Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken Cacciatore, or “hunter-style chicken,” is a hearty and flavorful stew that’s perfect for cozy family dinners or entertaining guests. Made with tender chicken breast, herbs, tomatoes, and red, orange, and green peppers, this dish is a true celebration of Italian flavors.

3 large chicken breasts
6 large roma tomatoes
6 oz mushrooms
1 large carrot
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1 medium sized white onion
2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp red pepper flake
12 oz stewed tomatoes
2 cups red wine

[Music] hi welcome to what’s cooking with Michelle today we’re making an Italian classic chicken catori with a slight twist as usual so uh to get started with chicken catori it is generally made with chicken thighs we’re going to make it with chicken breast today just a little healthier um so first thing that we’re going to do is get our heavy Skillet up to a medium temperature okay so we’ll get that heated up um we are going to sear the chicken first but before we sear it obviously we need to clean it up a little so I am going to make it with three chicken breasts these are large chicken breasts as you can see now usually you know I uh throw away the pieces and parts but actually for this recipe um we can use them um we’re going to take them out once we get done searing but it’ll add flavor and um when you get your chicken breast we are not going to pound it but I am going to cut it into not bite-sized pieces but chunks shall we say so about like that and no Rhyme or Reason um we’re just going to be uh separating it so that when we’re serving it it’ll be a little easier to serve all right we got one down let’s get the next one done all right okay so now that we have that done we’re going to add some oil to our uh Skillet and see if it gets shimmery and ready to go it’s not quite hot enough we’re going to give it a minute just to heat up a little bit more while we’re waiting on that we can go ahead and get started Ed with the rest of everything so behind me I have a pot of water just regular water that is heating up to a boil um what I’m going to be doing with our Roma tomatoes is putting an X in the butt that’s the bottom and the top okay we’re going to do that for for each of these I have uh how many did I grab 1 two three four five six of these and these are pretty big ones um if yours are regular size you might want to use eight we have about 6 oz of white mushrooms this is a button mushroom we’re just going to chop them in pretty good size chunks if you can see that and uh if you don’t like mushrooms at all you could haveit the mushrooms if you love them double it okay so once again put our chopped mushrooms back in here sliced I should say not chopped um we have one carrot and I have already peeled this carrot and I’m just going to give it a quick chop to chop it into smaller chunks and then we are actually going to to chop this finally dice all right we’re going to need that again in a second [Applause] okay so that was one large carrot chopped up that was peeled first and then we are going to use uh besides chicken the main ingredient in chicken catori is Peppers uh today we are using yellow orange and red um again if there’s a specific type of pepper you like better than another feel free to use that one and only that one or experiment with using all of them and unlike uh the carrot we are going to leave this pretty big chunks again because with the chunks of chicken we want a chunk of pepper and um so we are going to slice slice these and it’s up to you if you use a whole one of each I think I’m going to use like a half to 2/3 of each one let’s check our oil it’s definitely hot enough now so let’s get our chicken in there to start searing okay now while our chicken is in there searing we are going to put a generous layer of salt and pepper on top of that on both sides so we’re searing one side salt and peppering it when you flip it over salt and pepper that side as well okay so that’s probably enough yellow we’ll put the rest of that over there let’s get our beautiful red one now Peppers all have unique taste profiles if you didn’t know that it besides the color um they do vary in sweetness and um so it’s kind of a personal preference but if you’ve never tried some of the other colors definitely try them and see you might really find out you love a different color as well and I think what I’m going to do this time is these long pieces I’m just going to give them one chop down the middle okay so kind of organize these ones excellent um if you don’t have a sharp knife a a serrated knife is definitely the easiest to chop uh peppers with and so that we don’t run out of room that’s what this lovely bowl is here for let’s continue with our beautiful big Orange one this one’s pretty big so I’m definitely only going to use half of this guy Al together we’re probably going to get about uh three cups three to four cups of peppers okay couple more things for us to chop move these over um we have parsley and we need two tablespoons of fresh parsley again if you don’t have fresh you would have two teaspoons instead but we’re needing two tablespoons and you’re going to want a little more to Gar garnish as well at the very end and this is just a rough chop it’s going in our sauce that we’re making okay and last but not least we have some onion uh they had little tiny onions at the store last time I went so um one mediumsized onion is what you want so I’m chopping uh two little guys here let’s go check our chicken and see if we need to flip that as well okay [Music] okay back to onions uh the reason that um we’re not cooking the chicken is because it’s actually going to cook the rest of the way in the sauce we’re just trying to get some of the juices out of it to cook all the vegetables in okay and um so you can see that those two small onions made about two cups uh together uh cup and a half to two cups is what you’re looking for and let’s go ahead and get our chicken out of the skillet and so we can start cooking our [Music] vegetables okay so this leftover stuff is what you’re definitely looking for um that’s going to add flavor we’re going to add just a little bit more oil and we are going to start with the onions so go ahead and drop those in [Music] there okay and we are going to let these caramelize down for about 3 to 5 minutes depending on the temperature of your Skillet once we see them starting to Brown um we are going to add the rest of our vegetables for a few minutes and reduce them with some wine okay so while the onions are caramelizing we are going to go ahead and blanch our tomatoes to peel them so the water that I had on the skillet is or the stove is hot um you actually need it to be pretty hot to be able to do this the reason we put the A’s is once we put them in the water the water is going to seep in just enough so that we can peel them now this is a step that you definitely don’t have to do but if you you are using fresh tomatoes like we are if you’ve ever had a bite with a giant chunk of skin in it and you don’t like that uh this is what will solve that problem for you okay so go ahead and just put a couple in and they have to sit for a minute or two and then you’ll see that they’ll start to peel so we’re going to leave those in there just like that okay to the onions we are adding the carrots and the mushrooms and the peppers and we are going to let this cook for about five minutes to just reduce and um caramelize a little bit more and then we’ll add our wine to reduce all right so the first ones are done I’m going to show you what I mean see how it’s peeling away a little bit we’re going to put them in the ice bath the ice bath is going to do two things it’s is going to make it so that skin peels off easier and so that we don’t burn our hands so putting the last batch in there cuz we did six of these guys and again if you have the smaller ones then um you know you could do eight tomatoes so while these guys are sitting getting their skins peeled uh loosened I should say we’re going to peel these guys um so you could see how it’s lifted you simply just grab it and pull it down and that’s the thing that when you take a bite and you don’t like it’s the skin just like the skin on lots of other things so uh this is a nice step if you have the time to do it’s certainly like I said not a requirement um but it does does add a nice layer there when you’re making homemade tomato sauce this is definitely something that if you do you’ll notice it too also seems so much nicer so one peeled let’s get the next guy oh that guy came off in just like one little swoop that guy was definitely a lot easier huh and just like anything some are easier than others right okay so the peppers onions carrot that’s been cooking with the mushrooms and the skillet we’re going to add just shy of two cups of wine to that and we’re going to let it reduce down to about half of the volume uh you can use whatever wine you want if you wanted to use white you could but I recommend a red a can be Mero Cabernet peanut whatever you prefer okay now while our wine is reducing now that our or tomatoes are peeled um we are going to go ahead and dice these up a little bit just a rough chop um because we want some hardiness to it um I do have one can which is a uh 12 oz can of stewed tomatoes DIC stewed um and those will fall apart as it’s cooking these ones will stay and add a little chunk just like the peppers and the mushrooms okay so we’re only going to do a couple at a time and put them in our bowl until we’re ready so um what I’m going to do is cut them in about fours just like so so they’re about like that you’re not looking to make them teeny tiny cuz again they will reduce when they are cooking this guy’s a little chunkier okay grab two more I’m going to finish all six of these out and then I’ll see you back here in a minute okay so the wine has reduced by half so now we’re going to add the rest of our ingredients cover it put the chicken back in cover it and then just let it go so here are our six Aroma Tomatoes we have uh two generous tablespoons of a tomato paste and then the one can of stewed tomatoes we have 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley and then we have a teaspoon of oregano 2 tpoon of basil and one teaspoon of red peppers red pepper flakes okay let me give this a stir we are adding in our chicken and any juices that came about from them resting all right okay you’re going to cover it and then turn it down to a a low not a simmer but a low and cook it for at least an hour okay so look how wonderful this looks the chicken is cooked our sauce has been reducing those tomatoes are still whole enough that uh you can see them and uh we’re going to scoop up some here let’s get some mushrooms and chicken and make sure we get some wonderful Peppers excellent all right ah I wish you guys could smell this it smells like heaven so I so I can get everything in a bite I’m going to take the chicken and uh get myself a chunk of chicken to eat with some tomato and [Music] pepper that is good has a really nice kick if you don’t like it that spicy cut the red pepper flakes down and if you like it more Jack it up even thank you for watching what’s cooking with Michelle if you like this Italian Dish try one of my other Italian dishes on my YouTube channel and if you really enjoyed it please subscribe and thank you for watching bye for [Music] now [Music]