Are you ready for another classic from the much loved Italian cuisine? Pollo Alla Cacciatora (Hunters Chicken Stew)is a beautifully simple recipe that is ideal to serve for the family. Once you have completed the necessary preparations, it can mind its own business bubbling away on the stove for a while. This dish is perfect for when you need an easy weeknight dinner and perfect when you have a crowd of friends around for a party.
Ivan discovered this dish in a little restaurant in Lake Como whose menu was very amusing to read. Google Translate can have very funny connotations when English is not your mother tongue. This dish was thrown fiercely on the oven and then massaged gently till cooked. The addition of capers and thyme to this dish really adds a new dimension to Pollo Alla Cacciatora (Hunters Chicken Stew)
Pollo Alla Cacciatora (Hunters Chicken Stew)
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Loading...This beautiful chicken cacciatore simply bubbles away in the oven, making it perfect for sharing with friends at parties or informal dinners.
Ingredients
- 2 kg chicken jointed, or use the equivalent amount of chicken pieces
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 8 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 3 cloves garlic peeled (1 crushed, 2 sliced)
- ½ bottle Chianti
- extra virgin olive oil
- 6 anchovy fillets
- 1 handful green or black olives stoned
- 2 x 400 g good-quality tinned plum tomatoes
- 6 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
- 1 Handful Capers
- 1 hand full Chopped Flat Leaf Parsley
Instructions
Season the chicken pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper and put them into a bowl. Add the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs Thyme sprigs and the crushed clove of garlic and cover with the wine. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight in the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Drain the chicken, reserving the marinade, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat an ovenproof pan, add olive oil, fry the chicken pieces until browned lightly all over and put to one side.
Place the pan back on the heat and add the sliced garlic. Fry gently until golden brown, then add the anchovies, olives, Capers, tomatoes (broken up with a wooden spoon) and the chicken pieces with their reserved marinade. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid or a double thickness layer of foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1½ hours.
Skim off any oil that’s collected on top of the sauce, then stir, taste and add a little salt and pepper if necessary.
Remove the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs, stir in the chopped parsley and serve with a salad, some cannellini beans or pasta
Wine Matching
It has to be a Chianti, doesn’t it? We chose Stefano di Blasi Chianti Classico 2015. Take one sip and you’ll be transported directly to a balmy Tuscan evening – a wonderful tang of cherry fruit with a rustic, earthy finish… it’s sophisticated, refined and oh so scrummy. Available from Naked Wines
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