Chicken Cacciatore Recipe

Chicken cacciatore is a rich Italian stew made with red wine, anchovies and herbs – absolutely delicious. This beautiful chicken cacciatore recipe is made with chicken that is marinated over night in red wine for a rich flavour and signature colour too. This process makes the meat even more tender too, helping it to fall off the bone once everything is cooked. If you don’t usually eat meat on the bone, give it a try with this cacciatore recipe. Because everything is slow cooked the meat comes off the bone without any resistance and having the bones in the stew gives lots of gorgeous chicken flavour to the sauce too. We love this served up with green beans and mashed potatoes, but it’s also delicious with polenta or rice.

Ingredients

• 6 skin-on, bone-in free-range chicken thighs
• 300ml red wine
• ½ bunch each thyme, oregano and rosemary
• 8 bay leaves
• 8 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 2tbsp flour
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely sliced
• 6 anchovy fillets
• 2 x 400g cans plum tomatoes
• 200g fresh tomatoes, diced
• 2tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
• 200g mixed olives

Method

1. Cover the chicken in the red wine and herbs, and add 1 sliced garlic clove. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hrs, or overnight if possible.
2. Heat the oven to 180C, Gas Mark 4.
3. Drain the chicken from the marinating liquid (reserving it for cooking). Dust the chicken in flour and season well. Add the oil to a large pan and fry the chicken, skin side down, for 5 mins until golden. Remove from the pan.
4. Add the onion, anchovies and remaining garlic, and fry for 2 mins on a low heat until golden. Stir through all the tomatoes, the tomato paste, reserved marinade and olives. Add the chicken skin side up and bake, uncovered, for 1 hr, until the chicken skin is golden and the meat is cooked through. Serve with green beans.