This gets filed under the ‘meals from childhood’ category. I vividly remember mom making this in an electric fry pan – you know, the kind with the high sides and a domed lid – for dinner quite regularly.
I have no idea if this is the same recipe, when I decided to cook it the other evening for RJ it was the middle of the night in NY, probably best that I didn’t call to ask what goes in it! But that said, this is the recipe of my memories – tomatoes, multi-coloured capsicum [peppers], onion and chicken with a few spices thrown in for good measure.
It is a really quick one pot dish and makes however much or little you want and keeps really well. Serve it with pasta, or rice, or even as sandwiches the next day.
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Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients:
2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts, 4 chicken legs
2 brown onions – sliced
2 garlic cloves – diced
1 large green capsicum [pepper] – approx 1 cup chopped
1 large red capsicum [pepper] – approx 1 cup chopped
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup white wine
1 can no-salt tomatoes
1 can water
grapeseed oil
Under 100 words:
Brown chicken pieces in a bit of oil and set aside. Saute veggies [chopped] for 2 mins, add spices and stir for 1 min. Deglaze with wine. Add tomatoes and water, stir through and return chicken to pan. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer Cook covered for 20 mins, uncovered for a further 20-25 mins until cooked through and tender.
Full Method:
Over medium-high heat, in a Tbsp or so of oil, cook chicken pieces until lightly brown on all sides but not cooked through. Set aside.
Add a bit more oil to the same pan [do not clean it out!] and saute the capsicum, onion and garlic over medium low heat for 2 minutes. Add the herbs and spices and stir through the veggies. Continue to cook for 1 minute more.
Raise heat to medium high and pour in the white wine to deglaze the pan. Scrape the browned bits off the bottom and let the wine simmer for a minute, so the alcohol cooks off. Stir through tomatoes with their juice and a can of water, and return the chicken pieces to the pan along with any juice that is on the plate.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 mins. Remove the lid and simmer for a further 20-25 mins until chicken is cooked through and tender and the sauce has thickened. At this point you can cut the chicken breast into large chunks if you wish.
Serve over rice or pasta, or with crusty bread and a green salad. This gets even better the next day once the flavours have blended.
Serves 4
[…] I first got my assignment for JJ’s blog, I looked through and immediately decided on her Chicken Cacciatore recipe, which looked absolutely delicious. But then a week or two later, I went back to JJ’s […]