Chicken Cacciatore 2

Here’s another version of chicken cacciatore, which is kind of based on Giada De Laurentis’ recipe, but altered somewhat because I didn’t have all the ingredients required in her and/or my original recipe.

I also didn’t have the fresh herbs Giada used, so I substituted dried. Plus, I added in some sliced calamata olives to give a deeper flavor dimension, and used white wine instead of red.

Ingredients

• CHICKEN PIECES, 6 to 10, skin-on, with bone
• FLOUR, ¼ cup
• GARLIC-FLAVORED OLIVE OIL, ¼ cup
• BUTTER, 2 tablespoons
• MUSHROOMS, 8 ounces, sliced
• ONION, 1 large, frenched
• GARLIC, 2 cloves, minced
• CALAMATA OLIVES, 12, pitted, sliced into 4 pieces each
• TOMATOES, diced, 1 14.5-oz. can, with juices
• THYME, dried, 1 teaspoons
• BAY LEAF, 1 or 2
• WHITE WINE, ½ cup (I used Chablis)
• GARLIC SALT and FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER 

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the olive oil in a large flat pan over medium heat.
2. Slowly sauté the mushrooms. Set aside.
3. Add in the garlic and cook gently until the onions are translucent. Set aside.
4. Dust the chicken in flour, shake off excess flour.
5. Brown the chicken pieces in the olive oil, remove and set aside.
6. Slowly sauté the onions, adding in the garlic after a few minutes, season with salt and pepper, cook until tender but not browned.
7. Add in the mushrooms, the onions and garlic, and the remaining ingredients into the pan.
8. Return the chicken to the pan.
9. Check the seasoning, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
10. Remove the cover, and cook for another 5 minutes uncovered, until the sauce is thick.
11. Skim the excess fat, remove the bay leaves, and serve with pasta or rice.