I love this version of hunter-style chicken (pollo alla cacciatora in Italian). I say version, because there are quite a few different ways to prepare this recipe, and it is not known if it is typical of Tuscany or Umbria. Some people start the base with onion, celery, and carrot, others add red wine instead of white, some add olives, others flavor it with sage instead of bay leaf… And I’ll stop here, because we would never finish. I was saying that I love it, because although it is very simple, it is as tasty as the most elaborate one I have ever tried.
I have done nothing more than take as a base the recipe I had read in a book called “La Cucina delle Nonne,” a bit meager for my taste, and I have added some other ingredients present in other recipes that I felt could not be missing. If you are in a super healthy and balanced mood, I suggest accompanying this chicken with a salad or steamed vegetables. If you want to enjoy yourselves like pigs in paradise, with any type of carbohydrate well mixed with the juices and a good glass of wine… And the next day you will make up for it one way or another, what the heck…
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The card
- 1 kg of chicken cut into medium pieces
- 300 g of tomato pulp
- 100 g of ham
- 200 ml of dry white wine (almost a glass).
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 200 ml of oil (almost a glass)
- 15 g of butter
- salt pepper
- Peel the tomatoes, remove the seeds and the gelatinous part that surrounds them, and cut the pulp into small cubes. (If you bathe them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, they peel almost by themselves).
- If you don't have ham cut into short strips, buy 100 g in one or at most two slices, so that when you cut the strips they are not too thin.
- Heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a saucepan large enough to cook the chicken inside.
- When the oil is hot, add the ham and an unpeeled clove of garlic.
- When the ham just starts to brown, turn up the heat a little and add the seasoned chicken to the pot.
- Brown the pieces of chicken.
- Bathe the chicken with the white wine.
- After 3 or 4 minutes, when the alcohol has evaporated, add the tomato, the bay leaf, and the rosemary to the pot.
- Let the sauce cook for 45 minutes or an hour over moderate heat. If the tomato thickens sooner than expected, add a ladle of water or chicken broth to the pot whenever necessary.
