Here is the original recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/chicken-cacciatore-recipe2/index.html
Here is what I used: (Serves 4)
- Olive oil, as needed
- 2 large bone-in chicken breasts
- Salt
- 1 large onions, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves (I use Dorot frozen garlic. It is a super handy way to keep garlic around!)
- 2 medium zucchini, sliced.
- Approx half a 10 oz package cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
- 1 cups dry white wine
- 1 28 oz can of San Marzano Tomatoes, crushed (You can use other types, but this is my favorite)
- 1 bundle thyme
- Sauteed Haricot Verts (I just used green beans, but if you can find Haricot Verts use those!)
Here is here instructions, with my notes (in parenthesis) (hehe).
Coat a large, wide pot with olive oil and put over high heat. ((About 2 tbl of olive oil)) Season the chicken with salt to taste, and brown in the hot oil. Once all the chicken is brown, remove it to a plate and discard most of the excess fat. ((It took a while for my chicken to brown, and it stuck a little bit. As long as it does burn, its okay that it sticks cause there will be enough liquid added later to get that off)
If needed to coat the bottom of the pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and season with salt, to taste, and sweat over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook until they are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, season with salt, to taste, and cook until they are soft. Add the white wine and reduce by half.
Return the chicken to the pan and add the tomatoes; taste for seasoning. Add the thyme bundle. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Check the level of the sauce periodically during the cooking process and replenish it with water as needed; the level of liquid should be about even with the chicken. ((Okay, this is the part that got hard-- my sauce didn't reduce! I let it go for a while and then tried covering it more, less, etc but the sauce barely moved. I let it sit for almost 40 min with no reduction before I realized it wasn't going anywhere. Hmm)
Remove the chicken from the pot and serve it over green beans (recipe below). Taste the sauce for seasoning and adjust if needed. Skim the surface of the sauce if excessively greasy. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.
Haricot Verts:
1/2 lb (or of one bag, if thats easier) of green beans or haricot verts (french version of green beans), cleaned and cooked (if you have a bag thats goes in the microwave, but if you buy them fresh, place them in boiling water for 5 minutes or until they turn bright green and are still crispy)
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed.
1 tbl of olive oil.
Heat up olive oil in saute pan. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes (careful it doesn't burn!). Add green beans and saute until coated. Enjoy!
This took a while, but was SO delish. Good thing there was a lot of sauce because I could have had it by itself (and kinda did). MmmMMmm! Way worth the time and effort.
