Recipe: Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken Cacciatore

Serving Size: 4
Preparation Time: 2:00

Ingredients

2 tbls oil olive
1 3-1/2 lb chicken—Cut up for frying
10 oz Mushrooms Crimini—Sliced
2 each onions large—diced
6 each garlic clove—diced
2 tbs Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
1 #2-1/2 can tomatoes chopped
1 cup tomato purée
1-1/2 cups Chardonnay
2 tbs basil leaves—freshly chopped
2 tbs parsley
2 each bay leaves
1 tsp thyme leaf
Salt and pepper—to taste

Preparation

Cut the bird into 12 pieces, leg, thigh and breast in two, wing. Using a heavy pot with a lid, start it skin side down in the oil over a medium flame, and let it take good color. Turn it over and brown both sides well. Remove the chicken to a dish.

Add the chopped onions and garlic and optional mushrooms. Let them get soft and lightly browned. Pour off any excess oil. Add sun dried tomato pesto and cook for a few minutes. Add the purée and chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 1 hour, cover off. At this point, the sauce should be too thick, but have lost any acid taste from the tomatoes. If it hasn't cook it longer, but never add sugar. To save time, you can use the same volume of prepared tomato sauce, I use Barilla Mushroom and Garlic. It looks and tastes very fresh.

Add the wine, chicken and its juices, and herbs. Stir, cover, and simmer until the chicken is spoon tender. Season with salt and pepper and refresh with some chopped parsley just before serving.

If the sauce is too thin, remove the chicken, and reduce the sauce to the desired consistency. Remove any fat that comes to the surface. As this dish is better the second day, refrigerate, and the fat will be easy to remove.

Suggested Wine: Never use a wine to cook that you don't want to drink.

Serving Ideas: Serve over your favorite pasta. I like Penne.

NOTES: This is the Italian version of Chicken Hunter Style. Serve the wine you cooked it with. You could just as well use a red wine in this dish, as it is certainly hearty enough.