Sunday 23 June 2013

Cupboard Chicken Caccitore

When I was a child my mother used to make this amazing chicken caccitore.  Now maybe I am wearing those rose tinted glasses of childhood memories and to be fair I can't really remember what it tasted like.  But I do remember that we got to eat with out fingers.  Meal time in our home was a fairly formal affair.  All had to sit at the table and our cutlery.  And napkins.  Burping and farting was frowning upon.

Chicken Caccitore was a different affair altogether.  Mom would heat up flannel wash clothes and put them next to our plates.  This was a meal to be slurped as you ripped the chicken off the bones with your hands and the juices ran down your arms.  We loved it.

I have asked my mother repeatedly for this recipe.  Now I don't know if she wants to keep it a secret or if she has genuinely lost it but it has not been forthcoming.  So today I decided to make my own.  I did some google searches and was disappointed with what seemed to me wasn't going to produce anything like my memories.  And would require a trip to the supermarket, which is my very least favourite thing to do in the whole entire world.

So I headed to my cupboards.

Slow Cooker Cupboard Kitchen Caccitore

5 chicken thighs (bone in is more fun at scarfing time)
5 onions (more or less), sliced
1 tin of whole tomatoes
1 Tablespoon sundried tomato paste (or not)
20 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup water
2 cups of red wine (I used Rioja because that's what I wanted to drink later)
Healthy dash of black pepper
Healthy dash of garlic salt (would have preferred fresh garlic but we were fresh out)
1 bit of salt (you decide how much)
1 tin of greens beans (to help us to our 5 a day)
1 jar of red roasted peppers (because that jar has been in my cupboard for a very long time and needed to be used)

Fry thighs and onions til browned

Throw everything into slow cooker on low for 7 hours or high for 4.

You can thicken up the sauce with a bit of cornstarch if you want to just before serving.

Serve over rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles.  Or even just with crusty bread and lashings of butter.

Do NOT forget the warmed flannel face clothes and NO cutlery!!!!!

No comments: