Chicken cacciatore (pollo all cacciatora)

Italian home cooking has an array of recipes that are so well suited to cook ahead - and one such recipe is this chicken dish, which is called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian (chicken cacciatore in english), meaning chicken in stye style of the hunter.

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 80 ml (⅓ cup) extra - virgin olive oil
• 4 chicken marylands
• 75 g (½ cup) plain flour or rice flour, for dusting
• 75 g pancetta, diced
• 2 golden French shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 600 g passata
• 40 g (¼ cup) pitted black olives
• 40 g (¼ cup) capers in vinegar or salt, well washed
• 2 sprigs flat - leaf parsley
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flat - leaf parsley
• salt flakes and ground black pepper, to taste
• crusty sourdough, boiled new potatoes or soft polenta, to serve (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat half the oil in a large heavy - based saucepan over medium – high heat. Dust the chicken in flour, shake off the excess, then cook on both sides for 3 – 4 minutes or until browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the remaining oil to the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Add the pancetta, shallot, celery and carrot and cook for 1 - 2 minutes or until lightly softened. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant.
3. Return the chicken to the pan, deglaze with the wine, scraping up any bits caught on the base. Allow it to bubble away for 1 – 2 minutes to cook out the alcohol.
4. Add the passata, olives, capers, parsley sprigs and 200 ml water. Don’t add any seasoning as the olives and capers are quite salty. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 35 – 40 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through.
5. Remove the lid, increase the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thickened. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper.
6. Transfer to a large serving dish, scatter with the chopped parsley and serve as is, or with crusty sourdough, boiled potatoes or soft polenta.

 

Silvia Colloca shares her Italian family secrets in the brand-new third season of Cook like an Italian.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

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