Article (recipe) courtesy Gerry Delval

Who doesn’t like chicken?  It’s a favourite meat for many people.  So, I thought that this month, I would share with you the best authentic Italian chicken cacciatore recipe that you will ever find.  It comes from Chef Gérard’s Italian side of the family – Chef Gérard being the world famous but reclusive chef.  Chef Gérard has Italian blood.  His mother’s father, Angelo Castioni left the Lago Maggiore region of northern Italy and moved to Paris in the late 1800’s when he was a young man and he brought with him his mamma’s pollo alla cacciatora recipe.  But to really appreciate this recipe, we have to understand its origin because so many modern recipes have deviated from the original.  And, as usual, Chef Gérard has tweaked the recipe so that amateur chefs like us can replicate this authentic recipe in our modern kitchens.

The Italian name, pollo alla cacciatora, literally translates to chicken prepared hunter style, which ultimately was called chicken cacciatore in English.  Some food historians say that chicken cacciatore dates back to a peasant dish back in the Italian Renaissance.  There is a problem with that because, back in the Renaissance, only the rich folks ate meat while the peasants were too poor to afford to raise farm animals for themselves and so their diet consisted mostly of vegetable stews and unsalted bread (salt was an imported luxury commodity that was taxed).  However, peasants would occasionally hunt and catch quail and rabbit.  It would have been quite a feast to add this wild meat to their vegetable stews and to serve quaglia o coniglio alla cacciatora.  Some time after the Renaissance, when peasants’ wealth grew and they eventually became land owners-farmers, they raised chicken and so it would be a normal evolution to replace the wild meats with chicken.  But, they would use the darker, tastier thigh meat rather than the lighter white breast meat.  And, so all this introduction is to explain why Angelo’s mamma’s recipe is made with chicken thighs and not chicken breasts as so many other recipes call for.  Also, the mamma’s recipe incorporates the meat in the stew as opposed to adding it to the stew.  The meat simmers with the stew and this means that there is no meat that sits on top of the stew but rather it is part of the stew.

What you need:

• A large nonstick frying pan or an air fryer,
• A 3 litre casserole with cover,
• 12-16 chicken thighs deboned and skinned,
• 2 onions, chopped fine,
• 5 cloves of garlic, pressed,
• 3 sweet peppers, cut in small cubes,
• 500 g of Crimini mushrooms, sliced,
• 1/2 tsp of Italian seasoning,
• 1/4 tsp of oregano,
• 1/4 tsp of basil,
• 2 bay leaves,
• 1 800 ml can of diced tomatoes,
• 1 750 ml jar of roasted tomato and garlic sauce, 
• 1/3 cup of wine (white or red, your choice),
• Olive oil.

Method

• In the frying pan or air fryer, brown the chicken thighs on medium heat, salt and pepper on both sides.
• Set the chicken aside.

• In the casserole, cook the onions and garlic on medium heat until soft and golden in colour.
• Add the sweet peppers, cook until softened and with almost no more water left.
• Add the mushrooms and again cook until softened and with almost no more water left.
• Deglaze the casserole using a flat wood spatula.
• Add the Italian spices, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and bay leaves.

• Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce and wine.
• Add the chicken with its juices.
• Simmer for 3 hours.

Serving

Serve this dish on a bed of spaghetti.  Go ahead and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese. Add a slice of garlic bread. Serve with an insalata verde with vinaigrette con olio d’oliva e aceto balsamico.

Alternate Serving

This dish is also delicious when served on a bed of rice. Add a slice of bread but no garlic. Serve with the same green salad as for the spaghetti.

Wine Pairing

When served on spaghetti, Chef Gérard recommend a big red wine.  He particularly likes to serve a Ripasso.  A cabernet sauvignon or a syrah will do well also.

When served on rice, a lighter red is preferred.  Choose a nero d’avola.  A Pinot noir will also do.

Buon appetito a tutti,

– Gerry Delval