The taste of coming home: Chicken Cacciatore

There are some recipes that feel less like recipes and more like a way of gathering.

Chicken cacciatore is one of those dishes for me: chicken browned until golden, vegetables softened in the same pot, wine poured in to loosen all the good bits at the bottom, and then everything left to simmer slowly until the sauce becomes rich and the chicken is tender.

It is rustic, generous food. The kind you can put in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves.

I love it over wide noodles, which catch all that beautiful tomato, wine and herb-filled sauce.

Ingredients

• Bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces — thighs, drumsticks, or a mixture

• Olive oil

• 1–2 onions, sliced

• 3–4 cloves garlic, minced

• Mushrooms, sliced

• 1 bell pepper, sliced

• Capers

• Kalamata olives, sliced

• Italian seasoning

• Salt + freshly ground black pepper

• Red wine — white wine works beautifully too

• Tomato paste

• Diced tomatoes

• Chicken stock

• Wide noodles, for serving

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Method

1. Brown the chicken.Pat the chicken dry and season generously with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Heat a generous drizzle of olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary, brown the chicken pieces until deeply golden on both sides.

Remove the chicken and set aside. It does not need to be cooked through yet.

2. Build the vegetables.Add the sliced onions to the same Dutch oven, adding another splash of olive oil if needed. Cook until softened, scraping up some of the browned bits from the bottom of the pot.

Add the garlic, mushrooms, bell pepper and capers. Season with a little more salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook until the vegetables begin to soften and everything smells fragrant.

3. Deglaze with wine.Pour in a generous splash of wine, scraping the bottom of the pot as it bubbles. Red wine is wonderful here, but white wine works beautifully too — I have made it with white wine in a pinch and it turned out delicious.

Let the wine simmer for a few minutes, allowing it to reduce slightly while all those caramelized bits become part of the sauce.

4. Build the cacciatore sauce.Stir in the tomato paste and let it cook for a minute or two. Add the diced tomatoes, Kalamata olives and chicken stock, stirring everything together.

Nestle the browned chicken back into the Dutch oven, making sure the pieces are sitting down in the sauce.

5. Let it simmer.Bring everything to a gentle simmer, then lower the heat. Cover and cook low and slow for about 45–60 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through and the sauce has thickened and deepened in flavor.

If the sauce gets too thick while cooking, add another splash of chicken stock. If it needs to thicken at the end, remove the lid for the last few minutes and let it reduce.

Taste and adjust the salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

6. Serve.While the chicken cooks, prepare the wide noodles according to the package directions.

Spoon the cacciatore generously over the noodles, making sure everyone gets plenty of that rich sauce, vegetables, olives and capers.

Serve warm, preferably at a table with people you love.

A little note

This is one of those recipes that doesn’t need to be precious. Use whatever wine you have open. Add more mushrooms if you love them. Use extra olives or capers for a little more brininess. The amount of chicken stock can be adjusted depending on how saucy you like your cacciatore.

The magic is in the layering: brown the chicken, build the vegetables, deglaze the pot, add the tomatoes and stock, then let everything become one thing.

Good food often asks us to do very little except give it enough time.