This is scrumptious! "Cacciatore" is an Italian dish, which means "hunter" or a dish prepared in a "hunter style". So i suppose by this they kinda mean rustic! A traditional cacciatore is most commonly made with chicken or rabbit. You know i'm not really a traditional girl, so I kinda see this dish really as a nice chicken casserole with a tasty smoky bacon and tomato sauce! It does seem like when it comes out of the oven that there is a lot of sauce- but this is vital to make sure the chicken stays moist, and i think the best part of the dish is serving it with something to mop up all that delicious sauce! Again, traditionally in Italy they would serve this with big hunks of bread, but i've gone for a pile of creamy mash. By the way don't you just love this plate? My mum bought it decades ago, rather pricy at the time she told me! It really looks so fabulously eighties!
Chicken Cacciatore (serves 2)
2 chicken breasts with skin
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small white onion, diced finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 smoked thick-cut back bacon slice, diced finely
1 stalk fresh rosemary, destalked and finely chopped
100ml white wine
350g tomato passata
2 tsp sugar
1 vegetable stock cube
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Handful fresh parsley, chopped
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the two chicken breasts on an oven tray with a little salt and pepper, for 25 minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. In a casserole, sauté the onion, bacon, garlic and rosemary in the oil for 10 minutes. Add white wine, and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the passata, sugar, stock cube, and bay leaf, and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Put the reserved chicken breasts into the casserole pot, cover with the tomato sauce, cover with the casserole lid, and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley, and serve!
PS: After cooking this recipe a few more times, I have found it is also very nice to add a handful of halved button mushrooms in at stage 2 (before adding the wine).
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