Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken, onions, herbs and red wine - what's not to love about Chicken Cacciatore. This one pot dish couldn't be easier to do, and you can make plenty of it, because it tastes even better the next day!

My recipe below will make 2-3 servings, but it's easy enough to just double the ingredients to feed more. And you can pair this dish with your favorite pasta.

I like to cook with wine, mainly white wine, but for a deeper wine flavor, red is the way to go. With slow simmering, the alcohol cooks away. And red wine goes especially well in a traditional Italian tomato and herb sauce.

I used a small airline bottle of red wine and it's just enough for my recipe. And I bet you know where I get my small bottles of wine....yep, the 99c only Store. Any red wine you can find cheaply will do.

I also get dried herbs there too. But if you have a herb garden then use fresh herbs. You can even use an Italian dried herb mix.

Chicken is cheap and I get mine at bargain basement prices from my local Latin market. Of course, you can use organic chicken if you can afford it.

So check back for more cheap$kate chicken recipes, and get going with this flavorful and easy to make Chicken Cacciatore.

Ingredients (2-3 servings)
1/2 chicken - or equivalent in chicken pieces. I used 2 leg quarters, that is, 2 thighs and 2 legs. You can leave on the bones and skin, or remove. I used boneless and skinless leg quarters on sale.
1 whole onion - medium size white or yellow, chopped.
14.5 ounce can of tomatoes - whole, chopped or crushed. The main thing is to have some tomato pieces in the sauce. You could use tomato sauce, just add a chopped whole tomato for some texture.
3/4 cup of red wine - I used a small airline bottle amount.Any type of red wine will do.
2-4 sage leaves - or 1/4 teaspoon dried
2-4 sprigs of parsley - or 1/4 teaspoon dried.
1 small sprig of rosemary - or 1/4 teaspoon dried.
1 bay leaf - fresh or dried.
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Serve with pasta, rice or any favorite dry starch that can soak up the delicious Cacciatore sauce.
*It's okay to use an Italian dried herb mix instead of fresh herbs or individual jars of dried herbs - use about a teaspoon total.

Directions
Heat oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook on the skin side until browned, about 5-10 minutes. Don't move chicken for a few minutes so the pieces brown. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper to taste.

The first few minutes all the liquid will come out, then it evaporates and starts to brown. You don't need to cook the chicken pieces all the way through. You will finish cooking the chicken when you add all the liquid ingredients.

Once one side of the chicken is browned, remove and set aside. It's okay to brown one side, this cuts down on cooking time and you will serve the chicken with the browned side showing anyway.

Add a chopped onion and saute and stir to scrape up the tasty brown bits. Cook onion until it softens, about 5 minutes.

Next pour in the red wine and 1 small can of tomatoes. Stir and break apart the tomatoes if they are whole.

Sprinkle on the herbs. Finally add the chicken pieces. It's okay to use a teaspoon of an Italian dried herb mix instead of fresh herbs or from single jars of dried herbs.

Cook uncovered for about half an hour at a low simmer. The sauce will reduce by half and the chicken should finish cooking all the way through. (Depending on your stove top burner, you can add a quarter cup of water at a time, if the liquid cooks away too fast.)

After the chicken has been cooking for 15 minutes, you can make pasta. Follow the package directions.

The pasta should be ready when the Chicken Cacciatore is ready. Remove the bay leaf. Add pasta to a plate and top with some of the chicken and flavorful tomato sauce. Dig in and enjoy.

(You can break up the chicken pieces when they are done, but it's okay to just serve it up, big pieces and all.)

Pork Bourguignon - With Apologies to Julia Child

Julia Child would roll over in her Bordeaux wine cask if she could see what The 99 Cent Chef has done to her classic Beef Bourguignon recipe! And she would do a double-roll upon viewing my takeoff of her in my extra featurette video at the end of this blog post.


Now doesn't it look like Beef Bourguignon? Well, it also tastes like it. This melange of meat, red wine, mushrooms and Pearl Onions is luscious, and the most expensive entree in any high-end restaurant; however this cheapie cooking plagiarist has come up with a 21 Century classic for these Wall Street stock-crashing times: Pork Bourguignon!

My earliest food influence (besides mom) was watching "The French Chef With Julia Child" on Boston Public Television's WGBH (keep those funds flowing to public TV & radio, Obama). I was too young to copy her classic French cuisine, but her enthusiasm at the stove planted a virus that mutated into 99 Cent Chef cuisine -- cheap recipes presented with joie de vivre.

Adding insult to injury, I shortened the cooking time (when the meat is tender, why cook longer?) and substituted cheaper cuts of meat, like 99 cents per pound pork or chicken (beef stock and 99 red cent wine provide most of the flavor).

Unfortunately pearl onions do not come cheap (although I have found 99c jars of marinated ones), but I have saved you so much time and money so far, please indulge me with this one $2.49 per pound ingredient?

Slow cooking mushrooms and pearl onions in a red wine and beef stock makes for a complex flavor profile. In these waning days of winter, put on a long braising pot of The Chef's Pork Bourguignon, based on Julia Child's classic recipe, and Bon Appetit!

 
Ingredients (serves 4)

• 3-4 pounds of country style pork ribs, shoulder or butt, cubed (I've even tried this with chicken. If you have extra overtime money coming in, go for beef roast meat).
• Bacon - about 3 slices (optional)
• 10 oz. package of pearl pnions (about 20 onions) - Peel onions. Or two jars of marinated cocktail ones, drained (I have found jars in 99c Only Stores!)
• 2 5 oz. containers of mushrooms - brown or white button.
• Aromatics including: one cup each of onion, carrot, celery and bell pepper. Use any or all, roughly chopped.
• 2 tbsps. garlic - jar or fresh
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste - okay to use 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
• 2 tbsp. flour
• Dried or fresh herbs including: 1 bay leaf and a pinch of oregano, sage and thyme. Bay leaf is the main one.
• 1 bottle of 99c red wine (or Two Buck Chuck) - minus what the chef tastes during sauteing!
• Beef stock - 32 ounces. Or 6 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 4 cups of hot water.
• Salt and pepper to taste - plenty of salt is added with bouillon cubes or beef stock, so you may not need much.

Directions
Saute bacon with meat until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove 1/2 the meat to make room for aromatics. Saute aromatics another 5 minutes to soften. 

Add tomato paste (or sauce), herbs, garlic and flour. Cook 5 minutes. Pour in the beef stock (or bouillon dissolved in water) and all the red wine you have left.

Mix well, scraping bottom of pot to loosen and dissolve all the flavorful brown bits. Bring to a boil, then transfer to a pre-heated 350 degree oven and bake covered for 1 1/2 hours.

Peel and saute pearl onions in 2 pats of butter or oil until lightly browned, and now sweetened. Don't turn too much or they will fall apart - set aside. 

Slice mushrooms in half; if they are small throw in a few whole (I like large meaty mushroom bites), and saute in the same pan as the onions, for about 5 minutes until soft. 

Add sauteed onions and mushrooms after an hour and a half of baking Pork Bourguignon, and be careful - everything is hot! Cover and continue cooking for another hour.

After baking for about 2 1/2 hours total, meat should separate easily with a fork. The pearl onions and mushroom will be unbelievably flavorful, infused with red wine and beef stock. Serve with boiled red potatoes or rice to soak up all the rich deep-brown sauce.

 
And if you like this recipe, be sure to check out video my version of Julia Child's Crepe Suzette -- while donning a wig and pearls! 

Film Noir & The 99 Cent Ribeye

The 99 Cent Chef has a dark, hungry heart - he likes his steak medium rare, Scotch on the rocks and a dame who powders her nose from the inside.

This is especially true during the annual run of Eddie Muller and Alan K. Rode's 10th-anniversary "Return To Noir City;" a film festival featuring 1950's shadowy tough guys and femme fatales on the make, screening at the Hollywood EgyptianTheater -- click here for info.

This final week's run is a doozy with "Tomorrow is Another Day;" a fugitives-on-the-run love story on Thursday and a double bill starring Edward G. Robinson on Friday.

Last Friday night was especially memorable with host Eddie Muller's Q & A of silver screen noir leading lady Colleen Gray, as Quentin Tarantino, fourth row front and center, made his way through a tub of popcorn big enough to hold a bowling ball while crime scribe James "Demon Dog" Ellroy trawled for his next ex-wife in the theatre lobby.

Here is a fun slideshow of the latest Noir Festival I attended.

Allow the Back Alley and Bottom Feeding Chef to treat you to dinner and a movie. Let's start with an old school recipe for Ribeye Steak in a Red Wine Reduction with Sauteed Mushrooms.

Afterward, refill your shot glass and enjoy this classic Noir film clip from "Double Indemnity," directed by Billy Wilder of James M. Cain's firecracker classic hardboiled novel. (Just scroll to the end of blog post to view.)

Ingredients

• 99 cent beef ribeye steak
• 4 sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup 99 cent red wine
• 2 slices of butter
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

*99 cent airline bottle of Scotch in a tumbler of ice, for the chef.

Directions for red Wine Sauce with Mushrooms
Sautee mushrooms in a tablespoon of olive oil about 5 minutes until soft.

Deglaze pan by adding red wine to mushrooms; then butter slices to thicken sauce; set aside at low heat.

Ribeye Preparation
Grill seasoned paper thin 99 cent ribeye steak (so thin it could shave off a 5 0'clock shadow) in a hot skillet with a tablespoon of oil for no more than 2 - 3 minutes. I just brown one side then flip steak for another 30 seconds.

Serve ribeye with mushroom wine sauce and a stiff drink of Scotch on the rocks, then make a beeline to "Noir City" at the Hollywood Egyptian Theater.

Look for the dark-hearted, Fedora-wearing Chef at "Noir City" and I'll tip my hat and toast you with a black leather encased hip flask of Scotch. Enjoy the movie clip.