Marcella Hazan’s Chicken Cacciatore
Marcella Hazan’s Classic Italian Cookbooks have sat on my bookshelf for at least two decades, but I have to confess that there is little I have cooked from them. I shifted them to the beach house kitchen many years ago and there they languish, unloved, not even where I can readily reference them to find a recipe for the September Cookbook Guru.
They are great references for introducing novice cooks to Italian cuisine or for those more experienced cooks wanting to add a touch of authenticity to their Italian repertoire.The first book, published in 1972 covers all the basics of good Italian food, simple, uncomplicated meals made from seasonal produce and basic Italian pantry items.
I found this Chicken Cacciatore recipe from The Classic Italian Cookbook online. I modified the original recipe slightly to comply with my diet, but the end result was delicious. We enjoyed it with a rocket salad and the leftovers of the bottle of wine.
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2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil
4 chicken marylands, separated at the joint
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons rice flour
1 large sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 medium carrot, finely diced
1 medium red capsicum (bell pepper), thinly sliced
1 medium yellow capsicum, thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
⅔ cup dry white wine
2 X 400g can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Season the rice flour with salt and pepper then toss the chicken in the flour, shaking off any excess. Discard any leftover flour.
Heat the oil in a large heavy based pan with a tight fitting lid.
Saute the chicken pieces until well coloured. Set aside.
Add the rosemary, bay leaf, carrot, red pepper and celery to the pan then over a medium heat for 6–8 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping all the brown bits from bottom of pan. Reduce by half.
Add the tomatoes, then the chicken.
Return the pan to the boil, cover then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is done, about 30 minutes. Stir in parsley.
Taste the sauce and season if necessary.
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27 comments on “Marcella Hazan’s Chicken Cacciatore”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
What a lovely platter to set before guests or dinner mates and chicken cacciatore is a personal favorite. Though there are differences, this cacciatore and mine have one thing in common, the absence of a tomato sauce in which the chicken is braised. Like you’ve done here, I like tomatoes added to the pot but nowhere near enough to make a thick sauce. I, too, have Ms. Hazan’s cookbooks but must confess that I’ve done little more with them than to page through each one. I really have to stop this, for hers aren’t the only cookbooks I’ve bought and, basically, ignored. There ought to be a support group. 🙂
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Yes! A support group for cookbook tragics! Great idea John. I’ve made chicken cacciatore before, but usually with mushrooms, not peppers. Having said that, it was a delicious version
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Lovely post Sandra and stunning plating shot. I wish mine were as nice. Chicken Cacciatore is one of the first dishes I learned how to cook a very long time ago. It’s such a nice hearty dish with lots of flavor. Your version looks delicious and I’m sure it was. The only Marcella Hazen cookbook I own is Marcella’s Italian Kitchen which was a Christmas gift to me some 30 years ago. I remember reading it but have only cooked a few things from it and I don’t even remember what were the recipes I tried. Of course, with over 150 cookbooks, there are a lot of cookbooks I have only cooked a few recipes from. 😮
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Oh I understand the cookbook overload. I had a clean out a few years ago and reduced numbers, but still I have many that are under utilized. Do you use the app Eat Your Books? It does help you keep track of the recipes in the books..
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Its 7 a.m. and I’m now craving chicken! Thanks!
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I reckon it would be tastier than breakfast cereal….
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The Hungry Dad would swoon if I made this for him 🙂
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Go on, make him swoon….
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I have one M H cookbook, and I don’t think I’ve ever cooked from it. I think, in spite of loving and treasuring traditional cookbooks, I’ve gotten used to the fancy contemporary ones with all of the slick photographs. Sad. I’m going to dig it out and look at it today!
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I have some old unillustrated cookbooks I still use over and over, but I think most of Hazan’s recipes are for food that I know well and cook without reference to a recipe. The Italian influence on our food here is enormous.
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I like the recipe, and also your new picture on the gravatar or whatever it’s called!
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Thanks Aneela, it was time to come out….
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I think this is one of the first things I ever made from her books, so it feels nostalgic to see it here.
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Books and food both have the ability to bring back memories, enjoy the reverie.
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I think I’m in the same boat as you. Marcella Hazan (not personally, but her book) has sat on my shelf for a long time, at least decades, and I look at it every now and then, but I don’t recall ever cooking from it. Will certainly have to rectify that soon and join in the Cookbook Guru. As always, your photography captures your delicious looking food. I think the rosemary perched on top makes the dish!
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Thanks Deb. I have books that really motivate me to cook from them and others I use as reference material, but it’s hard to what what defines them. Hazan definitely fall into the latter. Enjoy your time in Italia …
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Reblogged this on The Cookbook Guru and commented:
Our first contribution this month comes from Please Pass The Recipe in the form of Chicken Cacciatore. It’s an old classic that is worthy of reliving.
Happy Reading and Happy Cooking,
Leah
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Her books taught me how to shop and how to cook when I first started…I am very fond of them all! Her tip which I use the most is that pasta water should be as salty as the sea…her Ossobucco and Risotto Milanese is THE best!
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It’s interesting isn’t it Selma, A friend, a co worker and Claudia Roden’s Food of Italy were my basic Italian cookery teachers. I’m sure it was just a case of which book came into my kitchen first.
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You are probably right but I also think that there weren’t so many cookbooks to choose from when I started my kitchen journey. I mean there aren’t even any photos in the Hazan books I have!! That would be unheard of in books published today! I had Roden’s Middle Eastern Cookery which I loved – must dig that out…
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Delish! Thanks for jogging my memory, this would be a great dish for the sproglets. 🙂
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Yep, I think the kids would love it…
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OMG – this is my all time favourite cookbook – I so love Marcella – we are between homes at the moment and her Classic Italian is one of the four cookbooks that I have with me and I love this recipe which I have made a number of times. I just looked through Classic the other day and couldn’t believe how many recipes I had cooked from it – I comment in my books when I have cooked a recipe. You need to explore Marcella, Sandra, you will enjoy what she has to offer:)
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Why don’t you join the Cookbook Guru Rachel, do a post on what it is you love about Marcella Hazan. I know I should have used these book more. Inspire me…
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I too have books that I’ve never cooked from – some were gifts, some were wishful thinking at a $2 sale. It’s now at the stage where the entire family has been tasked with finding something we all might like eating from each of them, or they go to the fundraiser garage sale.
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I had a clean out a few years ago, but there are some classics I thought deserved a place in a well rounded cookbook library that I kept. I do look at them from time to time, just for a read…
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I guess that’s the phase I’m in right now!
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