(Chicken) Cacciatore

        “Cacciatore” is not, unlike most of the other Italian dishes I have posted or will post in the future, a dish specific to one city or region in Italy, but rather, a style of cooking found throughout the whole country. “Cacciatore” simply means “hunter.” The typical way to prepare a “cacciatore” dish in the Italian American sense is to braise chicken in a spicy tomato sauce. But the Italian way is more varied and is usually much less spicy. Any meats that can be braised (certain cuts of beef, pork, chicken, and, especially traditionally, rabbit) works well. This particular recipe will use chicken thighs. 

If you only take away one thing from these recipes, let it be this: The practice chefs refer to as “mise en place,” that is “[setting] everything in its [proper] place” is a very valuable skill for any cook with any amount of experience. This dish, like all braises, is not a particularly fast-paced dish (unlike, say, a stir-fry, when there are mere seconds between the addition of ingredients, and for which mise en place is absolutely essential), but practicing mise en place is nevertheless still a good idea. While making the necessary preparations, don’t worry about making anything too small or being too exact with relative sizes. As long as the pieces are roughly the same size (so they’ll cook evenly), they don’t need to be really precise or look pretty. This dish, after all, is prepared the way a hunter would make it—that is, in a very rustic way. There are times when precise cuts are essential, and this absolutely is not one of them.

As with almost any braised dish, there is one thing that makes or breaks the success of the execution of the recipe: time. Four things need to be considered.

1.    It takes time to brown off the meat of choice so that it does not simply boil in the liquid.

2.    It takes time to develop the flavor of the braising liquid before the meat being braised can be returned to it to actually cook in earnest

3.    Braising meat means cooking it for a long time over low heat in a flavorful liquid, so expect to spend at least an hour with the poultry in the braising liquid (other braises, like short ribs in wine can take anywhere up to 4 hours).

4.    The flavor of any braised dish will always be better and more intense 24 hours after it was prepared; cooling the meat once fully cooked and let it sit in its braising liquid for a day before reheating and finally serving for the first time will provide the best flavor. 

 

I like to start by seasoning flour simply with salt, pepper, and some dried herbs, mixing well to incorporate the seasonings evenly, and then dredge the chicken in the flour. Preheat a thin film of olive oil in your pan of choice—for me, that’s a 9-quart Dutch oven.   Once the chicken has been dredged, split it into batches to be browned. Browning the chicken in batches prevents overcrowding. If the pan is overcrowded, the chicken will steam rather than brown. Leave the chicken on that side for about 2 minutes or until it releases easily from the surface of the pan. At that point, it has browned on one side. Flip the chicken, and let it cook on the other side until that side releases from the pan. This chicken is not cooked all the way through—not by a long shot—but that’s by design. Reserve the chicken onto a separate plate off the heat. This process will have created fond, the technical name for the brown, flavorful bits at the bottom of the pan. Drop a whole sliced onion, three minced garlic cloves, and two julienned red bell peppers (julienning is cutting into long, thin vertical strips) into the pan over medium heat. Drizzle in 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar. This will deglaze the pan—that is, lift the fond off the surface of the pan and onto the onions and peppers by the chemical action of the acid in the vinegars. Once the vinegars have been added, stir, and lower the heat if necessary. Sauté the onions, pepper, and garlic until the onions have caramelized, the peppers have softened. Then, add 48 ounces of homemade tomato sauce or passata to the pan, and season as needed with salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and oregano. Let this sauce—which will become the braising liquid—come to a boil, then immediately reduce it to a simmer. Hold it there for 5 to 7 minutes, then reintroduce the chicken. Simmer uncovered for an hour on medium-low heat. Stir every 8-10 minutes. Serve as desired. 

Several options exist.

1.    Eating this on its own as a stew—as was originally intended

2.    Serving over rice

3.    Turning the braising liquid into a sauce for pasta prepared to the manufacturer’s instructions until al dente, mixing pasta into the sauce, them topping emulsified pasta and sauce with pieces of chicken  

If you make this, be sure to leave a comment down below letting me know!