During this fast free period between Christmas and Theophany (when we Byzantines are forbidden to fast), I thought I would post a version of Chicken Caccatorie thats always a big hit around. I made this dish a few months back for a potluck and ever since a few of the teanage girls who worship here with us have been after me to teach them how to make it. So last Saturday they came out to the monastery and we had some fun in the kitchen.
Here is the recipe we used.
12 pieces chicken
1 lg onion chopped
2 bell peppers seeded and chopped
1 lb mushrooms sliced ( we used half white mushrooms and half
portabellas)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 lg cans crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups red wine
6 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
1/2 bunch Italian parsley chopped
1/2 bunch basil chopped
1 Tbs dried thyme leaves
1 Tbs crushed red pepper flakes
salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 500. Season chicken with salt, pepper and thyme, place on a covered cookie sheet. Roast the chicken pieces until golden brown (chicken does NOT need to be cooked through), remove from oven.
Heat olive oil in a large pot(big enough to hold all the rest of the ingredients). Add the onions, bell peppers, garlic and mushrooms and sautee until the onion starts to brown. Add the wine and cook until it reduces by 1/2 ( about 10 min ). Add the tomatoes and the herbs, season with the salt pepper and red pepper flakes, simmer the sauce for a few min.
At this point you can finish the dish in 1 of 2 ways.
You can add the chicken and simmer it in the sauce for about an hour.
OR
What I did was I poured the sauce over the chicken, cooled the whole thing down and refrigerated it overnight.......then the next day I reheated it covered in the oven. This gave it time for all the flavors to come together and get real YUMMY. I put it in a 300 oven for 2 hours....and was all ready for our potluck lunch when we had finished the Divine Liturgy.
