Chicken Cacciatore (4)

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs, large
• 120g mushrooms, ideally Porcini
• Butter
• 100g tomato sauce
• 120g onion
• 100g celery root
• 100g red bell pepper
• 100g carrot
• 60g fennel
• 100g tomato
• 8 garlic cloves
• Oregano
• 350ml Red wine, ideally Barolo
• Chilli pepper
• Sugar
• Parsley
• Salt

Method

1. Melt butter in pan, once it foams up..
2. Add whole mushrooms until they have a little colour on them
3. Add fresh black pepper onto chicken thighs
4. Add salt, some flour
5. Massage this seasoning into both sides of the chicken
6. Brown the chicken skin side down in olive oil (leave them in the pan a long time before turning. Don’t move them around or crowd the pan). They will be done when the skin side doesn’t stick to the pan, if it sticks at all then leave to cook longer.
7. Remove the chicken from the pan
8. Leave the oil and chicken fat In the pan and add the tomato sauce
9. Reduce the sauce until it’s almost a tomato paste
10. Add onions, bell pepper, celery, carrot, fennel
11. Add fresh diced tomatoes
12. Leave these ingredients to cook for a while, looking for a good level of caramelisation. (Medium/High heat for ~15 minutes with occasional stirring)
13. Glaze it with a little bit of red wine (a few teaspoons worth)
14. Add 8 cloves of garlic (whole)
15. Add chopped chillies (keep seeds)
16. Add rest of the wine
17. Add mushrooms (optionally can add Knorr chicken stock to boost intensity)
18. Cook this until reduced by half
19. Add teaspoon of dried rosemary, oregano and basil
20. Add chicken (skin side up) + all of the juices
21. Turn the heat down, put the lid on and simmer for ~20 minutes
22. Once 20 minutes is up, turn over each piece of chicken
23. Lid on, continue braising for another 20 minutes
24. Flip the chicken over one more time and let the sauce reduce
25. Add parsley
26. Once the sauce is as thick as you like, serve

References