Chicken Cacciatora

CHICKEN CACCIATORA 

 Ingredients 

1oz Butter
30ml Olive Oil
4 Chicken Portions
1 Onion skinned and chopped
2 Garlic Cloves skinned and crushed
8oz Button Mushrooms
5fl oz dry white wine
400g can of tomatoes drained
1 Italian Herb & Spice Stock Cube (Oxo Italian)
1 Tomato & Herb Organic Stock Cube (Kallo)
1 teaspoon dried 0regano*
Black Pepper
1 bottle Chianti. 

Method 

Melt the butter with the oil in a large flameproof casserole.
Add the chicken and fry over moderate heat for 5 – 10 minutes until well coloured on all sides.
Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent kitchen paper.
Add the Onion and Garlic to the pan and fry gently until soft.
Return the chicken to the pan add the mushrooms and wine and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, herbs, stock cubes and black pepper to taste.
Then cover and simmer for a further 35 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Taste and adjust seasoning before serving. 

Notes.
* When using dried herbs I put them in a small muslin bag so that I get all the flavour without the bits getting on the tongue. 

The second time I made this I varied the method as follows.
1. I did not drain all the sauce from the tomatoes.
2. I used fresh herbs.
3. I used large chicken thighs un-skinned and reduced the oil by half.
4. I used a mixture of mushrooms button, oyster and shiitake .

 

Served with small boiled salad potatoes, green beans and the bottle of Chianti.