Slow cooker to the rescue! (Chicken Cacciatore)
Today, my wife is off working and I'm at home with a cranky baby and a sick child. Great!
Anyway, one of the worst things about being at home doing the parenting thing is trying to get dinner ready. And this is where my best friend (well, this or the robot vacuum) the slow cooker steps in. Simple half hour of prep and dinner is ready 6-8 hours later!
So, I know this recipe is always a hit, chicken cacciatore with rice (veggies optional...).
Ingredients
1.5-1.8 kg chicken legs or drumsticks.
olive oil
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup stock (chicken or vegetable)
can of tomato or passata
tablespoon or so of tomato paste
onion (2)
garlic (3 cloves or more!)
basil (fresh or dried)
parsley (fresh or dried)
olives
anchovies (I use a whole tin!)
sugar (about a tablespoon)
Cook it!
Skin the chicken. This bit sucks, sometimes the skin comes off easy (today) or not (last time), when it is easy it is fast, when it doesn't it is super slow. But get that skin off, otherwise this will be an incredibly oily meal.
Brown the chicken (with the oil) in a frying pan. Dump in slow cooker!
Chop onions/garlic/anchovies. Fry in the the same fry pan.
Add wine, and let it simmer to about half. Dump in slow cooker.
Open tomato tin and paste and dump in slow cooker.
Prepare stock, dump in slow cooker.
Take basil, chop if it is fresh, open the bottle if it is dried. Dump in slow cooker.
Sprinkle on the sugar.
It should look a bit like this.... as always most of the liquid will come out of the food.
Set for low for about 6 hours. Remember to stir once or twice, otherwise you'll have a lot of dried paste at the top!
About half hour before you want to eat, dump in the parsley and olives.
DONE! The chicken is so soft, it just falls right off the bones! I'm not a presentation sort of guy, it tastes better than it looks!
Quick easy, and more time to deal with whining kids....
One of my favorite Italian dishes. I usually add capers though.
Thanks, capers would be a pretty good addition as well.. Will try it next time!
Oh my god man, that looks delicious. Have you ever tried pre-skinned and boneless chicken?
No, I haven't. It tends to be more expensive. Some chicken fat and the bones are good for the taste.
That makes sense. Though around here I can get skinless chicken breast for the same price as skin included. You wouldn't happen to be located near an Aldi's would you?
This comment will get flagged, do not upvote it.
Yes, there is an Aldi close by. I will have a look. Although, I think I would try to keep the bones, it really does make a difference!