Chicken Cacciatore ala Tarantino

This week the foodopolis test kitchen staff went on the road to cousin Joe's house for his rendition of the classic dish Chicken Cacciatore. Cacciatore in culinaryease means food prepared "Hunter style". Usually with such wild and "hunted" items as mushrooms and that slow chicken in your chicken pen. Well these days most of us do our hunting in the grocery stores.

Joe's version is slightly different from the classic rendition of this dish. His philosophy on it is a very simple fresh ingredient driven dish that retains all of the individual flavors as they pass by your taste buds.
It is best to make the sauce a day ahead of time for this dish. See our recipe for basic red tomato sauce in our recipe label on the blog.

You can make this dish under 40 minutes and dare I say it. Quite possibly in 30 minutes or less.
We will just call our version the under 40 minutes or less Chicken Cacciatore ala Tarantino.

CHICKEN CACCIATORE ALA TARANTINO

1 lb -boneless chicken thighs
2 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
1-8 ounce package sliced Crimini Mushrooms
3-4 cloves garlic chopped
2 cups basic red tomato sauce. See recipe in recipe section.
1/4 cup Maiderra wine
1/3 cup Pine nuts toasted
Pinch of oregano
salt and pepper to taste.

Grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Heat a good skillet and add the olive oil and chicken saute 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute an additional 3-5 minutes. Add the Madeirra, making sure to remove the pan from any exposed flame prior to adding it. after a couple of minutes add the mushrooms and tomato sauce, Oregano, Pine nuts and salt and pepper. Let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes to let the sauce tighten up.


Pour the whole mix over a steaming plate of your favorite pasta and sprinkle a generous portion of the Pecorino Romano cheese on top. We like Linguine for this one by the way.
Open a bottle of Chianti and there you have it.

Chow

Michael