Chicken Cacciatore

As many of you know, my husband is a fire fighter. And yes, the rumors are true... fire fighters can cook! Well, not all of them - but mine sure can! And every once in a while I let him have free reign of the kitchen here at home & magical things happen. Here is his chicken cacciatore - and rather than serving it on the traditional pasta you might expect, he cooked up some spaghetti squash & forked it out of the shell into wanna-be-noodles. And you know what? It was good. And way more guilt free than the carb-loaded pasta. And you don't get that heavy-gut feeling of being loaded up on the starchy carb. You really don't even notice that you've swapped out the noodles - so you should try it! You'll love it.

Ingredients:


Any combination of chicken breasts & thighs, flour, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, a large can of diced tomatoes, capers, chicken broth, white cooking wine, oregano. And, if you're doing the noodle swap, grab a spaghetti squash.

First up - dice your produce.


Now get your oil hot in the pan over med-high heat. Salt & pepper your chicken - heavy on the black pepper - then dredge it through some flour & pop it into the hot pan.


You don't need to cook it through - just get it browned - about 5 minutes per side.


Remove the chicken & set it aside. Drop the heat down to medium & add your peppers/onions/garlic to the pan & let it saute for about 5 minutes. Get your onions tender.


Add the wine. Simmer it for 3 or 4 minutes then add the broth, can of tomatoes, capers & oregano. Give it a good stir.


Put the chicken back in the pot. Swish it around to coat it in the sauce then drop your heat down a little more, to med-low. Cook it til the chicken is done - about 30 minutes.


From here you can either just serve the chicken whole with the sauce on your noodles. Or, if you're like me, you can dice up the chicken then return it to the sauce & stir it around to cover it all again.

If you're gonna do the squash, you'll cut it in half, lengthwise, cover it in plastic wrap & pop it into the microwave, cut side up for 15-20 minutes, depending on how crunchy/soft you like your squash. It'll get hot so use an oven mit to take it out. Scrape the seed & guts out of the middle & toss them in the trash. Then just start scraping out the squash into a bowl.


Aaaaaaaaaaaand you're done!


See the 'noodles' under there!!?


YUM! It smells amazing, it tastes amazing... win-win! And you can add one more WIN to that if you can get your husband to cook it!!! LOL

Chicken Cacciatore:

4 Chicken thighs
2 Chicken breasts
Salt & pepper, to taste
1/2 cup flour
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
3/4 cups white cooking wine
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, UNdrained
3/4 cup chicken broth
3 Tbsp capers, drained
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

Dice your onion, pepper and garlic. Set aside.

Add oil to a large skillet over med-high heat. As that's heating salt & pepper your chicken. Go a little heavy on the pepper. Dredge chicken in the flour & add to the hot oil in the pan. Cook about 5 minutes per side, until nicely browned. Remove chicken; set aside.

Reduce the heat a smidge - to medium. Put your pepper, onion & garlic in the hot pan (with the oil/drippings left behind from the chicken) & saute for about 5 minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the wine & simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, capers & oregano. Stir & return the chicken to the pot.

Drop the heat to med-low and cook until the chicken is done - about 30 minutes. Serve over noodles.

Source: Giada De Laurentiis