Cacciatora

Chicken browned hard and braised in wine with rosemary, finished with olives rather than tomato.

Chicken, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, fish.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, about 1.6 kg, jointed into 8
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 250 ml dry white wine
• 3 anchovy fillets
• 100 g black olives, stoned
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper

Method

1. Dry the chicken pieces thoroughly and brown them hard in the oil, skin side first, in two batches. Eight minutes a batch, and do not move them for the first four.
2. Lift them out. Cook the onion in the same fat for 8 minutes, then add the garlic and rosemary for a minute.
3. Pour in the wine, scrape the base, and let it reduce by half.
4. Return the chicken skin side up, cover, and cook 35 minutes at a bare simmer.
5. Mash the anchovies with the vinegar and stir them in with the olives for the last 5 minutes.
6. THERE IS NO TOMATO IN THIS. Plenty of versions have it and they are good; this is the older, drier kind, where the sauce is reduced wine and chicken fat and the sharpness comes from vinegar and olives. Add tomato and you have a different dish that wants twice the cooking.
7. Season and serve with the pan juices spooned over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes