How to Make Chicken Cacciatore

Today I’m sharing a family favorite: chicken cacciatore! It’s made with fall-apart tender braised chicken thighs in a rustic sauce with lots of vegetables. It’s hearty, yet light, and so flavorful! My family loves to serve this for Sunday dinners with pasta, salad, and some crusty bread. But others who have tried this recipe say they also love it with potatoes instead of pasta!

Optional Tip: My mom and I also love to add Italian sausage links to this (spicy is my favorite). You can brown them after you brown the chicken, then let them simmer with the whole dish in the oven. They add even more delicious flavor!

Recipe: https://asimplepalate.com/blog/easy-chicken-cacciatore/

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6 skinless chicken thighs
1 medium to large onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced small
4 oz white mushrooms, cleaned and diced very small
4-5 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup dry white wine, I used Pinot Grigio
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped (for dried rosemary use 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped (for dried sage use 1 teaspoon)
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 28 oz diced, whole, or crushed tomatoes with the juices
3/4 teaspoon salt divided (plus more salt for seasoning the chicken)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Parmigiano Reggiano, for serving

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Hey everyone, welcome to my kitchen. I’m Bethany and today’s recipe I’m going to be showing you how to make chicken kachaturi, which is a rustic Italian stew made of brazed chicken, vegetables, and tomatoes. It is light but yet really comforting. It’s so delicious. My family loves this recipe. So, let’s get right into it. [Music] So the first step in our chicken catchori is getting the chicken ready. We’re going to season six chicken thighs that are boneless and skinless with salt and pepper on both sides. I like to use the boneless and skinless because I don’t really need the skin on the chicken in this dish. It’s going to get really tender. And if that’s the case, then I don’t really use the chicken skin unless I want it to get crispy. So, we’re going to generously season these on both sides. [Music] Then, in a brazer cast iron pan, I have that heated over medium heat right now. I want to use a pan that is oven safe, but also something that I can cook everything on top with a stove. Uh, and then we can just cover it and put it in the oven. So, you can use whatever you like, but I’m going to be using a cast iron skillet brazer. And we have this heated up already. We want to have that heated before we add our olive oil for the chicken. That way, it hopefully doesn’t stick. But we’ll oil that with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. [Music] So, we’re going to brown the chicken thighs for about 3 minutes on each side, just for them to get browned, not fully cooked. [Music] All right. So, after the chicken’s brown, we’re going to take a clean plate and transfer those chicken thighs to the plate. So, in the same pan that we browned our chicken in, we’re actually going to cook our vegetables without wiping it out. But in my pan right now, there’s a lot of chicken bits on the bottom. And before I add the vegetables, I kind of want to bring those off of the surface. So, just a little extra step you can do that I like to do if that’s the case is just splash the pan with a little bit of chicken stock or even water just to delaze the bottom of the pan. And we’re going to use just a wooden spoon to get some of those bits up off of the bottom. So, first a chicken cacator is filled with lots of vegetables, which is why I love it. And we’re going to be using a typical safrio. So, we have a large yellow onion. Mine’s really large, so I’m going to use about 2/3 of it. And chicken kajchaturi actually just means hunter style, which means that it’s a kind of throw together rustic type dish. So you can do big cuts or little cuts. I like little cuts, so it’s not really hunter style, but that’s kind of the idea of the dish is it’s very rustic. You can just roughly chop everything in and throw it in. But we’re going to do a diced onion. We’ll put that in our pan. And we’re doing a sophrito. So we’re going to also add a carrot and a stock of celery. So just one of each. [Music] And chicken kacator always reminds me of Sunday dinners with my family. My mom would often make chicken catchuri when the fall came and the winter came. It’s a really nice comforting dish, but it’s also really easy. I love making this dish because you can put it in the oven, let it roast, and when your company comes, dinner’s ready. So, that’s a really nice thing about it. Mix those together in that pan. We’re also going to add one red bell pepper. This is nice for sweetness. Like I said, this dish is full of vegetables. [Music] So, we’re going to do 1/4 teaspoon of salt with the vegetables. And we’ll let these cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, just until they’re soft. And we have that oil already in the bottom of the pan, but you can totally add more if you feel like it needs it. So, while the safo and the vegetables are cooking, we’re going to chop up about 4 ounces of white button mushrooms. If you don’t like mushrooms, don’t worry. You can’t tell that they’re in this dish. I like to chop them really small, which is kind of against the hunter style, but I’m not a massive mushroom fan, but my mom always put it in her chicken catchuri, so I like them chopped really small. And it blends in really nice with the chicken. and it kind of turns into like a chicken ragu and you hardly notice that it’s there, but it’s great for adding a nice flavor to the whole dish. [Music] All right, so our vegetables are getting soft, but they’re still going to cook more with the mushrooms. Now, we’re going to add the diced mushrooms. [Music] Then we’ll cook this for an additional 2 to 3 minutes just for the mushrooms to soften. And the vegetables will continue to soften as well. [Music] And we can also add just a little pinch of salt for those mushrooms. You never want to, as I’ve mentioned in other videos, make the whole dish and then season it with salt at the end. That is not building flavor. We want to do that in every step that we make with seasoning with salt. [Music] So, while our vegetables are finishing cooking, we’re going to add five minced garlic cloves. And we’ll let this cook for 30 to 60 seconds as the vegetables are finishing. [Music] Now, I do want to say there’s a little bit more moisture in the pan than what is typical for me. This burner is on its way out. This is probably the last time you’ll be seeing this burner. It has not been serving me well in these videos. Um, but when I’m using this on my gas range, this is not the case. So, just wanted to say that every heat source is different. So, just kind of keeping that in mind. But since I delazed the pan with some broth, it hasn’t really fully come out. But that’s fine. We just want to soften these. So, now we’re going to add 2 tablespoons to our vegetables of tomato paste. And we’re going to cook that with the vegetables for about 2 minutes. This is going to really help develop a little bit more flavor in the chicken catchuri. And while that’s cooking, we’re going to add some herbs. So, we have about two teaspoons of fresh rosemary and two teaspoons of fresh sage. If you want to use dried rosemary and dried sage, you can just do one teaspoon. It would be less than fresh herbs. And then we’ll add that with the tomato paste. Get those flavors coming out of the herbs a little bit more. Then we’re going to add 1/8 of a teaspoon, which is like a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes. If you want a little bit more heat, which it wouldn’t even be spicy, you could do a/4 teaspoon. Then we’re going to add a/4 cup of white wine to delaze the pan in this step. I’m using a penog grigio. You can use sylvvian blanc. Anything dry would be great. And just white wine, not red. That smells so good. Once that wine goes in, the whole dish just transforms. Now, I I do want to say that I did not originally have wine in this recipe. My mom never used wine in her chicken catchuri, but I do find that just adding it in this step, it’s kind of like a healthy splash, will really give this dish so much more flavor. Uh, but I do want to say that if you don’t want to use alcohol, just leave it out. Totally fine. And if you need to delaze your pan at this point after the tomato paste, just do a splash of stock or even just a little bit of water. And we’re going to cook the wine really until it absorbs, which is in no time at all because it was just a generous splash. And then we have some more fresh herbs. We have some fresh basil from my garden. It is on its way out. I’m very sad about that. But we’re going to use the last of it before the first frost comes. We’re going to do a generous amount. So, about two to three tablespoons of fresh basil. Now, when you want to use dried herbs, I have no problem with you using the dried rosemary and dried sage, but when it comes to basil, I do recommend using fresh. I don’t really like dried basil or dried parsley. And they’re such cheap herbs, so I feel like you could find them at the store year round. At least I do. And I always buy the plants of it. So, we’re going to add our fresh basil. Then, we’re going to do 3/4 of a teaspoon of garlic powder. And I’ve done this in other recipes. We’re not making this garlicky. We’re developing flavor. Just by doing garlic in a fresh form and in a dried form, it just really layers more flavor than just using fresh or just using dried. [Music] And now we’re going to add one 28 oz can of plum tomatoes. And I hand crushed those. I’m not a huge fan of pre-crushed tomatoes. I don’t know why. They have the weirdest texture to me. So I prefer hand crushing them myself. And we’re going to do all the juices in there. We really want those because we’re not adding any more liquid to this recipe. I actually had chicken stock in the recipe a while ago and I felt like it was too much liquid so I removed it. And we’re just doing this. And we’ll have the lid covering it so nothing can evaporate. We’ll stir that in. [Music] This really turns into such a beautiful sauce with the chicken. Then for our final seasoning of salt, we’re going to do a half a teaspoon. Then we have our brown chicken from earlier. We’re going to juzj that into the sauce and the vegetables. Just make sure that it’s mostly covered. And then the juices from the chicken. I’m just going to pour in there as well. Guys, we forgot the black pepper. We have to have a/4 teaspoon of black pepper. You know, I got to go with the flow of things sometimes. I knew I forgot something. Now, we’re going to cover this with the lid and we’re going to bake the chicken catchuri in the oven at 350° for 50 minutes covered and then another 20 minutes uncovered. And that way, if there’s too much liquid in the pan, it can absorb a little bit. But if you feel like it’s absorbing too much, you can just keep it covered the whole time. So, it’ll cook for an hour and 10 minutes in total. And then at the end, the chicken will be falling apart, or it should be, and it’ll just be rich and delicious. I’m excited to taste it. [Music] [Music] So, our chicken catchuri is done. It’s been cooling for a few minutes since braising in the oven. And I typically like to serve this over pasta because it’s kind of like a chicken ragu in a way. So, that’s the way that we like to serve it. We really always serve it with pasta, but I’ve had a lot of viewers let me know that they’ve served this with potatoes, too, if you don’t want to do pasta. Um, or just with bread, and you can just serve it on its own. But I always like to serve this with a dusting of parmesan regiano on top. Always adds to the dish. But it smells delicious. Looks divine. It’s delicious. The fact that this is a chicken dish and it has so much flavor and it doesn’t taste like chicken. That’s why I love this dish because I feel like chicken dishes can just not be good sometimes. The chicken thighs are literally falling apart. That’s how tender they get. If you have a bone in chicken thigh, it should fall off the bone. The vegetables have so much flavor. The sauce has so much flavor. And one thing I wanted to point out, I should have pointed out this in the beginning of my video, but I forgot. Um, but there’s different types of chicken catchuris. So, if you’re wondering why this doesn’t have olives or capers or anchovi, uh that’s typically a southern Italian chicken catch. Mine is based more on a northern Italian, which is the celery, carrot, bell pepper, mushrooms. The mushrooms aren’t always in it. But that is one thing about chicken catchuri is it is a little bit different based on what region it’s from and who makes it because I don’t particularly like olives in a baked dish but I love olives in like a fresh salad or something like that but not really in a chicken catchori but yeah this is absolutely delicious and one of my favorite dishes to make especially if I’m hosting like I said earlier it is a dish that you can make throw in the oven you don’t have a lot of cleanup and once your guests come, you just take it out of the oven, serve it with some pasta, salad, some bread, and it’s a great Sunday dinner. And I love Sunday dinners with my family. So, I hope you guys get to try this, and you can let me know what you think of it. And, uh, also, if you make chicken catch another way, feel free to let me know your favorite ingredients that you like to include in that in the comments. Um, but thanks so much for joining me today, and I hope you guys enjoy this. And as always, I’ll catch you in the next recipe, and I’ll see you in the comments. [Music]