparing this dish is well worth it. How can you go wrong when chicken, sausage, and potatoes are perfect together.

You might be thinking from its name, that this recipe is an Irish recipe. It is not. It’s actually an Italian inspired dish that is rumored to have originated at the “Jersey Shore” or New York City.

Chicken Murphy is easy to make and there are are several variations.  Some recipes are made with brown gravy, but we prefer the tomato version.

This recipe starts on top of the stove and browning each ingredient separately in a skillet, then adding them one by one to an oven-proof pan or casserole dish.

Once all of the ingredients have all been browned, they are then left to cook slowly in the oven which allows the flavors to blend beautifully together. Chicken Murphy is perfect for weekend dinners, entertaining or meal prepping. Make a large batch ahead of time, and pop it in the oven when it’s time to eat and everyone will be happy.

Chicken Murphy Ingredients

As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

Even though the ingredient list may seem long for this Chicken Murphy recipe, every single ingredient contributes to the flavor.  Here is what you will need to make chicken Murphy:

• olive oil
• boneless chicken breast or chicken tenders
• potatoes
• Italian sausage
• bell peppers
• onions
• garlic
• mushrooms
• pepperoncini
• diced tomatoes fresh or low sodium canned
• cast iron skillet A cast iron skillet works the best in this recipe. A cast-iron skillet helps to brown the ingredients up nicely.
• covered casserole dish

Here Is How To Make It

Please note that this a list of steps to give you an idea how to make this recipe. Full details are in the recipe card below. 

Browning all of the ingredients for Chicken Murphy is the most time consuming. Each ingredient is browned separately. Start with the Italian sausage links and brown them, once they turn brown slice the links into bite-sized chunks and place them in an oven proof casserole.

Next comes the potatoes, cook them in the skillet until they outsides become golden brown and add them to the sausage in the casserole dish.

Repeat the browing process one at a time and adding them to the casserole dish; the mushrooms, onions, garlic, bell peppers and finally the chicken.

Pour on the hot peppers, tomatoes and the brine from the hot peppers and bake it.

Estimated Time To Make This Recipe: 1 1/2 to 2 hours

Chicken Murphy Ingredient Notes

The Best Chicken to use

The best chicken to use in Chicken Murphy is boneless chicken breasts or chicken tenders. They are both easy to cut the chicken up into bite-sized pieces.

The Sausage

Spicy Italian sausage or mild Italian sausage links are the best type of sausage to use in this recipe. Pork or turkey sausage both work well.

If the sausage is fatty, drain the excess fat from it by placing the slices on a paper towel before adding it to the casserole dish.

The Potatoes

Potatoes that are higher in starch work best in this recipe. They will brown up nicely and hold together after they have been mixed with the potatoes and baked.

Bell Peppers

You can use any color of bell peppers that you like in this recipe. I like to use a combination of green and red or orange.

Chicken Murphy Recipe Variations

Turn Down the Heat

If you don’t care for hot food, you can cut back on the number of pepperoncini or you can substitute pepperoncini with peppadew peppers or sweet cherry peppers.

Low Carb Version

For a low carb Chicken Murphy recipe leave out the potatoes.

Chicken Murphy without Sausage

If you don’t like pork sausage, you can use turkey or chicken sausage or just leave it out altogether and an extra 1/4 pound of chicken.

Serve Chicken Murphy With

• Serve it with a big salad like this Spinach Salad with Basil, steamed green beans or Green Beans and Bacon, and a loaf of crusty bread.
• Chicken Murphy also tastes great served over a bed of zucchini noodles for a low-carb version without the potatoes.
• Chicken Murphy with pasta – prepare chicken murphy and leave out the potatoes or cut back on the number of potatoes in the recipe and serve it over a bowl of pasta.

You Might Also Like These Dinner Ideas

• Slow Cooked Chipotle Chicken
• Boneless Chicken Breasts in Red Wine Sauce

Chicken Murphy

★★★★

4 from 3 reviews

This Chicken Murphy recipe is made with bite-sized pieces of chicken and sausage combined with peppers and tomatoes.

• Author: anne
• Prep Time: 30
• Cook Time: 90
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 4 to 6 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Stove/Oven
• Cuisine: American Italian

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound boneless chicken breasts or chicken tenders cut into one inch chunks
• 1/4 pound Sweet or Hot Italian Sausage links (about 2)
• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, cut into one inch sized pieces
• 16 ounces of cremini mushrooms, stems removed and  sliced into quarters
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 medium onion, cut into slices
• 1 red bell pepper cut into slices
• 1 green pepper cut into slices
• 1 cup fresh diced tomatoes or no salt or sugar added canned
• 1/2 cup chopped pepperoncini
• 1/4 cup  of brine of pepperoncini

Instructions

1. Prepare all of the ingredients: cut up the chicken and potatoes into bite sized pieces. Clean and slice the mushrooms, onions and peppers. Crush the garlic.
2. Heat a skillet over medium to high heat, brown the sausage links, slice them and set them aside to drain on a paper towel.
3. Add the potatoes to the pan and cook until they become golden brown, remove from heat and place into baking pan.
4. Next add the mushrooms and cook until they have a semi-crusty texture and place in baking pan
5. Cook the onions and garlic until they become translucent, remove and place in baking pan
6. Add the bell peppers and cook until they start to soften, and add to baking pan
7. Last, brown the chicken and add it to the mixture of ingredients in the baking pan and top it with the sausage.
8. Pour the tomatoes, hot peppers and brine over the top and gently stir the mixutre
9. Cover and bake for 45 minutes at 350
10. Uncover and cook for 10 minutes longer

Notes

Cooking time for this recipe is about 40 to 50  minutes browning each ingredient PLUS an additional 45 minutes in the oven.

I like to brown the ingredients separately in a skillet before layering them into a casserole dish so that the skillet is not crowded with the vegetables. If you are short on time or have a large skillet, you can brown the vegetable ingredients together in any combination that you like. 

Keywords: chicken dinner, easy dinner idea

Nutrition information is provided by Nutrifox,  an online calculator and is meant to be used for informational purposes only.  Even though I try to provide accurate information, these figures should still be considered as estimates.