This Easy Chicken Cacciatore recipe is a family favorite from my mom’s personal recipe box. I grew up eating this flavorful and comforting Mediterranean meal. This dish, typically made with bone-in chicken thighs, is called pollo alla cacciatora in Italy. However in our family recipe we use boneless skinless thighs, which helps the dish to cook faster. We typically serve it over egg noodles, though it would be equally delicious over mashed potatoes, polenta, or rice. Alternatively, you may serve it alongside your favorite green vegetable for a lower carb option. Overall it’s a quick, simple, and healthy Italian-style entree that is perfect for a weeknight.
When I was a kid, my mom had a regular rotation of weekly dinner meals. You know what I’m talking about– those ten or twelve dishes that are fast, tasty, and reliable. It’s part of what gets you through the week– those reliable standard dinners that everybody in the family enjoys. My mom’s meal rotation made an indelible mark on the fabric of my childhood. The smell of these dishes meant home, comfort, and family. And this particular one always made me giggle.
Chicken cacciatore is an Italian dish, pronounced Chicken Catch-Ah-Tori. When I was little, I used to hear the word as “Catch A Tori.” My name is Tori, so naturally I found this wildly amusing. Consequently, as my mom stirred the simmering tomato sauce with aromatic Italian herbs, I was fond of announcing:
“It’s Chicken-Catch-Me!”
My mom originally received this recipe as part of a creative gift at her bridal shower. Her girlfriend gave her a box filled with placemats, wine glasses, plates, and a family recipe for chicken cacciatore. Mom cooked the recipe many times for our family over the years. She liked serving it over egg noodles best.
Now that I am a wife and mother, I have my own regular rotation of monthly meals… and naturally, chicken cacciatore is on my list. Thanks for the inspiration, Mom!
History of Chicken Cacciatore
The Italian term for chicken cacciatore is pollo alla cacciatora. In Italian, the word cacciatore means “hunter,” and dishes prepared “hunter-style” are cooked alla cacciatora – braised in a sauce made of onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, herbs, and sometimes red or white wine. This method of cooking became popular during the Renaissance. Families living in the countryside often relied on hunters for their protein. Whatever game a hunter brought home would be cooked together with garden vegetables, alla cacciatora style. Sometimes wild foraged mushrooms were used as well. Rabbit and pheasant can be cooked alla cacciatora, and in Southern Italy, salami is occasionally used.
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Easy Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (roughly 6 large thighs)
- 1 cup flour (for gluten free use GF flour substitute or cassava flour)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 28 ounces diced Italian tomatoes (1 large can)
- 14 ounces tomato sauce (1 can)
- 6 ounces tomato paste (1 can)
- 1/3 cup red wine
- 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano (or 1 tbsp dried)
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped (or 1 tbsp dried)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
- Salt and pepper
- 3 cups cooked wide egg noodles (for gluten free use rice or your favorite certified GF pasta)
- Fresh chopped basil for garnish (optional)
NOTES
Instructions
Instructions
- Place the chicken thighs on a plate. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper.
- Dredge the chicken thighs in the seasoned flour until thoroughly coated. Reserve.
- In a large saute pan combine the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, red wine, sugar, oregano, and basil. Stir. Turn the heat to medium low and let the sauce slowly warm.
- Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium. Place the breaded chicken thighs into the skillet and fry them for a few minutes on each side until they turn golden brown. Don't cook them all the way through, just brown them.
- Place the browned chicken thighs into the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and let the thighs simmer on medium low in the sauce.
- Meanwhile, pour another tablespoon of olive oil into the skillet. Pour the chopped onion and bell pepper into the skillet. Saute them for 8-10 minutes till softened.
- Stir the sauteed onion and pepper into the tomato sauce.
- In the skillet, sear the sliced mushrooms on medium high for 5-6 minutes until they start to brown.
- Stir the seared mushrooms into the sauce.Let the chicken and vegetables simmer together for another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken cooks through and the sauce thickens. If the sauce seems to be drying out or gets overly thick, stir in some hot water to thin it out a bit. At the end of cooking, season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve hot chicken and sauce over cooked wide egg noodles or rice. Garnish with a little chopped fresh basil, if desired.
Nutrition
Hi I’m making this tonight. The recipe references mushrooms but they are not listed in the ingredients.
Tori, can you clarify? Thank you.
Hi Mary! That’s really odd, it looks like when my new site design went live one of the ingredients was dropped from the list. Gotta love technology! It’s 8 ounces of sliced white mushrooms. It’s corrected now. Sorry about that!
I have always added a bit of sliced celery for extra flavor.
I did my best with what I had and it still turned out good my family enjoyed it.
Love your receipes.
Thank you Kathleen!
Hi,
I live in Israel so can you please tell me what you mean by “1 can (14 oz) tomato sauce”?
I pretty sure you don’t mean ketchup.
Thanks for the site.
Micheael
Tomato sauce is sold in cans here in the U.S. It’s a simple cooked and thickened puree of skinless cooked tomatoes, sometimes mixed with a few basic seasonings. It may be sold under another name in Israel, I’m not sure. Hope that helps!
My family loved this recipe! Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe which will now be a staple for my family. Loved the story and love your blog.
Hi Tori….Chicken Catch Me was a hit! I used yellow pepper and equivalent sized pieces of white meat chicken along with some dark to satisfy everyone in our family. The sauce was delicious and even better the second night. I love when a recipe makes enough for 2 meals. Thank you for another wonderful post!
Made this for dinner last night and it was delicious and so flavorful. It was also very easy to make.
I can’t wait to try this, but my family won’t eat dark meat or meat with bones in it. Any idea what the adjusted cooking time in the pot would be for boneless chicken breasts?
No worries Marnie, it will work well with chicken breasts too. I would suggest cutting the boneless skinless breast meat into chunks so it cooks more evenly– this will also help counteract the dryness of the breast meat by dispersing the sauce more evenly with the meat. After the initial frying, the breast chunks will only need to simmer for 10-15 more minutes in the sauce until they’re cooked through… you don’t want to overcook them, or they’ll dry out. I’d add the veggies to the sauce (mushrooms, bell peppers) before reintroducing the chicken breast meat. After adding the meat back to the simmering sauce, let it cook for 10-15 minutes more, then cut into one of the thickest chunks to make sure it’s cooked all the way through. Good luck, let me know how it turns out for you! 🙂
Hi Tori,
I love your story. It’s especially wonderful for me to read because my mom (may she rest in peace) was not a cook at all (she was a single mom and broiling was her skill after working in an office all day). But the one dish she did make on special occasions was Chicken Cacciatore, very similar to yours. So reading your story made me think of my mom, too.
Alice, that’s very sweet! I’m happy I could help spark that memory for you. Thank you for commenting.
What a cute story Tori, and gorgeous classic!
I LOVE the story. 😉 I LOVE the recipe. 😛
Hi Tori! I love any meal that is enveloped in a hearty sauce, cant wait to make this! how well does this meal freeze? Also, would you say the chicken is substitutable for a beef or veal for those that dont eat chicken? Thank you!
Hey Josie! I’ve never frozen this, but I’m guessing it would freeze well (separate from the chicken). I haven’t tried it with any other meats– if you do, please let me know how it turns out!
I love the story behind this one. It is so adorable. I shall make this in your honor one night Tori. It’s a great recipe to add into rotation.
Gorgeous…. As always.
I also swear by the dinner meal rotation. And for me it’s always challenging because what one child eats, the other won’t. Tis, though, may satisfy everyone.