Chicken Cacciatore (photos)

Here is a good dinner dish. Just a really nice way to end a day.

Cacciatore means "Hunter" in Italian, so Chicken Cacciatore is chicken cooked hunter style. Evidently hunter style in Italy is fowl of some sort, peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, capers and herbs stewed in wine, since these things are the ingredients in a classic cacciatore. I think chicken cacciatore is what is fixed when the hunter comes home empty handed.

This dish is full flavored and very satisfying. It might be a little time consuming, but is well worth the effort. It is the kind of dish I enjoy cooking. My version tonight came with Sister Shubert Rolls and carrots glazed with orange blossom honey and orange marmalade. We serve it over buttered pasta, with spaghetti being favored. Wide noodles were used tonight because we had no spaghetti in the pantry and I had no desire to drive to the grocery.

Chicken Cacciatore

For two servings, you'll need:

- 2 chicken thighs either bone in or boneless like we used. I like thighs better than breasts for this dish.
- maybe a cup of julienned red, orange and yellow sweet peppers. I like the smallish sweet peppers you can buy these days over bell peppers. I had some yellow, orange and red ones so I used them. We had a green bell pepper in the fridge, but I prefer these (milder taste and nice color) to green peppers for this dish. If you like green peppers go with them.
- A medium onion julienned
- A cup and a half of sliced mushrooms
- A can of tomatoes
- A cup of dry white wine
- A cup of chicken broth
- 1 Tablespoon capers
- 3 cloves of garlic, fine minced
- 2 teaspoons basil - fresh or 1 teaspoon dry
- 2 teaspoons dry thyme or 3 fresh
- 2 teaspoons dry oregano - we grow our own in the garden and put it up dried every year.
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil and 1 Tablespoon butter
- enough AP flour to coat the chicken for frying
- salt and black pepper for chicken and 1 teaspoon of each in the pan
- Two Tablespoons of chopped parsley
- about a cup of dried pasta



Preheat oven to 325 f. I used a 6 Qt. oval enameled Dutch Oven to cook my cacciatore. I used the oven to finish this dish, but it can be done on the top of the stove.

Cook the pasta in salted water to al dente then drain and set aside - It's easy to hold it after draining the hot water away in a bowl of cool water and then drain that and reheat it in the microwave with a little butter when ready to serve.



Prep the veggies



Season the chicken with salt and black pepper, coat with AP flour, then fry until brown in a mixture of equal parts Olive Oil and butter. I cook mine about 5-8 minutes on each side over medium heat taking care to not brown the butter.



Remove the chicken and set it aside, then sauté the vegetables and garlic in the oil used to cook the chicken (I soaked up and removed most of it with a couple of paper towels to assure less oil in the finished dish).



Sauté until the onions are tender then add the wine to deglaze the pan and cook until it is reduced by half. Then add the chicken broth, tomatoes, capers, basil, thyme, oregano, 1 teaspoon black pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. Hold on the heat until the vegetables return to a simmer.



Then place the chicken on top of the vegetables, spoon a little of the liquid over the chicken and place the pan in the center of the preheated oven - uncovered - for 20 minutes.



Plate the dish over hot buttered pasta - Pasta first then chicken then veggies and sauce.







and enjoy.





All my stuff