Ingredients :

• The bell peppers — Get three colors if you can. Red is sweet and fleshy, green brings a slight bitterness, yellow an almost sugary sweetness. This mix gives the piperade its complexity. Outside of summer season, jarred peppers work just fine.
• Espelette pepper — It’s the soul of the dish — a gentle, fragrant, slightly smoky heat, nothing like a pepper that burns. If you can’t find it, mild smoked paprika can help, but Espelette is worth buying a jar; it lasts a long time.
• The tomatoes — In summer with ripe market tomatoes, it’s perfect. In winter, a quality tin of peeled tomatoes does the exact same job — a 400g tin replaces four fresh tomatoes, and the sauce will even be more consistent.
• The chicken — Thighs, drumsticks, or a whole jointed chicken — pieces with the bone in give infinitely more flavor than breasts. The fat and collagen melt into the sauce during cooking, giving it a velvety texture. Avoid breasts: they dry out.