Chicken Cacciatore (Recipe)
Chicken Cacciatore, when I was little I would ask my mom to make,
"Kitchen Catchatori!"
I loved the slow cooked taste of the chicken which was full of the flavor of the tomato sauce and peppers!
We would enjoy it with Fussili, the long Naples version, topped with fresh grated cheese from the chunk of cheese and grater on the table.
This version I roasted and simmered the chicken in vegetables in sauce. I personally prefer a cut up young chicken but you may substitute and use chicken breast as well.
My father made this recipe with rabbit and it was also great! Hummm....maybe that's why they had rabbits in a pen by the garage?
Ingredients (print recipe)
1 each red, green and yellow sweet bell peppers
2 small yellow onions
1 cup fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/3 cup each fresh basil, fresh thyme leaves, fresh oregano leaves
1/3 cup thin sliced fresh garlic
1 cup olive oil
1 whole fryer cut up
1 - 28 oz can whole San Marzano tomatoes crushed with your hands
1 - 28 oz can tomato puree
1 cup dry white wine
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to season the chicken
Method
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
Chop all the herbs and mix them with the garlic
Slice the ends of your peppers and core them as illustrated above. Cut them into strips.
Cut your peeled onions in half and slice them thinly.
Mix the peppers and onions and set aside.
Place 1 cup olive oil on the bottom of a large roasting pan.
Place the chicken skin down in the roasting pan and move the pieces around to coat with the oil, season with salt and pepper.
Place the chicken into your 400 degree preheated oven and roast uncovered for 15 minutes.
When the timer sounds turn the chicken over and roast an additional 10 minutes. By now the chicken is still raw but the skin is crisping and brown.
Remove the chicken from the oven and place evenly the herb mix and the pepper onion mix over the chicken with the white wine.
Roast the chicken uncovered for 15 minutes then remove from the oven and stir.
Place back into the oven for an additional 15 minutes.
When the timer sounds remove the chicken and stir again
Pour your tomatoes over the chicken and then cover with foil.
Turn down the oven to 350 degrees.
Roast the chicken covered in the sauce for 15 minutes covered then remove from oven and stir, cover again and roast another 15 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 170. The chicken should almost fall off the bone.
Above is how it looks when I pulled it out from the oven