Chicken Cacciatora ala Darrel

Chicken Cacciatora

This is my adaptation of an Italian Classic, taken from one of my favourite cookbooks:
Italian Kitchen by Jane Price!  If you see the book, buy it!


In the original form of the recipe the entire meal is cooked on the stove top.  I have changed it to be baked in the oven, it works perfectly and frees me up to do other things, once it is  popped in the oven.  I also find that the chicken is more evenly cooked in the oven.


Ingredients:
60ml        Olive Oil
1 Large   Onion finely chopped
3 cloves  Garlic, crushed
150gr       Pancetta finely chopped (refer to the notes below)
125gr       Button Mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 large    Chicken cut into 8 pieces (1.6 Kg) (refer to the notes below)
80ml        Dry vermouth or dry white wine
800gr       Chopped tinned tomatoes
1/4 tsp     Cayenne pepper (refer to the notes below)
1 tsp         Brown sugar
1 sprig      Oregano
1 sprig      Thyme
1               Bay leaf


Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C
Brown the chicken pieces in a hot pan with the oil.  Do them in batches if necessary.
Remove the browned pieces to an oven proof casserole dish with a lid.
Once the chicken has browned, drain off approximately 1/2 of the chicken fat in the pan.
Add the onions and Garlic and fry for about 6-8 minutes on medium heat.
Turn the heat up to full and add the mushrooms and the Pancetta. Fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add the wine or vermouth, to deglaze the pan and flavour the sauce, once the wine has virtually cooked away, add the rest of the ingredients: Tomatoes, sugar, cayenne pepper, thyme, bay leaf and oregano.
Bring the mixture to the boil and pour over the browned chicken in the casserole dish.
Put the lid on and put it in the preheated oven for about 1 hour 20 minutes.


Notes:
Pancetta:
If you can't find pancetta, just replace with streaky bacon, and use a whole packet (250gr) as apposed the 150gr in the recipe.  If you fry the bacon until crispy before adding it to the sauce it adds a really nice flavour.  If you can find Pancetta, it is well worth the premium in price, as the flavour is amazing.


Chicken:
As you might have seen in Charlie's Chicken and Pasta, I am not a big fan of chicken breast, therefore instead of using a whole chicken I prefer to use just thighs.  This is a preference so if you are comfortable with the whole chicken go ahead and use it.  The whole chicken is cheaper than just using thighs.


Cayenne Pepper:
Adhere to the 1/4 tsp if you don't like spicy.  As you can see from the photo's I did not do so tonight and as a result Charlie won't be eating the Chicken Cacciatora, it is a bit spicy.  Fine for me but not so good for the little ones in the house.


Believe me once you have cooked this once, it will become a family favourite of yours as it is in my household.  Really nice served with rice and gem squash or butternut!


Enjoy it!

The chopped ingredients

The browned chicken

The sauce poured over the chicken before it goes in the oven