Chicken Cacciatore

It surprised me at how many years it’s been since we last made this dish but Bev and I have both been thinking about it recently so when I saw a recent post from Chef Dennis, we decided to make it for our regular Friday get-together (note at bottom).  This recipe for Chicken Cacciatore comes from his "Ask Chef Dennis" blog and it looked delicious.  His recipe is shown below as written but you can click on the link for some great pics of his dish.

Since I had made the dish the previous day for our friends Thursday meal, I knew it made lots of sauce and since most of our diners for this meal prefer breasts, I split the sauce into two pans. I followed Chef’s recipe as written for the six large thighs but only cooked the smaller breasts pieces for half as long.

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:

3.5 lb whole chicken cut up into parts (I used thighs and breasts)

2 tablespoon olive oil

olive oil if needed add additional olive oil to the dutch oven to saute the vegetables

1 large onion chopped

3 ribs celery chopped

2 medium carrots- peeled chopped

4 cloves garlic finely minced

2 cup mushrooms sliced in half

1 cup dry red wine

56 oz whole peeled tomatoes

6 oz tomato paste

1 tbsp Italian parsley finely chopped

1 tbsp basil finely chopped

1 tbsp thyme finely chopped

1½ tsp sea salt to taste

½ tsp black pepper to taste

¼ tsp crushed red pepper to taste

4 ounces kalamata olives

1 tsp chopped parsley

1 tsp chopped basil

Instructions:

Season the cut-up chicken with sea salt and pepper.

In a large dutch oven over medium-high heat add the seasoned chicken and sear the pieces on both sides for 4-5 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside until needed.

Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms to the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium.

*If needed add additional olive oil to the dutch oven to saute the vegetables

Deglaze the pan with the red wine and stir to get all the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan.

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, basil, thyme, sea salt and pepper. Stir until well mixed. Bring the mixture to a low boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.

Add the browned chicken back into the dutch oven, immersing the chicken in the sauce. Cover the dutch oven with a lid and allow to simmer for 1 hour.

After simmering the chicken, remove the lid and add in the olives, a little more fresh parsley, and basil, and re-season with salt and pepper as needed.

Simmer for an additional fifteen minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot and stir the sauce well, mixing in any oil that has separated from the sauce. You can remove the fat if you like, but there is a lot of flavor in it.

If the sauce is too thin you can continue to cook it over medium-high heat to let it reduce. Placing the chicken back into the sauce for a quick reheat before serving.

*If you leave the chicken in the sauce too long it will completely fall apart, which is why you remove it before reducing the sauce.

Serve over linguine, rice, risotto, farro or your pasta or grain and enjoy!

This is my plate after a couple of bites of the chicken thigh.

The Verdict:

We served it over angel hair pasta and sided it with salad and it was a big hit with everyone.  The chicken was all done just right and I will use this recipe the next time we make it and I doubt it will be another 10 years.  The pasta was not on my diet but I just had to try a little of it.

Note: As I've mentioned before, our good buddy Joe has been coming over for a Friday afternoon visit for several years and SIL, Pat frequently comes for supper.  This winter, we have added another good friend, Kathy, to the group so when Cindy is also here we can have a party of six.  Where Joe and I just visited in the afternoon then we all had supper, with the addition of Kathy we now play a game of Five Crowns (cards), eat supper, then play another game.  Since Five Crowns is not a high concentration card game (it's similar to rummy), we still get to do plenty of visiting.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

03/11/22 event date