Rustic Chicken Cacciatore and Thyme-infused Cheese Polenta

This meal was inspired by basically the same dish made by Chef Fabio on a recent episode of Top Chef Masters.  I couldn't find Fabio's recipe for chicken cacciatore online, so I created my own adaptation.  This is a slow cooked meal and great to serve family style.

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients

• Cut up chicken (2 chicken breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks all with skin and bones intact.  Rinse chicken under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel)
• flour for lightly covering chicken
• 1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 medium to large sweet onion (peeled, quartered and thinly sliced)
• 4 cloves of garlic (peeled and thinly sliced)
• 1 large can and 1 small can of peeled whole plum tomatoes (drained)
• 2 cups of white wine (such as pinot grigio/gris)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup worth of fresh oregano (washed, leaves picked off of stems, roughly chopped)

Method

Roast Peppers: Wash peppers under cold water.  Place on an aluminum-foil lined baking pan that has edges so any juice produced does not run off. Place oven rack near top and turn oven onto broil.  Place peppers under broiler (a few inches of clearance) and broil, turning peppers when the side facing the broiler turns mostly black and blistered.  Continue until both peppers are blistered and black on all sides.  Removed peppers from oven.  Carefully lift the aluminum foil with peppers out of the baking pan and place in a freezer to cool down to be handled.  After 10 - 15 minutes, remove peppers from freezer.  The peppers should be shriveled at this point.  Using your hands, pull blistered skins off the peppers.  The flesh of the pepper should not be black, instead a nice roasted variation of the original pepper color.  Tear open (they typically fall apart some) and remove the top stem part and all seeds.  It takes patience, but it is better to hand remove all of the skin and seeds without rinsing under water (which washes away the great flavored natural oils).  Tear cleaned, roasted pepper flesh into bite size pieces.

Make Cacciatore: Place some flour in a large, shallow bowl. Salt (using gray sea salt) and pepper (fresh cracked black pepper) the chicken pieces, then roll/dredge each one in the flour and shake off any excess flour.  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large heavy saute pot (large enough to comfortable hold all of the chicken at once).  Once melted, add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Working in batches, place as many floured chicken pieces in the pot as will comfortably fit in a single layer (typically about 3 pieces at a time).  Saute each side over medium high heat until the skin is browned (around 3 - 5 minutes each side).  Remove browned chicken from pot to make room for next batch.  Set aside browned chicken on a plate once all pieces are browned.

Add onion to the pot the chicken was browned in and saute, stirring regularly, until onions caramelize (around 5 - 6 minutes).  Add sliced garlic to pot and peeled tomatoes one tomato at a time, crushing or tearing over the pot into bite-sized chunks.  Add wine, roasted bell pepper pieces, bay leaf, and a good pinch of gray sea salt to the pot. Turn up heat and bring mixture to a low boil.  Continue on low boil for another 2 - 3 minutes to accelerate cooking the alcohol out, stirring regularly to prevent burning on the bottom.  Reduce heat to medium low, add browned chicken and fresh oregano to the pot and stir to mix contents.  Place lid on pot slightly ajar (to allow steam to escape and mixture to reduce while cooking).  Cook on medium low (about 25% heat) for about 45 minutes, occasionally lifting lid to stir the contents.

Thyme-infused Cheese Polenta

Ingredients

• 1 cup of instant polenta
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• About 3 heaping tablespoons worth of fresh thyme leaves (wash thyme under cold water; pick leaves off of stems; discard stems)
• 1 cup of grated Italian hard cheese (choose Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, or Grana Padano)
• optional: 2 – 3 tablespoons of truffle-infused olive oil (use less amount if using pure white truffle oil)

Method

In medium saute pan, bring the chicken stock to a boil over medium high heat.  Once boiling, reduce heat to lowest setting and slowly stream in polenta while stirring.  Once all of the polenta has been added to the pot, add the thyme and continue to stir until polenta reaches desired consistency (about 5 minutes).  Turn off heat and stir in cheese, mixing until well incorporated.  Optionally stir in truffle oil.