- Hey, I'm John Kanell,
and today Preppy Kitchen, we're making chicken cacciatori.
So let's get started.
To make this delicious dish,
you need bone-in skin on chicken thighs,
onion, garlic, carrot, some diced tomatoes and tomato paste,
crushed red pepper, salt and pepper,
some dry white wine,
baby bella mushrooms, but any will do,
green and a red bell peppers,
a little bit of olive oil,
some thyme, oregano, and for garnish,
parsley or a little bit of basil.
First off, we're doing some prep work,
starting by patting those chicken thighs
dry with a paper towel.
And then I'm gonna sprinkle on
half a teaspoon of salt all over.
And of course, some pepper too.
Flip 'em over, a little bit more seasoning.
Now that my chicken's seasoned,
I'm gonna get two tablespoons of olive oil on to a deep pan.
I love these cast iron enamel skillets
because they really maintain heat.
Okay, we're gonna swirl that olive oil around
so it coats everything.
And unlike a lot of recipes
where you get the oil really hot
and then you add the meat in,
here, we're adding it into a cold pan.
It's gonna help us with browning
and help us cook this chicken through
because nothing is worse than raw chicken.
I'm placing it skin-side down.
It's gonna really brown up nicely
and all of the fat underneath the skin
is gonna emulsify or just melt,
and mm, flavor that chicken nicely.
Chicken thighs and all the dark meat
don't get enough credit in my due.
And you can let me know in the comments,
if you're like not a fan of the light meat on chickens.
Now we're gonna place this pan over medium-high heat.
I'm gonna get started.
This is gonna cook for about 10 minutes undisturbed.
A lot of times, if you're cooking
and feeling that it's sticky, like this chicken skin can be,
it's gonna be horrible if you move it around.
If you let it stay until it's ready,
it'll release perfectly and be crispy and golden.
So just give it about 10 minutes.
And in the meantime, we're gonna do all of our prep.
So one of the reasons I love this recipe
is that there's like no downtime,
the chicken's going, I'm doing some chopping,
and before you know it, the whole thing is gonna be ready.
In case you're wondering,
you could have totally used two bell peppers
that are the same color,
or if you hate bell peppers, you can skip them,
it's really up to you.
And to be honest, like, if it's not a delicious bell pepper,
I wouldn't use it
'cause bell peppers should be amazing and flavorful.
And if you get them off season, sometimes they're just like,
tastes like nothing, super disappointing.
The whole reason you're adding green and red
is just to make this like colorful, vibrant dish.
Chicken cacciatori is like a central Italian dish,
and there's many different versions of it,
but it actually translates to hunters chicken.
And if you're wondering like, "Hunters chicken?"
Chickens don't need to be hunted,
they're just kinda there.
This dish was originally probably used
with more of a rabbit
or some other game that you actually would hunt.
And today it's popular just because it's like a one dish,
very few pans to clean,
and it's really tasty and easy.
(lighthearted music)
Just giving this onion an easy dice too.
Nothing here is like fancy knife work.
I'm adding four or so cloves of garlic.
You know, it's totally up to you how much you add.
I always like to shell the garlic myself
and get that skin off.
Easiest way to do that is just to give it a smash
with the flat part of your knife.
It's gonna release the skin
and also help you release some of the oils in there too.
This gets a little bit of a mince.
My last bit of prep work is just to peel one big carrot.
Giving this carrot a slice and then a quick dice,
it makes it so much easier.
And one thing you wanna be careful of
is just to not have like big pieces like that,
they should all be somewhat uniform.
It doesn't have to be perfect, but similar-ish.
Thankfully, my mushrooms came pre-sliced,
although that's really easy.
And just like that, all of my prep work is done.
All I'm waiting for is that chicken
to be ready to flip over.
So, super easy.
After about 10 minutes, your chicken is ready to turn over.
Just be gentle when you're lifting it up
because even though it's been time,
there might be a little bit of sticking.
(harsh sizzling)
There we go, mm, nice and golden.
(funky music)
We're gonna cook this for about five minutes
or until it's browned.
In the meantime,
you know, just measure out whatever else you need,
like you can chop your parsley,
open up your cans, the wine, et cetera.
After about five to six minutes,
you'll see these guys release really easily,
good, beautifully browned,
and you can just set them aside to rest on a plate
while we cook up all the delicious things
that go with this hunters chicken.
And also you'll notice,
there's way more stuff in the frying pan
than the olive oil we added.
All that delicious fat for the chicken
has seeped out and it's gonna flavor everything else.
Right now, I'm gonna add the onion in,
along with about half a teaspoon of salt.
Now it's time to add into the carrots and the bell peppers,
and they're gonna get crisp, tender
over the course of six to eight minutes.
So stir, stir, stir, let everything soften up,
and then we're gonna add the garlic.
Mm, this smells so good.
Right now, I'm gonna add in my garlic
as well as those sliced mushrooms, eight ounces.
So this gets stirred
until the mushrooms like, you know, change color,
they shrink up a bit.
They'll be about five more minutes or so.
This dish is gonna take on a lot of flavor
as you cook things down.
So, really make sure those mushrooms are cooked
so you get that much more flavor out of them.
And then towards the end, you're gonna of course,
taste and season more
because without a little bit of extra salt,
hm, it might not be that great.
Once your mushrooms have cooked a bit, we're gonna add,
ooh, a good amount of tomato paste, maybe six ounces.
I gave some fresh thyme a chop,
but you could also use dried thyme,
and I'm gonna add two teaspoons of oregano.
Stir all of that together.
The tomato is really gonna add a depth of flavor
and give you the base to the sauce.
So, right now you can see,
it's almost like caramelized tomato, it's really good.
One cup of that dry white wine.
This is gonna go into the pan and deglaze everything.
It's also gonna add even more flavor
to your chicken cacciatori.
Just don't stop stirring for this three minute period
when the tomato paste is here
because it's really working its way
into all of the veggies.
(lighthearted music)
Right now, I'm also adding in
a pinch or two to a red pepper flakes.
They really add some nice heat,
maybe two pinches, there we go.
That wine evaporated off.
I'm adding in another half teaspoon of salt,
and here's the deal.
I have a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes,
but I poured off and reserved some of the tomato juice.
I don't want this to be too watery.
So it's more of a diced tomato than the tomato water.
Stir in your diced tomatoes
and at the same time, I'm reducing this to medium-low,
and the chicken's gonna go back in now.
This chicken was browned, not cooked all the way through.
Nestle the chicken into the sauce, there we go.
Whoa.
(chuckles)
Now it's gonna cook all the way through.
So, you need to cook this chicken all the way through.
Bone-in takes a little bit more time,
but it has so much extra flavor, it's totally worth it.
Let's nestle that in there and it just fits, just barely.
Now we're gonna partially cover this
and let this cook away for about 25 minutes
or until a thermometer tells you
that the deepest part of that chicken is at 165.
That's how you know when it's done.
There we go.
My chicken is done.
We're gonna take this off of heat.
Garnish with some parsley
and we're ready to enjoy.
You can have this with rice pasta by itself
or more veggies.
I'm plating this up for dinner.
Everyone in my house loves chicken cacciatore.
A little bite won't spoil my appetite.
(lighthearted music)
Mm.
That sauce has the most amazing depth of flavor.
Oh my gosh, everything came together and it's delicious.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you liked this video, check out my chicken playlist.