Denise Phillips: Recipes (Chicken Cacciatore with tomato basil sauce)
Cacciatore means ‘hunter’ in Italian and in cooking terms it refers to a recipe that includes tomatoes, onions, herbs, peppers and often wine. It is the ideal mid-week meal that can be prepared in advance and reheated when ready. The Italians like to serve it with a plate of pasta on the side or with rustic bread to scoop up the sauce.
Preparation Time: 25 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour Serves: 6 people
Ingredients:
- 6 chicken portions thighs or breasts – skin on
- 3 tablespoons rapeseed or vegetable oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Sauce:
- 300g chestnut or button mushrooms – sliced
- 3 red onions – peeled and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic – peeled and chopped
- 2 red peppers – cut in quarters, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 540g jar tomato Basil Sauce
- 100ml red wine
Garnish:
Large bunch of fresh basil – roughly chopped
Black pepper
Method:
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the chicken pieces until golden on both sides. Remove and set aside.
- Add the mushrooms, onions, garlic and peppers and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas mark 4.
- Place the sauce ingredients on the base of a deep ovenware dish. Sit the chicken pieces on top.
- Combine the Rosella basil sauce and red wine together and pour over the chicken.
- Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes.
To serve: Transfer to a family sized serving plate and garnish with chopped basil and a dusting of black pepper.
Denise Phillips
Denise Phillips, professional chef who trained with renowned restaurateur Prue Leith, has authored four cookbooks. Her quest is to improve the quality of Jewish cooking which led to a number of highly successful ‘hands-on’ cookery demonstrations. In addition, she writes a food column in a number of publications as well as appearing on TV and radio. She is currently working with a number of the major kosher food brands developing new food ideas and recipes for their packs and websites.
