Chicken Cacciatore with Chicken Thighs and Breasts
How to make chicken cacciatore
Chicken cacciatore is a wonderful dish to serve anytime, but especially when those crisp autumn evenings come around. I like to use a combination of chicken thighs and breasts for this dish. Keeping the chicken skin on and the bones in gives this dish extra flavor. But remember, the chicken thighs will cook a bit faster than the breasts so make sure to take them out of the simmering sauce after about 20 minutes. The breasts will need another 10 minutes or so to cook through.
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Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients
- 4 skin-on chicken thighs
- 4 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- 1½ cups flour for dredging the chicken
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ red or green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 can (28-ounce) San Marzano diced tomatoes with juice
- ¾ cup chicken broth plus more if needed
- 3 tablespoons drained and rinsed capers
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- Using a paper towel, dry off the skin of the chicken thighs and breasts. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Place the flour on a plate. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, coating all sides of the chicken.
- In a large heavy sauté pan place enough olive oil to just coat the bottom of the pan. Heat on medium-high heat. When hot, reduce heat to medium and carefully add the chicken breasts and thighs. Cook on all sides until evenly browned. Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to do this in batches, adding additional olive oil as needed. As pieces are browned, remove them and place on a paper-towel lined platter or sheet pan.
- Sauté the onion, garlic, bell pepper, celery, and carrot in the same pan used for the chicken, adding additional olive oil as needed. Sauté over medium heat until the vegetables soften, about 3 minutes. Add the white wine and simmer to reduce by half. Add the tomatoes, with the juice, along with the broth, capers, dried oregano, and dried basil. Mix gently to combine the sauce ingredients.
- Return the chicken pieces to the pan, placing them snuggly but evenly in the pan. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook until chicken pieces are done. The chicken tthighs will cook through in about 20 minutes and the breasts in about 30 minutes. I remove the thighs after they are cooked through to allow the chicken breasts to continue cooking.
- Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Taste the sauce and adjust the salt and pepper as needed. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and garnish with the slivered fresh basil leaves.
