January 17 – January 23, 2025

Monday:                  Maple-Glazed Roast Chicken overPuréed Butternut Squash, Apple and Endive Salad

Tuesday:                  French Onion Soup

Wednesday:             Baked Marsala and Mushroom Pasta

Thursday:                 Dunning’s Dinner

Friday:                      Julie’s for dinner with our gang

Saturday:                  PFC Jazz Café with Sandy and Gene, Hilda, Tim, Katie, Dave

Sunday:                    Chicken Cacciatore over Rice with Caesar Salad

Note:  the best dinner of the week was cooked by Julie – the food was great, our good friends were all gathered, Maisie the dog was there.  A superb night.

ONE-UPPING SYMON (and more chicken)

One of the first dinners I ever cooked was chicken cacciatore.  Oh, I’d grilled steaks, under Dad’s supervision, tossed some chipped ham in a pot with ketchup and vinegar to make Isaly’s version of ham barbecue,* but not a complete dinner and never for anybody other than family.  But this was a special dinner for the girl I was dating (SWMBO) and the guy I was sharing an apartment with, Ambrose.

*This ham barbecue sat in metals pans in what is known as a hot table and, over the course of the day (days?) would develop a sort of dark crust on top and near the edges of the pan.  That crusty bit was the best part to eat, though perhaps unsafe at any temperature under boiling.  Isaly’s was a Pittsburgh chain that now exists in one or two franchise locations, but mainlat as the inventor of the Klondike – the easiest, most pleasing dessert for a warm summer cook-out.

I had been incapacitated during our move to the apartment by a vicious spider plant which slashed my cornea.  I think it was Ambrose’s plant and can’t imagine why he brought it to our bachelor’s pad.  I probably should have sued him.  But let me leave my personal vendettas aside and get back to the chicken.

Since I had to wear an eye patch and couldn’t get to work, I thought I’d cook a nice dinner for Beez and Ambrose and remembered my mother’s version of chicken cacciatore, which involved Campbell’s tomato soup, onions, green bell peppers and . . . wait for it – chicken.  I liked it and they ate it, though I must admit that we have come along way from that kind of cooking.

You will have noticed that I have been cooking a lot of recipes from the cookbook Billy gave to me for Christmas – Simply Symon Suppers – and seeing one for Chicken Cacciatore brought back memories of that dinner 46 or so years ago.  As you might imagine, Symon’s approach was a bit more authentic, closer to the kind of thing Italian men hunting for wild boar or deer or rabbits might cook up over a campfire in the wilds of Tuscany.*

* ‘Chicken Cacciatore,’ is an English translation from the Italian ‘Pollo alla Cacciatora’, or ‘Hunter’s Chicken’.  The dish originated in Renaissance Italy, when hunters would cook whatever game they caught with ingredients they could carry on a hunting expedition, like onions and herbs, and later, tomatoes creating a rustic dish often referred to as ‘alla cacciatora’ (hunter style) – hence the name “Chicken Cacciatore” when using chicken as the main protein.

But let me now reveal the main point of this post – you are not required to follow the recipe exactly, even when cooking with recipes from great chefs like Michael Symon.  My cookbooks are littered with notes on using more or less salt, cooking for a longer or shorter time, with more or less liquid, cutting down garlic, amping up the heat, etc.  And Michael Symon’s recipe for Chicken Cacciatore has been amended to a sort of joint Symon-Stewart blueprint for creating a tasty, satisfying dinner for your family from chicken and a few herbs and vegetables – ‘hunter-style.’

My version is better because the chicken skin is crackery-crisp and doesn’t have to be discarded like the rubbery, limp skin in Symon’s version – sorry, Michael.  I strongly recommend this recipe and also having someone – not you, it’s too dangerous – remove all the spider plants from your home.

Oh – and Ambrose, you’re invited out for this new and improved Chicken Cacciatore.  Do not – let me repeat – do not show up with a spider plant.

Chicken Cacciatore

(Michael Symon as modified by Bill Stewart)

Timing:                                                        1 hour

Ingredients:                                             Serves 4

2 lbs. bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

2 ½ teaspoons ground fennel (I just throw some fennel seeds in a coffee grinder and break them down)

¼ lbs. thick-sliced bacon, cut into ½-inch long pieces

3 small portobello mushrooms stemmed and gills removed, caps halved and thinly sliced (about 2 cups) Note: I used 8 oz. of baby bellas instead

Yellow onion, finely chopped 2 cups or a bit more, Celery, finely chopped (one cup or a bit more)

Diced Carrot (one cup or a bit more), ½ cup olives – I used more, because I like them, and I used Castelvetrano

1 28 oz. can whole-peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand or, take my advice and use two 14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes – Glen Muir fire-roasted are great

2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary

2 medium garlic cloves, minced (I used one)

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I used a scant full teaspoon)

1 cup dry red wine, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Rice or Noodles to serve with the dish

Prep:

Preheat oven to 400 F

Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Pat thighs dry and rub with olive oil, then season both sides with salt and pepper and 2 teaspoons of the ground fennel, and place on the sheet pan.

Cut the bacon and chop, dice, mince and slice the mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots, garlic rosemary and parsley.

Measure out the wine and olives.

Cook

After the oven has been at 400 F for at least 5 minutes, put the sheet pan with the chicken in the oven for 40 minutes. At that time check to see if the skin is crisp and the internal temperature is 160 F.  If needed, cook longer and/or broil to crisp the skin more.

(Note: while cooking the sauce – below – cook either rice or noodles over which you will serve the chicken cacciatore.

Put a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and when it begins to shimmer, add the bacon and cook, stirring from time to time, until it begins to get crispy – 3 – 6 minutes.  Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel.

Put the Dutch oven back over medium-high and then add the mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots, olives and a pinch or two of salt and stir, from time to time, until the vegetables soften – 5 minutes or so – and add the garlic and stir for a minute.

Now add the remaining ground fennel, pepper flakes, rosemary and wine.  Bring to a gentle boil and cook until the liquid is reduced by half – two minutes or a bit longer.

Add the tomatoes to the pan, along with any liquid from the tomato can(s).

Bring to a simmer and cover and cook for 20 minutes.  Add salt, if needed.  Off the heat, stir in the parsley.

Serve:

Put a mound of rice or noodles on a plate, spoon the sauce down the center and top with one of the chicken thighs, sprinkle with some more parsley and serve.