I Feel Like Chicken Tonight! (Hunter Style Chicken-Pollo alla Cacciatora)

The rosemary I used didn't come from some exotic location

(In beautiful Campania, Italy. I stopped the car to take this photo!)

 ...but from my garden.

I wish I could have picked it from the side of a mountain, like I do in Italy, right outside our house, but...the "foreign" rosemary I have is green,  fragrant and I love it! It so reminds me of the smell of our kitchen, when Pollo alla Cacciatora (Hunter Style Chicken) was on the menu. I'm sure that when it came to cooking, my mother had the culinary equivalent of "green fingers"... or maybe it was the fact that what she cooked was prepared with love for her family and her home. Her chicken was amazing! I miss my mother.

Anyway! My Pollo alla Cacciatora is really very good! And the secret is... in the "burning" of the skin. Please don't use breast. Any other cut will do, skin on. The skin has to burn, to give the sauce that natural brown colour and almost smoky flavour (this was my mum's excuse, anyway! But she was right. I once made this dish and my daughter Gabriella said:" mummy, this doesn't taste right. You didn't burn the skin!" ) Well... she was right!

The one and only chicken cacciatora

(Hunter Style Chicken)

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

8 chicken portions

4 cloves garlic (chopped)

3-4 rosemary sprigs

5-6 cherry tomatoes tomatoes

(fresh or tinned)

a couple generous glugs olive oil

salt

black pepper

1 glass white wine

A generous handful mushrooms, quartered

This is the easiest of dishes, as, all you do is: put all the ingredients in a largish frying pan (I have a stainless steel one I use for my Tarte Tatin) place onto a ring, full heat and cook. Stir occasionally and add a tiny drop of water if it all appears to be slightly dry.

I only cooked four portions, as you can see!

At this point I went otsude to sample the white wine I knew would be my next ingredient... beautiful, chilled white Frascati from the hills of Rome. Cin Cin!

Back to the chicken...

When the skin of your chicken has browned (like I said, don't worry if it looks slightly burnt and dark) you add your wine, stir a little bit. Let the wine reduce, so you get a quite thick dark, truly amazingly delicious sauce. Check the meat... this should be thoroughly cooked and tender. You can now add your mushrooms and cook for about ten minutes. Add salt and pepper and serve. It's delicious with crusty bread! Buon Appetito!

I served my chicken with Swiss chard, dandelion and cavolo nero, from my garden.

 Fresh and organic! and very, very green!



 I boiled the clean vegetables and drained them. In a frying pan I heated some oil and when really hot, I added some chopped garlic, some fresh chilli pepper and finally, my vegetables! Really, really good!

I think it looks pretty good!