Chicken cacciatore is one of those Italian-descended classics that has a million definitions. To
me, it's chicken braised with tomatoes and bell peppers. Here is my attempt to give it
a significant flavor boost by using a pretty unconventional process. This is cooked entirely
under the broiler, thus it has a deep, smokey, roasted flavor and color.
First thing you'll need is a big roasting tray. Your biggest tray might be an aluminum
baking sheet, but I would not use that. We're cooking a tomato sauce in it, and the acid
could dissolve a noticeable amount of metal out of an aluminum pan. Any other super-wide
pan will be fine.
Now we need a couple pounds, or a kilo of tomatoes. These are from my garden, and sauce
is usually how I use home-grown tomatoes that have significant defects. I can just cut off
that yucky part and I've got a beautiful half of a tomato. All of these, I'm just gonna
cut out the stem end and then cut them in half, no smaller — that's important. Half
tomatoes.
In those go to the roasting tray. Next, the bell peppers — three of them, any color.
Gonna cut them all in half in then just reach in there and tear out the stem, the seeds,
and any big white hunks of rib that I can easily extract.
Into the tray with those pepper halves.
Like three big shallots, or one onion. Again, cut them each in half, then peel off the skin.
I'll cut off the tips, and then very carefully shave off the roots. I don't want to cut too
deeply into the root end, because then nothing would hold the layers together. I want to
keep them together. Into the tray.
Oh, now would be a good time to get your broiler heating — that's the element at the very
top of the oven, often called a "grill" outside the United States.
Got a few garlic cloves here. I'll cut off the root ends and then smash them with the
side off the knife, just to open them up a bit and to loosen the skin. I want whole,
lightly crushed garlic cloves for this. In they go.
I'll turn that around so you can see everything. Here's like a pound and a half of boneless
skinless chicken thighs. 5-6 of them. Such a convenient product. It's just chicken stew
waiting to happen. Don't be tempted to use breasts — this recipe would turn them into
chalk.
I'll give everything a good drizzle of olive oil. That's pretty. Then grind on enough pepper
to season every surface in here, not just the surfaces that are currently facing up.
Same deal with the salt. Enough to cover everything.
Then it's time to get in there and toss everything around. Get every surface coated in oil and
seasoning, and as you go, turn all the vegetables cut-side down. Skins should be facing up,
that's important. It's also important that you get everything as spaced out as possible.
Nothing should be sitting on top of anything else, with the exception of the garlic, which
I'm tucking under the chicken to protect it. It would burn under the broiler and burnt
garlic is repulsive.
There we go. If some stuff is overlapping, don't stress about it. Everything in here
will start shrinking rapidly as it cooks. If things don't fit now, they will soon. Right
under a glowing hot broiler this goes, on a rack near the top.
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And because I don't want to get atherosclerosis and die, I'm gonna have this chicken with
mashed cauliflower instead of a starch, as would be traditional. We always had chicken
cacciatore with rice, growing up, but this is honestly gonna be better. You just hack
the cauliflower into random small chunks and cram them into a pot. I'll just fill that
like halfway up with water. Anything that isn't submerged is gonna steam just fine.
Put that on high heat and cover it.
Let's check on our chicken. You might think, "Oh no, we burned it!" Yes we did, and that's
good. I'm trying to burn everything in here except for the chicken and the garlic.
At the end, we're just gonna do this — lift the burnt skin right off, and underneath we'll
have a smokey, deep-roasted vegetable. That's why everything needs to be skin-side up. Back
under that goes.
While I'm waiting, I'll just peel and chop a ton of garlic for the cauliflower. It doesn't
have to be perfect, because we're gonna puree it eventually. I'll check the cauliflower
with a fork. Not quite soft yet. Needs to be really soft.
Check the chicken again. When the peppers feel just barely cooked to me, I'm gonna take
them out. If you want them to go really soft and kinda melt them into a sauce like the
tomatoes, then leave them in. But I want them to maintain structural integrity, so they're
done. I'll flip the chicken around to get some color on the opposite side, while the
first side can start stewing in the accumulated liquid at the bottom of the pan.
Don't stress anymore about covering up the garlic. It can start getting a little color
now. I'll also throw in some capers — the pickled, unopened flower bud of a Mediterranean
bush. I don't want too much of that salty brine, so I'm lifting them out with a fork,
which kinda functions like a strainer. Olives would be more traditional in chicken cacciatore.
They'd be great instead. And I could use some more liquid in the pan, so I'll give this
a big shot of balsamic vinegar: white or red, doesn't matter. Tomatoes that get a lot of
long, intense heat generally need some additional acid to brighten them back up. Back under
that goes.
Cauliflower is soft, and uncharacteristically for me, I'm going to strain that into an actual
strainer. I need the pot empty and reasonably clean for the next step, which is to brown
a big knob of butter. Melt it until the water boils out and it goes brown and nutty. That'll
really help the flavor of the cauliflower. In goes the garlic and then the heat goes
all the way down. I don't want to burn the garlic. Just cook it until it's softened,
back in the cauliflower goes, stir it around, and if you're gonna put in any milk or buttermilk
at all, just do a tiny splash. This doesn't need nearly as much moisture as mashed potatoes
do. If anything I put in too much.
Check the chicken again, and if it gets too much dry heat, it'll go leathery. At some
point you might want to add some water to the pan, or maybe just put the tomatoes on
top of the chicken to get them wet.
I like it when dark meat goes kinda crispy, but I overshot the mark here. Make sure they
get some wet heat.
Time to puree the cauliflower. An immersion blender is the most convenient way. Nice and
smooth. Give it a taste. That needs salt, obviously, but let's grate in a bunch of pecorino
or parmesan cheese. Always do this before you test for seasoning, because it's very
salty. OK, now we just need a bunch of pepper and a little salt. That is delicious. It can
sit covered on warm until we need it.
Alright, chicken feels soft, like I could pull it apart. That means it's done. Now time
to simply lift the burnt skins off the tomatoes. This is oddly satisfying. You'll find it's
hard to pull the skin off the smaller chunks. That's fine. Just leave those. A little burnt
skin will give this sauce a delicious smokey flavor. We're just trying to manage the smokiness.
Pull off whatever you can easily pull off, and leave the rest. Same deal with the shallots.
Just lift off the burnt layer and discard.
Now I'm just gonna push my chicken away to safety, and with my tomatoes and shallots
and garlic all at this end, I'm gonna mash everything with a wooden spoon. Time to turn
this into sauce. I'm also scraping any delicious fond off the bottom and sides of the tray
as I go. Back in the chicken goes. Cover each piece with sauce. And then I'll turn on the
burner that's under this side of the tray. I want to get this simmering so the chicken
can have some time actually stewing inside the sauce. Low heat. That sauce could burn
easily.
While I'm waiting, I'll peel as much blackened skin off of the peppers as possible. Again,
a little is fine, so only take off what you can easily take off. I'll stack those up and
just cut them into big strips. Love roasted peppers. In they go to re-heat in the pan,
and I'm very gently stirring things around. I don't want the chicken or the peppers to
break apart.
Time to tear in some last-minute fresh herb and I'm doing sage. You could use almost anything.
And that is done. Some mashed cauliflower on the plate. Carefully lift over a chicken
thigh. Don't let it break apart. And then spoon on some more peppers and sauce. A little
fresh thyme at the end just for pretty. And wow, the chicken just falls apart. The sauce
is like a jam, it's so rich and sweet and intense. And the cauliflower beautifully performs
the function of a starch, which is to soak up any extra sauce. It's sweet. It's a perfect
counterpoint to the smokey chicken and peppers.
That is a delicious low-carb meal. I know it's not traditional cacciatore, but give
this method a chance. The only downside is it only makes 4-5 portions, because you need
to so much surface area. But if you're just cooking for a few people, that is a really
special flavor.