Easy Chicken Cacciatore

A very easy Chicken Cacciatore recipe made with a whole chicken cut into pieces, veggies and black olives, a delicious and filling chicken dinner that the whole family will love. It's a rustic dish that never fails to deliver, and can be tweaked to one's liking without compromising on taste. My recipe is made without wine, but it's as good as can be.

Simple recipes are the ones that always win everyone's hearts, and this dish is the perfect example here. It's a simple, rather frugal meal that can be made with whatever you have around, the more veggies, the better.

Cacciatore is an Italian dish that translates into "hunter's style" dish, as caccia means hunt. Commonly made with chicken or even rabbit, it is then simmered into a rich tomato-based sauce with plenty of veggies and olives.

The chicken is so juicy and tender, it simply falls apart, and the veggies are cooked beautifully. Although chicken thighs are usually used, I had a whole chicken cut up into pieces, and that worked really well.

You can pretty much make it with whatever cut you have around, no need to go out of your way to get something specially for this dish - any other veggies can go in, as long as it tastes right, that's good to me. It can also be made in a slow cooker, I already have a crock pot version here: Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore.

Jump to:

• Ingredients used
• Step-by-step photos and instructions
• Expert tips
• Recipe FAQs
• Other chicken dinner recipes
• Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients used

• chicken - I used a whole chicken cut into pieces, but you can use either chicken thighs or drumsticks only if you like
• mushrooms - I had regular white mushrooms, but any should do
• red pepper - or any other colour
• carrot - chopped into cubes
• celery stalks - they give a nice colour and crunch
• black olives - or green ones, it's up to one's taste here
• garlic and onion - no dish without them
• chopped tomatoes - one can is more than enough
• salt & pepper - to taste
• oregano - I used dried, but if you have fresh, that's even better
• fresh parsley - extra flavour and a nice colour for garnishing
• olive oil - for frying

Step-by-step photos and instructions

• in a large pot, heat up the olive oil on a medium heat, add the chicken pieces and brown on both sides ( see photos 1 & 2)
• remove the chicken pieces from the pan, and add the peeled and chopped onion and fry
• add the chopped garlic, red pepper, celery and mushrooms too

• give everything a good mix
• add the pitted black olives, return the chicken to the pot, add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock and oregano and give everything a good mix
• continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through, the veggies are tender and the liquid is reduced into a sauce
• season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with fresh parsley

Expert tips

The list of ingredients used might look rather large, but all the ingredients are easily-available, and most of them should already be around in your pantry. You can leave out ingredients that you don't have, as long as the tomato base and chicken are there.

Cooking time depends entirely on the heat of the cooker and ingredients used, veggies are known to have a high water content. Cook everything on a medium heat, a high one will make the liquid evaporate too quickly before the veggies and chicken had a chance to cook.

Recipe FAQs

Other chicken dinner recipes

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