Chicken alla Cacciatora
I don’t like New Year’s resolutions, and I stopped making them a long time ago.
I much prefer having goals, and one of them is to share more recipes with you.
Does the internet need new recipes? Definitely not. My idea is not to pretend to give you the “original recipes…” or the “best recipes…”—sayings that I personally try to avoid and that would lead me to other types of reflections.
The beloved Chicken
Instead, what I would like is to have direct contact with you, with those who have attended a cooking class here in Italy, and with those who simply want to try a dish in their own kitchen. So, you will find uncomplicated and reliable dishes here—things you can replicate on your own with instructions that I will try to make as detailed as possible. However, feel free to change the ingredient you don’t like or may find hard to find in your place.
Let’s start with chicken, the most requested in my cooking classes. Chicken is popular because many consider it a healthy choice (true, but… be careful!), but, above all, it has a taste that satisfies most people. As you can imagine, in over 10 years of classes and home dinners, I have tried to propose chicken in various ways, experimenting with different cooking methods and more or less daring combinations.
But the most beloved recipe is always this one—so simple and popular that I have never considered it appropriate to write the recipe on the site. So here it is, Chicken alla Cacciatora, Hunter style, or as many of you say, Chicken Cacciatore. A Tuscan recipe, but popular throughout the country. A recipe born for rabbit meat, which I personally stopped cooking a while ago.
Ingredients Matter
A simple, rustic recipe that requires a few basic ingredients but can be finished with whatever you like: black olives or mushrooms in autumn, and why not, thinly sliced red bell peppers in summer. We said few ingredients, so they need to be good!
Here are all my tips for the Chicken alla Cacciatora.
Probably the most difficult part of the recipe will be to find a good chicken—free-range, organic, the best one you can afford.
You can use a whole chicken, or you can use just breast or thighs. Again, just the quality of the meat makes the difference.
Skin-on, please. We need it to brown the meat until nice and golden; this will help us to “build” the flavor of the dish. I prefer doing this operation in another pan, with a nice medium-high flame.
The base of the sauce is the classic Italian “soffritto,” made with celery, carrot, and onion, but you can use just onion and garlic.
Soffritto Secrets
The only rule you need to follow here is about the cooking—the vegetables need to be cooked until soft and nicely golden, not burned. This means a low flame and stirring once in a while… and this is the reason why I prefer to brown my chicken in a separate pan.
I personally prefer red wine, giving the alcohol time to evaporate. Most recipes call for chopped tomatoes or canned “passata,” but I always prefer good tomato paste.
I like the deep and umami flavor that the concentrated tomato gives to this kind of dish. A heavy cast-iron pot is the most suitable for the Chicken alla Cacciatora, to keep the moisture inside. Otherwise, you may need to add half a glass of warm water during cooking.
Cooking time? Well, I can tell you that low-quality chicken meat can fall apart from the bones after 10 minutes of cooking; otherwise, you will need about 40 minutes. The other additions you choose go at the end of the cooking, depending on the types. You can add good black olives just 5 minutes before the end of the cooking.
If you choose mushrooms or red bell peppers, you can sauté them quickly in another pan and then move them into the chicken pot, about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking.
Roasted or mashed potatoes, together with a nice salad, will be perfect to accompany your Chicken alla Cacciatora.
And now… you can put on your apron!
If you are looking for more Tuscan recipes have a look to this bread based dishes like the Ribollita and the Pappa al pomodoro
I buy the meat for the cooking classes, the private chef service … and my meals here and here
Chicken alla cacciatora
Discover Chicken alla Cacciatora: Authentic Tuscan Recipe, Perfect for Your Kitchen Adventures! #ChickenCacciatore
Ingredients
Instructions
-
Heat 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large pan. Put the chicken and cover with a lid.
-
Carefully flip the chicken one time, cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes in total or until golden. The flame is medium/high. Season with salt and pepper and set aside
-
Peel and wash the vegetables and the herbs. Pat dry with a clean kitchen towel; thinly dice the onion and the garlic; for the carrot and the celery stalk I suggest you to proceed cutting first the vegetables into long sticks and then chopping them.
-
Heat 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a cast iron pot; pour in the vegetables and sauté at medium/low flame stirring once in a while until soft and light golden. You will need about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
-
Take the chicken - discard the fat - and pour it on the vegetables. Turn the flame on medium/high again and let the alcohol evaporate.
In a small bowl pour the tomato paste and mix it with half glass of water.
Por the mixture over the chicken, cover with a lid and cook at medium/low for about 35 minutes. Turn the meat a couple of time during the cooking and once in a while check if the sauce reduce to much - in this last case add some warm water.
-
If you are using black olives, add them about 5 minutes before the end of the cooking. To check if the chicken is ready, gently try to remove some meat from the bone. If the meat comes out easily, the chicken is ready.
Buon appetito
Note
This is a nice "family style" dish that you can prepare in advance.
When it's time to serve it, I suggest you to warm into the pan for about 5 /8 minutes adding little water to avoid to dried the meat too much.
You can pour the leftovers into the fridge up for a couple of days and follow the same method to warm up them.
