Chicken Cacciatore

Cacciatore... means "hunter" in Italian and so is usually made with chicken or rabbit, depending on the region and either red wine, down south or more often white wine in the north.  It is a beautiful simmer of chicken in tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and peppers, herbs and wine.  Like anything that needs to stew, it is nicer to pan sear the meat first to enhance the flavor and brown the skin before adding it back in to simmer away.

I had to hold myself back from adding too many herbs and other spices to this dish but I felt this was pretty authentic and had a lovely gentle flavor in the end, perfect for the entire family to enjoy. Any recipe I searched for had almost these same ingredients give or take a few but the Pioneer Woman makes an interesting one using turmeric, I might give that a try next time. Essentially this was a food network inspired meal from Giada de-Laurentis although I used different herbs and spices. This made miles too much for our family with two small children as we all only ate one thigh each but I figure 6 pieces would suit most families of four.  

Serves family 4-6

Ingredients:
6 chicken thighs, bone in skin on
salt and pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 stick butter
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper (or 1/2 red + 1/2 green)
1 cup mushrooms, roughly sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 x 14oz tins of tomatoes
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup white wine
2 tspn capers, chopped
handful of fresh thyme and oregano (or dried)
shake of paprika

oops.. and wine, that was already in my fridge of course!

serve over pasta and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and fresh parsley

Method:

• Heavily salt and pepper the chicken pieces
• Dredge in flour and dust off, a light cover is enough
• Heat the butter in a large pan with a lid and sear the chicken, both sides until browned.  About 4 mins each side, then remove and put aside.

• Drain the fat from the pan and then sauté the onions, mushrooms and peppers. Season with additional salt and pepper
• Add the garlic and continue to stir through until vegetables are softened.
• Add the white wine and cook until reduced, by about half
• Add tomatoes, chicken broth, chopped capers and herbs and spices and then add the chicken pieces back into the pan.
• Cover with the lid and cook on a low-medium heat for up to 1hr or until the chicken thighs are cooked through.

• When ready to serve, cook your pasta in salted boiling water.
• Drain and serve up your pasta, scoop some vegetables over the pasta, (you can remove the chicken pieces for a few minutes and reduce the sauce on high heat until it thickens if necessary) arrange the chicken and pour a little more sauce over and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and fresh parsley for some lovely color.