Classic Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
Published January 31, 2023. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This authentic Chicken Cacciatore Recipe is a delicious braised chicken dish loaded with mushrooms and vegetables in a tomato and herb broth. The flavors in this simple-to-prepare dish are so good.
I’m Sicilian, so making and eating Italian food in my house is commonplace. If you want to try out some new recipes, you must try Aglio e Olio or Bucatini All’Amatriciana.
Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken cacciatore Is an incredibly simple recipe consisting of chicken and mirepoix cooked and braised in a simple tomato broth with herbs. Cacciatore translates from Italian to English as “hunter.”
Cacciatore is a cooking style so hunter-style would include certain ingredients such as mushrooms, onions, herbs, tomatoes, and sometimes wine. This very traditional recipe sticks to the dish’s original intent, which is a few ingredients and simple procedures. You will not find bell peppers or olives in my recipe, which would veer from the classic version.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken – I prefer to use a whole chicken fabricated into wings, thighs, drums, and breasts. Classically this dish would have featured a rabbit.
- Mushrooms – Any wild mushroom will work. However, I used porcini, portabella, and button mushrooms.
- Onion – You can use white, sweet, or yellow onion. In addition, some garlic is needed.
- Celery – A few ribs of celery will help add some more flavor to this dish.
- Carrots – I love using carrots as they greatly enhance the braising sauce’s flavor.
- Wine – You can use Sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, or shiraz.
- Tomatoes – You can use fresh, whole peeled, or canned tomatoes. I especially like to use San Marzano tomatoes.
- Herbs – I like the combination of parsley and rosemary in this recipe as those would be classical to use.
How to Make Chicken Cacciatore
Pour 2 cups of boiling water over ½ ounce of dried porcini mushrooms and sit for 20 minutes.
Finely strain the mushrooms and reserve ½ of the liquid.
Rinse the mushrooms and squeeze out all the liquid.
Roughly small chop the mushrooms.
Season the chicken parts well on all sides with salt and pepper.
Heat the olive oil into a large rondeaux pot over medium heat and brown the chicken parts well on each side, about 4 minutes per side.
Remove the chicken and set aside.
Next, add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms to the pan and sauté for 6 to 7 minutes.
Deglaze with the wine and cook over medium heat until it is almost gone, about 5 minutes.
Pour the reserved porcini mushroom liquid, tomatoes, herbs, salt, and pepper, and stir.
Add the browned chicken back in, add a lid to the pot, and simmer over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes.
Garnish with chopped parsley.
How to Serve it
Chicken cacciatore can be served with various things such as rice, pasta, or polenta. I like finishing my chicken cacciatore recipe with a ton of chopped parsley.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this up to 30 minutes ahead of time. Just keep it covered over low heat.
How to Store: Place this covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This will freeze covered for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before reheating.
How to Reheat: Add the desired amount of chicken cacciatore to a rondeau pot and cook over low heat while occasionally stirring. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper and serve.
Chef Notes + Tips
- Feel free to use chicken breasts, thighs, or drums.
- When searing the chicken, be sure not to crowd the pan too much so you can get a good sear. If you need to sear it in batches, then please do it.
More Italian Recipes
Video
Classic Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
Ingredients
- ¼ cup of reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 whole chicken broken down into parts
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ peeled and small diced yellow onion
- 3 small diced ribs of celery
- 2 peeled and small diced carrots
- 4 finely minced cloves of garlic
- 1 cup sliced baby portabella
- 1 cup sliced button mushrooms
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 28- ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes, crushed with your hands
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
- sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pour 2 cups of boiling water over top a ½ ounce of dried porcini mushrooms in a medium-sized bowl and let them sit for 20 minutes.
- Finely strain the mushrooms and reserve ½ of the liquid.
- Rinse the mushrooms well under cold water and then squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Roughly small chop the mushrooms.
- Season the chicken parts well on all sides with salt and pepper.
- Heat the olive oil into a large rondeaux pot over medium heat until it begins to smoke likely.
- Add chicken parts and brown them well on each side, which takes about 4 minutes per side.
- Remove the chicken and set aside.
- Next, add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms to the pan and sauté for 6 to 7 minutes or until browned over medium-high heat.
- Deglaze with the wine and cook over medium heat until the liquid is almost gone, which takes about 5 minutes.
- Pour in the reserved porcini mushroom liquid, tomatoes, herbs, salt, and pepper and stir.
- Add the browned chicken back in and add a lid to the pot and simmer over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes.
- Garnish with chopped parsley.
I made this for dinner. It was fabulous! I just started following this chef and have made three of his dishes. So far, they have all been easy, flavorful, and fun to make. I love his back-to-simple cooking ideas and how he fully flavors everything. I have yet to try his bread recipes but I am going to try them as bread can be intimidating and everyone says that their bread is the best and fluffiest but we will see. I have not found a bread recipe that I love. Maybe Billy will win out on this one.
The only problem I have is that I am alergic to LEMON and it seems everyone wants to add lemon. Also, we do not drink so much alcohol. in a recipe can be challenging. I wish Billy would give substitutes for the wine and alcohol when doing the videos.
The friend red cabbage is the best. The pork schnitzel is fabulous I will continue to follow this chef until I run out of ideas.
Billy if you read this please send a WHITE FLUFFY BREAD RECIPE to me so I can try yours. I have tried about 150 and none work so far. Also, additions to bread ie’garlic rosemary, etc would be great.
So far you are batting a 1000 with me! Thank you!
many thanks!
Where do the chopped porcini mushrooms go?
procedure 8
This is delicious!! I used our leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. My older daughter had brought a vegetable tray and she left the remainder with me and it had the celery and carrots I needed, had canned tomatoes in the pantry, onion and garlic in the fridge!! Awesome!
Thank you for giving it a shot!
I just made your Osso Bucco recipe. It was wonderful. I used beef and served it with orzo. I have enough left over for another meal. Can’t wait to have it again! Thank you for your very precise and great recipe, I look forward to trying more of your foods.
Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
First time on here. I wanted an authentic Cacciatore recipe as it was a favourite of my Mother’s and I had lost my notes of hers so I googled “authentic Chicken Cacciatore recipe” and yours looked the most like hers. I made it yesterday and left it in my slow cooker for 6 hours. It was delicious and I will definitely be sitting down and choosing some more of your fare. What little I have seen of your website is very user friendly and impressive.
Many thanks!
Can I do all the prep as directed and cook it in a slow cooker for several hours? Any recommendations here? Thanks
that would overcook it
Can you make this without the dried porcini mushrooms? They are a little pricey for us.
sure
This is all so new to me and to think I am almost 69 years young…LOL My medical provider raises rabbit for meat because it is very lean. I will have to tell her of this recipe so she can make it with her rabbit meat. Rabbit cacciatore, sounds wonderful. MMM, maybe she will spread the wealth…LOL. Thank you for helping all of us non-chefs.
I have used rabbit and it is delightful. I prefer it to chicken. Buon appetito
Excited to try this! About how many pounds of chicken should I be using? I’ve seen everything from 4-7 pounds for a whole chicken
3 1/2 to 4
THIS.IS.AMAZING.
Thank you so much for all the effort you put into creating these delicious recipes. This one, though…..!!!!
🩷
My pleasure! Thank you for giving it a try!