Another Chicken Cacciatore Redux. . .

I've been making Chicken Cacciatore since the the late '60's!
I would splurge, and buy a copy of Women's Day and Family Circle once a month when grocery shopping. Back when my $20.00 grocery budget bought 4 bags of groceries for the week, and 20¢ for each magazine seemed extravagant. . .Money well spent. I'd read them cover to cover!

I found a recipe for it in Family Circle - and loved it - each time. Even though I made it a bit different from the time before. Sometimes serving over linguine, sometimes over Uncle Ben's 20 minute rice. You know I can't follow someone else's recipe, much less make it the same way twice. So, this one is similar, to that first one of the early '70's, same ingredients, but also way different with additions and different techniques.

This one was really fun. First time ever making a roux to thicken it, or adding kalamata olives, or serve it over gluten free, brown rice and millet ramen noodles! Mmmm!

So here it is, my latest rendition of the original Family Circle's Chicken Cacciatore. 

I started with a package of rotisserie chicken, only using 1# for this recipe! If you roast your own, let it cool enough to touch. Separate it into meat and another container of the skin, bones and tendons. Use that to make bone broth.

I froze all the skin, tendons and bones, shown here, on the right, and will use that for future bone broth.

24oz. baby portobello mushrooms

1 yellow and 1 orange bell pepper
5-6 sm. yellow onions
1 whole bulb of garlic, cut in half, horizontally

I roasted the mushrooms separately from the other vegetables. Slice them, spread on a big baking sheet, drizzle them with a good quality, single source, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. Chop, oil and season the vegetables. 

Roast everything in a 375°-400° oven, moving them and flipping if possible, so everything develops a bit of a char on all sides. Roasting pulled a lot of liquid from the mushrooms! Shown in the mug. I used a turkey baster to remove it before combining with the vegetables. It's a wonderful flavorful Mushroom Broth! Use it!

While the vegetables are roasting, make a golden roux, using 1/2c butter and 1/2c all purpose flour. I only used part of this, freezing the rest to thicken future soups, etc.

In a big pot, mine holds 6+ quarts, combine the following:

12oz. bone broth - mine was made previously

1 28oz. can diced tomatoes

5 bay leaves

mushroom broth

1-2t brown or coconut sugar

12oz. your favorite red pasta sauce

Gently stir all this together, with the roasted vegetables. Simmer 15 minutes or so. I kept one onion raw and added it now for a little different onion flavor and texture. When adding the garlic, squeeze the cloves out of their papery coverings  Cut them up a little.

Add the chicken and:
1c+ Kalamata (dark red-purple) olives

Simmer 5-10 minutes then check the flavors.
Add chicken soup base, or salt and pepper if needed, to wake up the flavors.

Cook as many blocks of ramen as you need. This is a wonderful, gluten-free, wheat pasta alternative I found at Costco. When cooked it's a lot like slightly curly angel hair pasta. I just love it! It's great in soup.

Since I'm not serving this until Sunday, just visualize how it will look plated, accompanied by a big green salad! This last photo shows everything simmered and ready to eat. It will taste even better with additional reheating. 

Be Bold! . . Be Adventurous! . . Happy Cooking! . .😁. . .Lin

Cacciatore Type Chicken, Vegetables and Rice

1/2c± corn flour
Italian seasonings
1-2t fresh ground black pepper
28-32oz. boneless chicken
2-3T Moroccan EVOO

Put the flour and seasonings in a gallon size plastic bag, blow a little air into it and shake until well mixed.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and put those in the bag. 'Inflate' again and shake until every piece is well coated with the seasoned flour. Put this in a 4 quart pot containing the hot EVOO. Sauté, partially covered (a splatter screen works well for this) stirring often, over medium heat, until the pieces are golden brown. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil in the pot. Refrigerate the chicken with the rough-chopped celery, onion and yellow pepper.

Sauce:

Add more oil to the pot, if needed. When the oil is hot, add the following finely chopped ingredients, most of which are seen on the left side of the chicken in the picture above. Sauté until tender.

1/2-1/3c green pepper
2-3 stalks celery
1/2 med. onion
2 lg. carrots
1T garlic

28oz. can tomatoes and juice
1 15oz. can tomato sauce (not shown)
finely chopped celery greens
2T fig Balsamic vinegar
2t ground rosemary
2-3t Italian seasoning
1-1/2t ground roasted bell pepper
1/2t Himalayan salt-seasoning blend
1-2t turbinado sugar

Add the tomatoes, and this group of ingredients to the pot with the partially cooked vegetables. Simmer a while, about an hour to bring out and combine all the flavors. Blend with an immersion blender, then simmer again another hour or longer.

Cook the rice. I used some really nice brown rice, but whatever you like will work well. While that's happening, add the fresh vegetables and browned chicken to the sauce. Simmer until the rice is ready. Spoon this over the rice, serve as is or top with the fresh graded cheese you love. . .then. . .relax and just savor this dinner. . .Lin

Chicken Cacciatore (Kitchen Chakatorie)

20 oz. chicken breast meat

salt, red and black peppered oat flour

1 med.-lg. onion - minced

2T Tuscan or Italian flavored olive oil
1-2T butter

1-2c good quality dry white wine

28oz. diced tomatoes and juice
28oz. crushed tomatoes and juice

1 lg. onion - rough chopped

4c colorful peppers - chopped

8oz. sliced mushrooms

3T minced garlic

2T good quality dry Italian seasonings

cooked pasta, mashed potatoes or rice 

My daughter used to call this Kitchen Chakatorie when she was young.  👧  Cut chicken into bite-size pieces.  Roll in seasoned flour and sauté with the onion in the oil and butter until nicely browned.  Add a little wine to deglaze the pot, then brown and deglaze again.  Repeat this several times.  Add another cup of wine and the tomatoes.  Simmer with the vegetables and spices for about an hour.  Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or pasta.  This is another dish that's best prepared the day before, chilled and reheated.

If you'd like, add a cup of half & half or sour cream at the very end of the heating process to change the Red Sauce into a Pink Cream Sauce. . .Lin

Chicken Cacciatore

2# boneless skinless chicken

1 lg. purple onion

1 yellow sweet pepper

1 orange sweet pepper

1lg. clove elephant garlic

4 lg. ribs of celery

8oz. fresh mushrooms

1c± dry white wine

28oz. crushed tomatoes

12oz. seasoned pasta sauce

14.5oz. can petite diced tomatoes

2t sugar

2t Rosemary Seasoning*

1-2T Italian seasoning

Pasta:  Spaghetti, Linguini or Fettuccine

Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces, or a little larger.  Pat the chicken dry and combine with a little finely chopped onion, and a couple tablespoons of butter or olive oil, in a heavy 5qt. pot.  Sauté 15 minutes or so then add the rest of the rough chopped or sliced vegetables.  Stir and continue to sauté another 15 minutes.  Add the wine about half way though, continue to stir and simmer.  Stir in the tomatoes and sauce and simmer and additional 30-60 minutes, on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally.  Toward the end of the cooking time, try the sauce and see what additions or seasonings might be needed.

While this is simmering, cook the pasta to the al dente stage.  Drain and put into baking dishes.  Pour on a cup or two of the sauce to coat the pasta, and keep it from sticking together.  Cover with the rest of the chicken, vegetables and sauce.  Ideally, to fully develop the flavors, you would chill this overnight and reheat it before serving the next day, but it can be served now.

I cooked for friends yesterday.  It was supposed to just be enough for 4, but. . .even though I've lived alone on and off for the past 21 years, I've never mastered the Art Of Cooking Small! 😉 

Fortunately, most people I know are hungry, and I'm also a Big Fan of leftovers!  This recipe made a 9"x13" and a 9"x9" pan.  Probably enough for 8-10 people.  Have fun with this!  Maybe you too know some hungry people?  Invite them for dinner! 😊 It's a nice dinner just as is, but if you're a bread person, some toasty ciabatta with garlic butter would be nice.  Or if, like me, you can never get enough vegetables, try it with my very favorite - My 5-Ingredient Salad . . . Lin