Yesterday my family and I went to the big Caserta market. My poor son practically melted under the hot sun, but we picked out some fresh vegetables, amongst them some beautiful Roma tomatoes. The day before, I had brought home a whole chicken with intentions of roasting it, but as life changes plans, there it sat in my refrigerator since there was no room for it in our tiny European freezer. Dinner time was looming near, and my family started the whole, "I'm hungry, what's for dinner?" routine. I didn't know what to do. Irritated by the fact it was too late to do a roast chicken, and partially by my son digging through all of the snacks, I was tempted to order out! Instead, I kicked my son out of the kitchen and grabbed my boning knife. Add some fresh chopped up tomatoes, a bottle of white wine and some capers later, we had dinner. Here is the recipe. I don't do exact measurements, but I am sure I can bring some up if someone needs them. Crank up some good tunes, pour yourself a glass of wine and get ready to get cookin'!
I used a whole chicken that I cut into 8 pieces (save the carcass for some homemade chicken stock later!) but you can use any type of chicken you would like. Suggestion-2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts.
In a bowl, get a couple cups of flour and mix it up with some salt and pepper, and if you want, whatever other spices and herbs you might like.
Heat a skillet up with a couple tablespoons of oil. Grab a pair of tongs and dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mix and brown in the pan. Just brown on each side, it will cook the rest of the way later. Place on plate and set aside.
Ditch the tongs and grab yourself a wooden spoon. I like to use a wooden spoon as much as possible, it helps "feel" the food better than metal when it cooks. That's just my opinion anyway. Add an onion and a few cloves of minced garlic (more or less to your taste) into the same pan. I prefer my onions julienne, but you can chop them if you prefer. Saute', then add a bell pepper (red or green, last night I did red because that is what I had on hand) and continue to cook. Add about a cup of dry white wine, and simmer until liquid is reduced to about half. Then add 2 cans of tomatoes with juice (you can use fresh, just add some tomato paste/sauce with some water), a cup of chicken stock with some added bouillon for richer flavor. Add some capers (I put about a 1/4 cup) oregano, garlic powder, salt and (generous) pepper to taste, a nice rounded spoonful of crushed red pepper, thyme, basil and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, add the browned chicken to the pan. Cook for about 30 minutes, occasionally spooning the mix around the chicken pieces. For even better flavor, simmer an additional 30 minutes on low. Serve over some hot pasta or rice.
This recipe is easily a slow cooker recipe for all those busy nights everyone has. Usually I take pictures of dishes I make, but last night this dish was eaten before that happened! This isn't one of the healthiest dishes I make, so to cut some of the sodium out, I like to omit salt and resort to using more spices and herbs (fresh is the best, especially to enhance flavor) and that helps with cutting down on sodium. Using low sodium stocks/broths, and removing the skin from chicken is also a few tricks I use. You can add some sliced mushrooms, my son doesn't like them so last night I didn't add any, but they are delicious in there as well! Enjoy!
