Chicken Cacciatore
Rustic braised chicken, tomato, red wine and olives.
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Bone-in skin-on thighs are non-negotiable here. The bones release collagen as they braise - that's what gives the sauce that mouth-coating depth a pure boneless thigh version never gets. Save 30 minutes by going boneless if you must, but the dish becomes a different (lesser) thing.
Ingredients
Everything below makes 4 servings.
- 2½ lbbone-in skin-on chicken thighspatted dry
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 1 largeyellow onionthinly sliced
- 1 largered bell peppersliced into thick strips
- 5garlic clovessmashed
- ¾ cupdry red wine
- 28 ozcrushed tomatoes (can)
- ½ cupchicken stock
- ½ cuppitted kalamata olivespitted, halved
- 2 tbspcapers (drained)drained
- 2 sprigsfresh rosemary
- 4 sprigsfresh thyme
- 2bay leaf
- ¼ tspred pepper flake
- ¼ cupfresh parsleychopped, for finishing
- 1½ tspkosher salt
- ½ tspfreshly ground black pepper
In the app these rescale to however many people you're feeding.
Nutrition
Per serving, as written.
- 540calories
- 38gprotein
- 16gcarbs
- 36gfat
Swaps move these numbers. A different protein or base changes them.
Instructions
Knife work first, then the stove. Nothing below asks you to chop while something burns.
- Pat the chicken thighs very dry - wet skin won't brown. Season with 1 tsp salt and pepper.
- Thinly slice the onion. Slice the bell pepper into thick strips. Smash the garlic.
- Pit and halve the olives. Have wine and stock and crushed tomatoes lined up by the stove.
Brown the chicken
Heat olive oil in the dutch oven over medium-high. Place chicken thighs skin-side DOWN; don't move them. Brown 6-7 min until skin is deep golden and releases cleanly, then flip and brown 3 more min. Transfer to a plate.
10 min · hands onSoffritto
Reduce heat to medium. Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the fat. Add onion and bell pepper, cook 6-7 min until softened and lightly caramelized. Add garlic and red pepper flake, cook 1 min.
7 min · hands onDeglaze
Pour in red wine, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom. Let it reduce by half, about 3 min.
3 min · hands onBuild the braise
Pour in crushed tomatoes and stock. Add rosemary, thyme, bay leaves. Stir in salt. Bring to a simmer.
2 min · hands onBraise
Nestle the chicken back in skin-side up - keep the skin above the sauce so it stays a little crisp. Cover partially and simmer gently 35-40 min until chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender.
38 min · hands offFinish
Stir in olives and capers in the last 5 min - they don't need long, just enough to warm and meld. Fish out herbs and bay leaves. Taste, adjust salt. Scatter with parsley.
5 min · hands onMake it yours
Every swap here is one Maui already knows how to make, including what it does to the timing.
Classic Italian mix - drumsticks add deeper flavor.
Reduce braise time to 25 min total - boneless cooks faster. Saves about 15 minutes.
Cook 1 cup polenta in 4 cups water and butter and parm during braise. Adds about 20 minutes.
Boil 12 oz pappardelle in the last 12 min of braise. Adds about 12 minutes.
What keeps
Cacciatore is one of those dishes that improves overnight - the chicken keeps soaking up the tomato-wine braise and the flavors round out. Keeps 4 days.
Reheat covered on low; loosen with a splash of stock if it's tightened.
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