<p>Hi all, I need a “Chicken Caccitoire for Dummies” recipe. Needs to serve six people. It doesn’t look hard to make but I know that I’ll get good suggestions here. Do you suppose there is a crock pot version? Any suggestions for side dishes (what kind of salad, for example)?</p>
<p>I make a more complicated version, but you can’t go wrong with a Dummies version. If you browned six chicken breasts with a sliced onion and a sliced bell pepper, then put it all in the crock pot with a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce and some decent dry wine, you’d have a very happy crowd at the end of the day.</p>
<p>Most people serve it with pasta, but I love it with polenta, which is just as easy to make. Any simple green salad with vinaigrette would be delicious.</p>
<p>My old recipe for chicken cacciatore used tomato/spaghetti sauce but I was out one night when I had all the other ingredients and I used a jar of Heinz Chili Sauce instead, and have been doing so ever since. It’s a more zesty flavor, although I’m not sure why it’s called Chili Sauce because it doesnt’ taste like chili. Maybe it’s chili peppers? Not sure, but it isn’t too, too spicy. It’s delicious and popular with everyone in our family. Add about a 1/2 cup of water or wine.</p>
<p>I lightly brown boneless chicken breasts (you can slice them if you prefer that) then add a chopped sweet onion, a chopped red pepper, a chopped green pepper. You can use chopped celery or mushrooms if you like that. One of my Ds makes it with chopped baby carrots. Salt, pepper, a little oregano or basil. Simmer for an hour or so, or longer if you like. We serve it with rice, and sometimes rotini if my one D who prefers pasta happens to be home. A nice crusty bread is good with this.</p>
<p>The salad I serve with it is our family favorite and goes well with the chicken dish because it’s a bit sweet to balance the tangy chicken. One large head of romaine, a red delicious apple chopped, 1/2 cup of cubed monterey jack cheese, 1/4 cup of chopped pecans. Mix in your desired amount of poppyseed dressing. Yummy.</p>
<p>That salad sounds yummy…but one person is can’t eat “soft” cheeses.</p>
<p>I don’t even brown the chicken. Just put it in the crockpot, pour spaghetti sauce over it and eat it 5-7 hours later. (If I want to get extra fancy, I pour in half a cup of red wine.) Serve with grated fresh parmesan cheese, pasta and a simple green salad. Easiest dinner on earth.</p>
<p>I love the Splendid Table’s Oven-Roasted Chicken Cacciatore. It has a lot of ingredients, but all you do is layer them in a roasting pan. It serves 6, but doubles easily - just use two pans. No browning required.</p>
<p>2.5-3 lb. bone-in, skin on chicken thighs (about 8)
1/3 cup pitted Kamalata olives
4 thin slices of cacciatore, or genoa or hard salami cut into 1" squares (pepperoni was okay too)
1 large red bell pepper cut into 1" pieces
1 large fresh tomatoes cut up or three canned ones chopped
1 med to large red onion chopped
leaves from two 4-inch sprigs of rosemary
10 fresh sage leaves torn
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup good olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
juice of one lemon.</p>
<p>Turn oven on to 400 degree. Arrange chicken in a large shallow roasting pan and scatter all the ingredients except the lemon over it. Roast for 30 minutes. Baste with pan juices, turn the chicken over and roast another 10 to 15 minutes. (Really all you have to do is give it a stir.)They suggest basting and turning some more, but I don’t think I ever have. Chicken is ready when the temp is 170 degrees F. I just eyeball it. You can run it under the broiler if you like, but I don’t because mine is broken and it will cost $600 to fix it. Put the ingredients in a large bowl and adjust seasonings and squeeze lemon juice over it. </p>
<p>You can use the same basic method and switch up the ingredients. They have a version with more onion, apple cider and Indian style spices and another with oregano and carrots.</p>
<p>Yum…I bet I could toss all of that into my crock pot.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for this thread, Thumper – just the right type of recipe this time of year. I had never tried it before.</p>
<p>Sew…me either. I’m having dinner guest in the weekend after this one, and it just seemed like a good warm weather dish that everyone might like.</p>
<p>I can never see the name “Chicken Caccitoire” without thinking of its Girl Scout Camp name … Chicken Utchie Gutchie … </p>
<p>It was not our favorite dinner! I worked at Girl Scout Camp for four summers during high school and college and Chicken Utchie Gutchie came up at least once every two weeks all summer.</p>
<p>For me, chicken must be bone in. And you must start with excellent organic/ kosher chicken. No foster farms steroid giants!</p>
<p>Make your sauce in advance. 2 large cans of quality Italian tomatoes.,ma cup red and A pint of excellene chicken broth. Lots of chopped garlic, 2 large onions sliced, sliced green and red pepper. Spices: salt, sed pepper fakes, thyme, oregano and some fresh of any or all. Simmer up to 3 hours. Brown veggies adding garlic last, add wine when browner, reduced by half, add broth, tomatoes and spices.</p>
<p>Have butcher cut up two small chickens. Salt and brown in large Dutch oven.</p>
<p>Deglaze with 2 cups good red wine. Chianti, cab sau, pino, anything will do. I love Malbec</p>
<p>Add chicken to pan with sauce, tightly cover and put in 350 degree oven for 90 minutes or just starting to fall off bone. Let sit and defat. Correct seasonings and add fresh herbs for garnish. Another great resist is sow oyster mushrooms simply salted and saut</p>
<p>I have a really good chicken caccitore recipe from a paperback cookbook that is so old the cover price is $.75-no joke! From Italian Cooking Made Easy:
3 1/2 lb. chicken, cut up (sometimes I add extra drumsticks)
s and p
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup tomatoes-can use fresh, canned, puree
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons red wine
1 large green pepper sliced (can also use red pepper)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, quartered
1 cup mushrooms, sliced</p>
<p>Sprinkle chicken pieces with s and p to taste
Roll lightly in flour
Brown on both sides in hot olive oil for 10-15 minutes
Blend together the tomatoes, tomato paste, peppers, red wine, garlic and onion
Add to browned chicken
cover lightly
cook slowly over medium-low heat for 45 minutes or until chicken is tender
Add sliced mushrooms, cook 10 minutes more</p>
<p>Serve with noodles. I cooked this this weekend and used open white wine and a combination of flat noodles and bowtie noodles. Serves 4 - 6</p>
<p>Waverly…sounds delish, but I need cooking for dummies! I’m going to print your recipe in case DH decides to do the cooking:)</p>
<p>Chicken cacciatore is one of those dishes that doesn’t have a formal recipe, it was a peasant dish and there are all kinds of variations to it, usually it has chicken in it, peppers, onions and usually mushrooms, have had it with potatoes as well. </p>
<p>I tend to make it with a lot more wine then tomato, I tend to use several cups of red or white wine, enough to cover 1/2 the depth of the chicken in the pot, plus I add a cup or two of canned or fresh tomatoes (sun drieds can work great, too). I prefer it where the sauce is more a gravy.</p>
<p>The basic recipe is pretty easy, you brown the chicken pieces (I agree, it works better with the bone in it, but you may want to remove the skin). The reason for browning/searing the chicken is it helps keep pieces from getting dried out more then it otherwise wood. I use roughly 3 1/2 pounds of chicken, and if you can find organic chicken it works better I feel, more tasty.</p>
<p>Other ingredients…</p>
<p>2 large Bell peppers (red or green), or cut up Italian frying peppers, approx 4 cups (you can’t go wrong if you like more)
1 large onion, cut up (again, feel free to use more or less) or as a variation, use several packages of frozen pearl onin
two packages of mushrooms (I think they are 8 oz, the standard size you find in the store, or if you want to get fancy, buy porcini mushrooms)
Red or white wine, I prefer a smoother bodied wine like a merlot or the like, or a reisling or the like.
2 tsps basil, 1 oregano
salt, pepper to taste
2 cups fresh or canned tomatoes (mix some sun dried tomatoes in for an interesting flavor)</p>
<p>-Cut up the chicken into pieces, as small or large as you like, and heat olive oil in a skillet and brown the pieces so they are well seared. </p>
<p>-Place the cut up chicken in the crock pot, add the onion, peppers, mushrooms.
-Add the tomatos
-Pour in wine, enough to bring the level up to roughly 1/2 the depth of the chicken
-Set the crock pot on medium, and let cook for 3 hours or so, or until the chicken is almost coming off the bone. Roughly an hour and a half in, stir the mixture in the crock pot. </p>
<p>At the end, add salt or more spice if it is to your taste, serve over rice and noodles, the sauce is best part.</p>
<p>Agree with the many variations. I would never put bell pepper in mine, but always include onions and mushrooms. </p>
<p>I have put it in the crockpot many times and also will do it on the stove in a covered dish (dutch ovens would be great for this!)</p>
<p>My dump recipe would include boneless chicken breasts, 1 can diced or stewed tomatoes, 1ish cup of your favorite pasta sauce, package of mushrooms, 1/2 onion sliced, some garlic, salt and pepper. A little wine if I have it.If you like your sauce around it a little thicker, take the lid off the pot or crockpot for a little while before serving.</p>
<p>Don’t know the provenance of the dish, however ‘caccia’ in Italian means ‘hunt’, and ‘cacciatore’ means ‘hunter’.</p>
<p>I don’t know about Italian cooking, but in German cooking “hunter style” generally means a mushroom sauce.</p>
<p>Use some marsala in place of some or all of the wine. You won’t believe how great it is.</p>
<p>Is marsala a kind of wine (if not, what is it?)?</p>
<p>Marsala is a fortified wine similar to port or madeira.</p>