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

Pepper Sour Cream Cornbread

Preheat your oven to 400°

In a medium bowl, whisk together these dry ingredients:

1c unbleached all purpose flour

3/4c corn flour

1/4c toasted oat flour

1T ground chia and flax seed

3-1/2t baking powder

1/2t baking soda

1t Himalayan pink salt

2t ground cumin

In another bowl, whisk together the sugar and wet ingredients. Whisk and let stand until the sugar dissolves, then whisk again:

2/3c organic cane sugar

1/3c finely chopped poblano pepper

2-3T finely chopped red bell pepper

3/4c full fat sour cream

1/3c single source EVOO

2T apple cider vinegar

1 lg. free range egg

1/4c water 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry bowl, combining with a silicone spatula. When mixed, but not over-mixed, pour all of this into an oiled 9" cast iron pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool a little before cutting into wedges. This goes great with soup or a big bowl of steamy, beef, bean and vegetable chili. . .Lin

Garden Salsa Guacamole

Finely chop all the vegetables into a large glass bowl.

1/2 skinny orange bell pepper
3 or 4 small avocados
6oz. salsa verde (green salsa)
2-3T fresh lemon juice
1 med. tomato, peeled
3T sour cream
garlic salt + black pepper

Peel, chop and mash the avocados then add the remaining chopped vegetables. Gently stir everything together.

Serve with breadsticks, tortilla chips, seedy crackers or spread on toast. . .Lin

Colorful Zucchini Casserole

4 8-inch zucchini

1 med. onion

colorful sweet pepper

1 can sliced stewed tomatoes

Slice all the vegetables, chop the tomatoes and combine in the casserole dish. Bake, covered, at 375° a half hour. Baste the vegetables then return to the oven and continue baking until the zucchini is done the way you like.

Using a turkey baster, baste again, then put most of the juice in a separate container. Pour it over your dog's dry food or put it aside to make vegetable broth. I added mine to the chicken bone broth I'm currently simmering.

Cut up 6oz. cheese and put on top, then sprinkle with 2/3c± seasoned panko breadcrumbs.

Put it under the broiler, set on low, for a few minutes to melt the cheese and crisp up the breadcrumbs. . .Lin

Olive-Garlic Chicken and Pasta

12oz. dry pasta - cook al dente'

1# chicken breast strips

2T vinegar and oil salad dressing

¾c sliced kalamata olives

8 lg. stuffed green olives - sliced

1½ med. onion - chopped

½ med. orange pepper - sliced

2c sliced celery + tops

lots of minced garlic (9-12 cloves)

4oz. red roasted pepper in a jar - chopped

Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and sauté and stir in the dressing for 10 minutes.  Add olives and a little of the onion and continue to sauté and stir another few minutes.  Add the celery, orange pepper, rest of the onion, cover and simmer a little longer.  Stir in the garlic, red pepper, salt and pepper.  Stir and cook until the celery is crisp tender.

In a 3-4 quart baking pan, combine all the ingredients, add more dressing if needed, cover and bake at 325° for about 15 minutes just to finish the cooking and heat everything through.   This is more like a hot pasta salad, than a traditional hot Italian pasta dish, since I used dressing in place of the usual Alfredo or red sauce.

Try it - See what you think! . .Lin

Smokey Cabbage Soup

2 big carrots

4 stalks celery

1 med. head green cabbage

2T butter

4c water

smokey salt and pepper

1½ c slice-chopped colorful peppers

1½ c sliced leeks
chopped celery tops

2T Better Than Bullion - vegetable

Chop or slice the first 3 ingredients into a 4-5 quart pot with the butter.  Saute' a few minutes then add water a little at a time.  I used Lapsang Souchong tea instead of water this time!  This is a smokey black tea that I really love and felt it would add another dimension of flavor.  It did!

Add seasonings, the peppers, leeks and soup base.  Simmer about 20 minutes when all the ingredients are in the pot.  Serve with crusty bread or croutons. . .Lin

Wonderful Black Bean Eggs For One. . . . .

1/2 med. sweet onion

2 sliced mini sweet peppers

a little Italian Herb olive oil

2 lg. eggs

1/3 can black beans - drained and rinsed

1 roma tomato - chopped

American and feta cheese

Sauté the onions, peppers in a little flavored olive oil.  Add the eggs and stir.  When almost set, add in the beans, tomato and sauté a while.  Then add strips of American cheese and feta crumbles.  Plate immediately.

This is the best breakfast egg dish I've had in ages!!! . . . Lin


This is sort of an unofficial plug for epicurean cutting boards.  The people who created these lived in my daughter's home before her.  The Kiwi knives also.  They're wonderful!  Now available on eBay and other sites, but previously, only at Asian markets.  I've since 'retired' my Wusthof Dreizack knives and now go only with the Kiwi brand these days.  Much cheaper and they sharpen wonderfully!

Chicken Lasagna

8oz. pasta - cooked, rinsed and drained

2-4oz. finely diced bacon

1#+ chicken breast meat

1 med. onion - diced

8oz. sliced mushrooms

8 multi-colored mini peppers - sliced

24oz. Newman's Sockarooni Sauce

6oz. ricotta cheese

1 egg

2/3c cottage cheese
3oz. capers
2/3c sliced kalamata (red) olives

fresh snipped oregano, basil, rosemary

cayenne pepper, garlic salt, black pepper

grated Parmesan cheese

Saute' the bacon in a 3 qt. pot.  Cut the chicken into small cubes.  Saute' chicken, and the onion, in with the cooking bacon.  When the chicken has started to brown, add the mushrooms and peppers.  Simmer-saute' for a while to bring out the flavors and brown the meat, adding a little water, chicken stock or white wine if needed.  After the chicken has browned - 20-60 minutes - add the red sauce and continue to simmer.  
<—If the peppers 'melt' leaving only the stringy skins, remove those.

Meanwhile, combine the next 7 ingredients in a small bowl.  Put half the cooked pasta in a 9"x9" glass pan.  Pour half the cheese mixture over this.  Next add half the meat mixture.  Repeat.  Top with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350° until it's very bubbly, about 40 minutes.

Let stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting.  Serve with a mixed green salad. . .Lin