Chicken cacciatore recipe

Chicken cacciatore is a rich and rustic Italian tomato stew that makes a great weekend supper.

'Cacciatore' means hunter's chicken. This dish was originally countryside fayre for hunters and farmers, and often used rabbit instead of chicken. You can serve it with fried, diced potatoes, over pasta or over couscous. The latter works especially well because the grains soak up all of the delicious sauce. However it's so filling that you can just serve it with a nice green salad and maybe a chunk of bread for dipping. For an authentic twist add a handful of black olives at the same time as the tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1 pepper, diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan and brown the chicken chunks for a few of minutes. Set aside.
2. Add the pepper, garlic and tomato puree to the pan and soften for a couple of minutes.
3. Return the chicken to the pan with the tinned tomatoes and 300ml water.
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 mins.

Top Tip for making Chicken cacciatore

We used chunks of chicken breast in this recipe to keep things fast and simple. If you have a little more time to leave your stew to simmer, try using chicken thigh fillets. They are cheaper to buy than breast meat and they taste better. You can buy the with or without bones in - either way, allow another 15 minutes or so for the chicken to cook through fully.

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