I first learned how to make Chicken Cacciatore in an "International" home-ec class in high school. We had some pretty creative classes at my high school. Know what else I learned how to do in that class? Debone a chicken. And we used fresh ginger in the "asian" part of the course, something I would have never, ever seen at home since in my family we ate "foods from a box" with meat on the side. Yea, I don't come from a foodie family.
Anyhow, I liked the Cacciatore so much that it became one of the first things I cooked for my family at home, over and over, because it was so damned easy. It translates perfectly into the crockpot, too. Now, when I made this on sunday, we gobbled it up so fast that I failed to take a picture of it. So this very artistic photo is not my photo. I wish it was. I need to learn how to take such great photos...
Serves 4-6 (6 if you make paleo bread)
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs chicken (I used boneless skinless thighs this time, because that is what was on sale, but bone-in is actually better)
- 1 pkg muchrooms (I used cremini; they were on sale)
- 1 sweet pepper (I like to use yellow or orange because they're sweeter)
- 1/3 spanish onion
- 1 28-oz can tomatoes, drained
- 1 5-oz can tomato paste
- 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 c red wine, your choice (I'm a shiraz fan)
- 1 tbs italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 of my chicken "flavour cubes"
Directions:
Throw it all into the crockpot, stir, close lid and set at 5-6 hours on high or 10-12 hours on low. You might be looking at the red wine and thinking of omitting it, and you CAN add more balsamic vinegar to compensate, but traditional Cacciatore uses red wine and it does impart an important part of the flavour. Your choice. The alcohol will cook off in the crockpot.
We decided to make some paleo irish soda bread to go with it, just for a bit of nostalgic bread-dipping. It was totally unnecessary. The food was awesome on it's own. The kitchen was full of all these great aromas. I love my crockpot.
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