Chicken Cacciatore (Italian chicken stew)

Chicken Cacciatore, “Hunter’s Stew” or Pollo Cacciatore in Italian, is a hearty, rustic stew made with chicken and vegetables simmered in a tomato sauce rich with wine and herbs. Simple, cosy, downright tasty homemade comfort food!

Chicken cacciatore – an Italian chicken stew

I have a soft spot for chicken stews (proof here and here and here) because you get all the stewy-goodness that takes hours with beef stew in under an hour. Because, thank you chicken, you cook fast and we don’t need to take you to fall-apart-goodness to be juicy perfection!

Today’s chicken stew is Chicken Cacciatore. “Cacciatore” means “hunter” in Italian and in cooking it commonly refers to a stewy-type meal made with tomatoes, onion, herbs and usually red wine in which a protein is braised, typically chicken and rabbit, though I’ve also seen lamb and vegetarian versions.

Cacciatore is one of those foods where there are no rules or one way to make it, which means there are countless regional varieties and family recipes all over Italy and the world.

And today, I’m sharing my version which, in outside of Italy (certainly in Australia) would be considered a fairly classic version made with popular choices including chicken with onions, mushrooms and capsicum (bell peppers).

The tomato based stew sauce is flavoured with red wine, rosemary, bay leaves and dried oregano, as well as the flavours from the chicken, vegetables and whole olives (don’t skip this!). It’s all simmered together for 30 minutes which is enough time for the flavours to meld together and for the chicken to be cooked through to juicy perfection, but much faster to make than a slow cooked beef stew!

Ingredients in Chicken Cacciatore

Here’s what you need to make this Chicken Cacciatore.

Best chicken for Chicken Cacciatore

Because the sauce needs to be simmered for 30 minutes to allow it to develop flavour and thicken, we need a cut of chicken that can hold up to that simmer time. Bone in thighs and drumsticks are the answer! Bonus: Juicier, tastier and cheaper than boneless chicken breast. 🙂

Mix of thighs and drumsticks – I like to use a mix of thighs and drumsticks, but you can use just one or the other. Use as many as you can fit in the pan, bearing in mind they will shrink a bit as they cook (I use 4 of each, around 1.6kg / 3lb in total). This will feed 4 adults with hearty appetites (one thigh and one drumstick each), or 6 smaller servings (either 1 thigh or 2 drumsticks per person).

Other suitable cuts – Chicken Marylands (quarters) would also be ideal! I would use 4.

Boneless thighs or breast – However, if you prefer or only have boneless thighs or breast, I’ve popped directions in the recipe notes for how to adjust the recipe (just add them back into the sauce towards the end of the simmer time so they don’t overcook).

Vegetables and herbs

Bugger! I forgot dried oregano in the photo. 🙂

• Mushrooms – I just use regular white / button mushrooms. Feel free to use other types.

• Capsicum (bell peppers) – This imparts a distinct flavour into the sauce which I love and associate with the “cacciatore” flavour. So I always use capsicum!

  My brother prefers fennel which is very on theme, being a vegetable widely used in traditional Italian cooking. He also threw out the statement “capsicum is soooo pedestrian, fennel makes it more interesting!”. The whole RecipeTin Family is very opinionated about food! 😂 Both fennel and capsicum are lovely in this dish. You choose! There is no right answer.

• Bay leaves – I like to use fresh because I have a plant (excellent one to grow in a pot, hard to accidentally kill). However, dried will work fine too.

• Rosemary – Using sprigs of fresh rosemary sort of “perfumes” the sauce in a way that dried rosemary will not. So really try to use fresh if you can, though it can be substituted with dried rosemary.

• Dried oregano – Accidentally left out of the photo! I prefer to use dried rather than fresh because it has an earthier flavour that I think works better for this dish.

• Onion and garlic – Essential flavour base for the sauce!

Cacciatore sauce ingredients

As mentioned above, anchovies are the “secret ingredient” that add depth of flavour into this tomato based sauce without making it taste fishy at all. I doubt even someone with a really refined palette would know it is in there. But, if you’re really anti-anchovies, you can use fish sauce instead (similar savouriness) or boring ole’ salt!

• Anchovies – Use the anchovies in oil that comes in jars and cans. The anchovies are grey and salty. Don’t use the white anchovies in a vinegary oil that are more expensive. These are made for popping straight into your mouth rather than cooking with! I put them on charcuterie boards.

• Red wine – Wine is used to flavour the sauce but once cooked, it won’t taste winey. I like to use pinot noir for cooking so this is the one I have on hand all the time. However, any dry red wine can be used, or substituted with white wine. There is no need to use expensive wine here, it’s wasted! Get a steeply discounted bottle from the discount bins at the liquor store.

  Non-alcoholic substitute – The alcohol in the wine is mostly cooked out because we reduce the wine then the sauce is simmered for a further 30 minutes. However, if you need an alcohol-free option, use extra chicken stock instead.

• Kalamata olives – Use whole, pitted kalamata olives. The brine goodness of the olives adds both flavour and salt into the sauce, so don’t skip it! (Note: I way prefer the flavour and texture of Kalamata olives over standard “black olives” which are firmer and have less flavour).

• Chicken stock/broth – Low sodium please. This way we can control the level of salt we add. I always worry when using full salt chicken stock that sauces end up too salty and you can’t undo it.

• Tomato – Tomato paste and canned tomato. The tomato paste thickens the sauce (so we don’t need flour or other thickener) and adds an extra hit of tomato flavour.

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How to make Chicken Cacciatore

Brown chicken skin > sauté veg > simmer 30 minutes. Easy!

1. Season – Lay the chicken out on a tray then sprinkle each side with salt and pepper.

2. Brown – Using a large pan with a lid (mine is 30cm/12″ wide, this Pyrolux, it seems to only be available in Australia). Sear the skin side of the thighs until golden (about 6 minutes) then the flesh side for only 1 minute. Put it back on the same try then brown the drumsticks as best you can (because of the shape, you can’t brown it evenly, that’s ok).

3. Sauté & dissolve anchovies – Sauté the onion with the rosemary and bay leaves until the onion is softened. Then clear a space in the middle of the pan and cook the garlic with the anchovies, mashing up the anchovies as you go (ie no need to mince with a knife, just add them in whole). Then mix the garlic and anchovies up with the onion.

4. Cook vegetables – Add the capsicum and mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes until softened. The mushrooms will go watery then the water will evaporate, by this time they should be softened.

5. Cook off tomato paste – Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. This will take off the sour edge and improve the flavour, so don’t skip this step.

6. Sauce – Add the wine and reduce by about 3/4 (to cook out the winey flavour, leaving behind just the tasty wine flavour). Then add the canned tomato, chicken stock/broth, dried oregano, salt and pepper.

7. Simmer – Once the sauce comes up to a simmer, gently place the chicken pieces in, skin-side up. Then put the lid on and simmer for 20 minutes on medium. The liquid should be simmering gently, not rapidly (it will spill over if it does).

8. Olives & thicken sauce – Remove the lid and add the olives. Then simmer for a further 10 minutes without the lid. The olives will soften and meld into the sauce, and the sauce will reduce and thicken.

And that’s it! Ready to serve!

Serve over mashed potato or polenta, an excellent on-theme option for Italian food. If you don’t have the time to make “real” polenta (which does take a good 40 minutes or so), buy “instant polenta” or “quick polenta” which takes 5 to 10 minutes on the stove.

It’s also lovely over plain rice or just served in a bowl with crusty bread on the side for mopping. Serve it with a leafy green salad on the side tossed with my Everyday Salad Dressing (or upgrade to Italian Dressing) for a simple midweek meal. Or if you’re making this for a Sunday Supper with family and friends, go all out by serving it with a Mega Italian Salad, garlic bread and a warm Cinnamon Rice Pudding or Baked Stuffed Apples for dessert. Swoon! – Nagi x

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Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

When Dozer made the cover of gossip mags!!!

OK, so he’s a small inset on the cover – but still! Check one off his bucket list! 🙌🏻😂

This was press in relation to a little guest judge appearance I did for Masterchef Australia which aired on Monday 17th June which you can watch here on Ten Play. What an experience! I’ll share more about it in an upcoming life happenings update. 🙂

On the health front, Dozer is doing so well! His energy levels and strength have improved to the point that he is breaking out into a run without me having to coax him like I used to. He wants to play, he is back to chasing birds, trotting into the kitchen whenever I pull something tasty out of the oven and I even take him on professional shoot days again! 🥰

I feel so grateful and relieved that he’s recovered ok from his surgery to get a reasonable level of normalcy back into his life. Most importantly to me, he is happy and back to enjoying life – and food!

Love this darn dog so darn much.