I have had mixed results cooking recipes from Jamie Oliver's Everyday Super Foods, as I discussed in my prelude to his Russian chicken salad. Fortunately, his chicken and squash cacciatore, which was the recipe idea winner for this week, turned out to be pretty delicious. I can say that with confidence because I basically ate four bowls of it in a row, and I still was happy to eat more.
It's hard to imagine disliking anything that involves bacon, chicken, onions, leeks, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, red wine (or beef stock), and olives. They're all ingredients I love, although this chicken and squash cacciatore is the first time I'm eaten them in this exact combination.
Honestly, Jamie's superfood cacciatore reminded me a lot of my dad's homemade pasta sauce. Not that it tasted like pasta sauce, but it invoked the same filling, homey, comforting feelings that his pasta sauce does. Serve this chicken and squash cacciatore over polenta, and it's basically a hug in a bowl.
Making this chicken and squash cacciatore is very simple. The directions look long, but that's only because I feel the need to be detailed. This is essentially a chop, sauté, stir, braise affair. There's minimal hands-on work to be done, and you can do most of it while you sweat the alliums with the bacon.
I didn't find it necessary to add more salt, but I added double the olives called for in the recipe (16 instead of 8) and they imparted enough flavor into the stew that I was satisfied. However, I don't use much salt generally, so your preference may vary (or if you don't like olives/don't want the olive flavor, this will certainly need added salt). Serve over polenta, spiralized zucchini, or with bread to mop up the extra sauce. It's also good all by itself. [When I first made this, it seemed like it might be have needed to reduce more, but after resting in the refrigerator, there was a great sauce to veggies and meat ratio.]
Original Source: Everyday Super Foods
Chicken and Squash Cacciatore with Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Olives
Ingredients
- 3-5 slices smoked pancetta or bacon
- Olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 1 medium leek
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- ½ large butternut squash or 1-2 sweet potatoes (about 1 ¼ lbs squash/sweet potato)
- 8 ounces chestnut or cremini mushrooms
- 28 ounce can diced or puréed plum tomatoes
- 1.5 cups Chianti other good red wine, or beef stock
- 4 chicken thighs bone in (about 1 ½ lbs)
- 8-16 black olives pitted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and move your top oven rack to the middle.
- Chop the pancetta or bacon into bite-size pieces and begin sautéing over medium heat in a large (at least 4.5 qt) Dutch oven. Add a little olive oil if necessary to keep the pancetta from sticking.
- Remove the leaves from the rosemary sprigs and chop. Add the chopped rosemary to the pan as well as the two bay leaves.
- Clean and thinly slice the leeks. Mince the onion and garlic cloves.
- Add the onion and leeks to the pancetta pan, continue to cook until translucent, about 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic, sauté one minute until fragrant.
- While the onions and leeks cook, peel and dice the butternut squash or sweet potatoes into roughly even bite-size chunks. Gently clean the mushrooms with a cloth towel, remove the base of the stem, then chop into thirds. Remove the skin from the chicken thighs as well as any pieces of gristle.
- Add the diced squash, mushroom thirds, and skinless (but bone-in) chicken thighs to the onion-leek-garlic mixture. Gently stir to distribute.
- Pour in the wine or beef stock, increase the heat to bring the stew to a gentle simmer, and allow the wine to reduce somewhat (about 5 minutes) while stirring occasionally.
- Add the diced tomatoes, then the pitted olives. Stir to distribute.
- Transfer the Dutch oven from the stovetop to the oven, then bake about 80-90 minutes until chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender and squash/sweet potatoes are tender as well.
- Season according to taste with salt and pepper, then serve.
- Jamie suggests eating a bowlful together with 7 ounces of whole-grain bread (with seeds).
