Hunting for chicken: Chicken cacciatore

It is somewhat appropriate that one of our beginnings this year, is this dish.  See, carini, in many ways, this recipe embodies all of what this blog is about.

Let's look at the title first:  "chicken cacciatore."  "Chicken, " of course, is easy, but "cacciatore" is a word you may not know.  Well, it is Italian for "hunter," and the full name of the dish is actually  "pollo alla cacciatore," which you may translate as "chicken in the hunter's style."

Well, what is the hunter's style?  Annalena admits to being puzzled by this, notwithstanding her research.  See, she was first puzzled because the name of the dish suggested it was something that hunters made, while they were hunting.  Well, Italians may steal chicken  ("polli rubati sono i piu saporiti?"),  but HUNT them?  No, that is not what happens.  And she was thrown off more, because the other protein commonly done "alla cacciatore" is rabbit.  Well, rabbit IS hunted, and indeed,  many a hunter will tell you how s/he lived on rabbit until a larger piece of game was brought down.

The truth is, "alla cacciatore" SHOULD be "allo stilo della sposa della caccia"  or  "in the style of the hunter's wife," because in fact, this is supposed to be a dish that the hunter's wife had ready for him when he came back from hunting.

Do not ask Annalena why.  It does not make sense to her why THIS relates more to hunters than to anyone else.  As  you will see.

Ultimately, it is a very simple dish, and of course, we are all about simple here.  It is also a dish that admits of many variations, and Annalena is going to give you HER version and also talk about the others that are out there.    It is, again, a dish that is rather economical, rather easy to prepare and which holds well.  So, you can make it when you have an hour or so in the kitchen, cool it down, and save it for a night when you need a warm, hug-like dinner.

Let us begin.  You need 3-4 pounds of chicken pieces, and Annalena strongly suggests that you use  whole legs.  That's not that many:  you will probably have 4-6 legs in total.  A big frying pan will hold four, so do keep that in mind.  The reason for suggesting the legs, ragazzi, is because you are making a braise or a stew, and the legs will hold better in this than the breast meat will.  The breast meat will inevitably dry out.  Trust  Annalena on this.

The other basics you are going to need are olive oil, onions, garlic, rosemary, canned tomatoes,  and wine.  We will add other items, as we go along.  Just have some pazienza.

If you can, do what we always do with chicken, and salt it and leave it exposed in the refrigerator, overnight.  If you cannot do that, then leave it exposed and salted for as long as you can.  You want this to be as dry as possible, so dry it at the end.

Slice up 1-2 onions into half moons, and then slice them thinly.  Collect yourself a half glass of wine  (for cooking.  Get a full glass for drinking).  The cooking wine can be white, if you feel Northern, or red, if you feel southern, or whatever you have that is opened, and needs to be used.  DO NOT USE rose' and DO NOT use sweet.

Put two tablespoons of olive oil in the frying pan and get it hot.  Put the chicken legs in, skin side down, and do not move them for five minutes or so.  This is why you want to make sure that you've wicked the moisture off of them.  Wet chicken does not brown.  And it will stick to the pan and lose you that lovely crispness.

After five minutes, flip the legs over, and cook them for another three minutes or so.  Then, take them out of the pan and put them aside, just for a minute or so, while we prepare other things.

The other things are a couple of cloves of garlic, which you chop up, the sprigs of rosemary , which you leave whole, and.... see, when Annalena learned this recipe for the first time, she learned it with mushrooms.  Now, she has learned that classic cacciatore has no mushrooms in it, but does have chopped green pepper in it.   Frankly, mushrooms sound more "cacciatore" to her, because you hunt for mushrooms, so she says  "the hell with the peppers, use the mushrooms."  And if, as was the case with Annalena, you have no fresh mushrooms around, get about an ounce of dried mushrooms, and put them under hot water at the start of your cooking, so that they will soften.  When they are soft, chop them up.

Now, let's get back to that pan.  Take a look at the fat in it.  Is there more than when you started?  If so, drain some off.  If not, add some back  (this will NOT be the case:  chicken thighs contain a lot of fat).  Add the onions, with a teaspoon of salt, and cook them until they go to translucent.  It will not take long.  Add the garlic,  and the wine, OFF THE FLAME.  You don't want it to flare up and burn your eyelashes.  Now, back to the stove, ragazzi, and add the mushrooms  (if you REALLY want the peppers, add them too), and cook them for a bit if they're dry, or for about three minutes if they are fresh.  You will have to slice the fresh ones, of course.  Then, finally, add about two cups of canned, chopped tomatoes and then put the chicken back in, skin side up.  Lower your heat, cover the pan, and let it simmer away, for about 45 minutes.

And you've got chicken cacciatore.  And it is good.   Adjust the salt as you see fit, and pull the rosemary out. If you do not care for rosemary, you can use bay leaves, or thyme.  You want something that will give you a "resin" like herbal flavor, so stay away from basil, or dill, or things of this nature.

Traditionally, Annalena has had this with a starter of a simple pasta.  Or polenta.  Whatever you do, ragazzi, PLEASE DO NOT PUT THIS ON TOP OF PASTA.  Why not?  Well, because in all of Italian cooking, there is not a single dish where pasta and chicken are combined (we do NOT consider Olive Garden Italian Cooking.  Please bear that in mind).

So, you have an easy dish which, if there are but two of you, will give you ample leftovers, or excuse to invite someone to dinner.  Of course, you could eat it all.  And if you can, well, why not?

Tomorrow, ragazzi, we're going to look at a case of  "when she got there, the cupboard was almost bare," as Annalena deals with empty shelves, cold weather, and lunch.