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Chicken Cacciatore | ![]() |
COMPLIMENTS!
- "... man! was that good! ... a definite keeper." ~ Sally
- "... it is wonderful. This is now my go to recipe for chicken cacciatore." ~ Clara
- "It was fall off the bone tender and delicious." ~ Annie
- Chicken Cacciatore Made the List!
- Best Recipes of 2003
At my house, we call this recipe “Kitchen Catch” for short whenever cooking up a big pot of Chicken Cacciatore [pronounced catch–a–TOE–ree], a home-style Italian chicken stew.
My recipe is adapted from a favorite “little girl” dish made by my dear Auntie Karen on special occasions, including, by personal request, on my birthday! I remember walking into her house anxious for the first whiffs of pungent onion and tomato and especially, luscious garlic.
Garlic is so common now-a-days, it's hard to imagine how glamorous and worldly garlic seemed to a teenager in the Midwest during the 1970s!
No wonder I turned out to be a devoted home cook and dedicated foodie!
CHICKEN CACCIATORE aka "KITCHEN CATCH"
Time to table: 3 to 8 hours
8 servings
-
CHICKEN
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 8 chicken legs or thighs or a mix of both, skins removed
-
SAUCE
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 8 ounces fresh mushrooms, trimmed & quartered
- 24 ounces canned diced tomatoes
- 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- Salt & pepper to taste
CHICKEN Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a large dish. Roll the chicken pieces in the flour until lightly coated. Heat a large Dutch oven on medium high, add the olive oil, let it heat up until shimmery. Drop in the chicken pieces and lightly brown on all sides, turning once or twice, otherwise not moving in the pan. Set the chicken aside for a moment.
SAUCE Add the onion, red pepper, garlic and mushroom to the pan and sauté just until beginning to soften. Stir in the remaining ingredients, then nestle in the browned chicken, covering the tops with sauce.
Now choose how to slow-cook the Cacciatore!
SLOW COOK ON THE STOVETOP Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 2 – 3 hours (or longer), stirring occasionally. Watch the temperature carefully, you don't want to burn the bottom. I have great success with this on an electric stove, less on a high-BTU gas stoves which seem to always run hot.
SLOW COOK IN THE OVEN Cover and cook in a 200F/100C oven for 2 - 3 hours (or even longer). To let the sauce thicken, uncover for the last 30 minutes or so. This is my favorite method.
SLOW COOK in (YEAH) a SLOW COOKER Let cook on low for 6 - 8 hours or on high for 3 - 4 hours. This works beautifully **when** it works but I have such miserable experience with unpredictable slow cookers, it's my least favorite method for cooking Chicken Cacciatore. Be assured, however, it's the state of slow cookers that's the problem (not the recipe) so if you love and trust your slow cooker and understand its in's and out's, go for it.
TO SERVE Serve with mashed potatoes (maybe our family favorite Mashed Potatoes & Carrots?), rice or polenta to soak up the rich sauce.













More Cold-Weather Chicken Stews
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More Favorite Recipes from 2003
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~ more Best Recipes of 2003 ~
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Mmmmmm! I *love* chicken catch. Aldi's sells big bags of frozen chicken thighs and I think this sounds like a perfect way to use them. Thanks Alanna! :)
ReplyDeleteI made your Chicken Catch to other day and man! was that good! I did make it in the crock pot and served it over fettucine. That recipe is a definite keeper. Except, next time, I'm going to use SKINLESS, boneless thighs or breasts. The skin was just.. yuck..you know? But, anyway, thanks so much for the recipe.
ReplyDeleteI made this last night for dinner, and it is wonderful. This is now my go to recipe for chicken cacciatore.
ReplyDeleteClara ~ That was my grandmother’s name, I do love it so! :-) And I’m so glad you love the cacciatore, “go to” is such a huge complement, thanks for letting me know!
ReplyDeleteI chose your recipe for chicken cacciatore today. It was fall off the bone tender and delicious.
ReplyDeleteI chose the slow oven cooking method. I could not find my oversized Corning baking dishes nor could the DHBob, finder of all things, so I had to go with a large metal handled Calphalon Teflon coated pan, it just fit.
I had a package of 5 thighs I defrosted overnight then proceeded prepping at noon for the rest of this dish so we would have the dinner @ 3-4 PM. We eat early.
I skipped the mushrooms, Bob is not a fan. I subbed onion flakes for powder, a red, yellow and orange pepper for the red pepper and canned tomatoes. I seared them in the olive oil before browning the chicken. I could have skipped the pepper skin charring as I forgot to put the lid on the dish in the oven and realized it in the first of the two 90 minute kitchen timer then put the lid on it for the remaining time. Total 180 minutes cooked as the timers do not do that much time at one felled swoop. Skipped the can of tomatoes in lieu of the added peppers as again he is not a fan but did use Ragu for the tomato sauce and a white zinfandel for the red wine as I never have a red on hand and aren't you supposed to use white with chicken? Options for the starch - was surprised to see no pasta so I went with rice assuming pasta would not be able to handle the excessive sauciness of this dish. No excessive sauce in my pot and that was probably due to the subbing of peppers for canned tomatoes and cooking sans a lid. I will make this again.
Annie ~ Your cooking day, in a nutshell! Glad you liked the Cacciatore, I get all dreamy-eyed, just thinking about it. Leaving the lid off definitely cooks the sauce down, there’s a happy medium. Thanks for taking the time to write!
ReplyDelete