Italian Chicken Cacciatore Recipe (Pollo alla Cacciatora) (2024)

by Guido Pedrelli Published: January 9, 2017 Last updated:April 30, 2020

Italian Cuisine Expert and Food Blogger

Guido Pedrelli

Guido Pedrelli, the mastermind behind Nonna Box, has honed his culinary expertise for decades, inspired by family feasts in Emilia-Romagna. Mentored by his restaurateur nonna, he mastered Italian classics and furthered his skills with professional culinary studies in desserts and gelato making from Mec3. Today, he shares this rich legacy and authentic recipes through Nonna Box.

Expertise: Italian cuisine, Pasta, Pizza, Pastry, Dessert

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Around these parts, we often talk about the food of the poor. However, we don’t mean it in a disrespectful way, but we are rather in awe of how some of the best dishes were born because people had to get creative and use whatever they found in their kitchen.

That is an art in itself too, because it’s not enough to take 10 random ingredients, throw them in a pot and hope the result will be edible, but it’s about finding the right balance…just like this authentic Italian chicken cacciatore recipe.

The chicken cacciatore is a traditional Tuscanrecipe, which is very popular across Italy, especially in the northern parts of the country where another popular recipe hails from, minestrone. I

t’s a simple recipe, but incredibly tasty, thanks to ingredients such as onions, tomatoes, and red wine, which enhancethe flavor of the chicken.

The origins of this authentic Italian chicken cacciatore recipe, once again are to be found among poor people, using chicken bred by farmers.

The dish is so popular that it even has its own national day on the 15th of October. “Cacciatore” actually means “hunter” in Italian and some say that the first cacciatore dish didn’t even have chicken, but rabbitmeat. However, in true Tuscan style, we are going with the authenticone.

This recipe is a famous Italian recipe called Pollo alla Cacciatora. It became famous in the US as well, it's an easy recipe that you can make it at home.

4.27 from 53 votes

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Course: Secondi

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 336kcal

Author: Guido Pedrelli

Ingredients

▢ 1 chicken
▢ 3 stalks of celery
▢ 1 sprig of rosemary
▢ 1 cup of red wine
▢ 400 g peeled tomatoes
▢ 1 onion
▢ 1 clove garlic
▢ 2 carrots
▢ 1 bunch of parsley
▢ ½ cup of extra virgin oil
▢ black pepper as needed
▢ salt as needed

Instructions

▢
First, clean the chicken thoroughly and cut it into pieces. Don't peel off the skin, as it will give it more flavor.
▢
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken pieces on both sides for about 10 minutes, until golden.
▢
At this point, add the finely chopped onions, garlic, the chopped carrots and celery, with a pinch of salt, pepper and rosemary, and leave it all in a sauté for another 5 minutes.
▢
When the mix gets a nice color, pour red wine over the chicken and let it evaporate.
▢
Then add the tomatoes, cover with a lid and let it cook on medium heat for 30 minutes (or until the chicken is well cooked and soft) during which, if the chicken becomes dry, add a bit of water or broth.
▢
Once cooked, add the chopped parsley and serve the chicken with polenta or mashed potatoes.

Note

▢
When you fry the chicken, to make it lighter, you can remove from the pan the grease spilled from the skin. After adding the tomatoes in the pan, you can also add a sprig of thyme and a little nutmeg to give it an extra touch of flavor.

Video

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Other Tuscan Recipes:

Easy Tuscan Bean Soup Recipe
Italian Bean Soup Recipe
Tuscan Roasted Chicken Recipe

Italian Chicken Cacciatore Recipe (Pollo alla Cacciatora) (10)

11 Responses to “Authentic Italian Chicken Cacciatore Recipe”

Katri @ Italian Provincial Tours says:
February 3, 2017 at 10:31 pm
Great recipe!
In Abruzzo, cacciatore is made with garlic, rosemary, white wine and olive oil. At our house, we use rabbit.
Reply
Carlie says:
March 11, 2017 at 2:38 pm
This child of mine has the most fickle pallet I’ve ever eneeuntcrod. Feta, dijon, pickles? Yes! But try and get her to eat a freaking peanut butter sandwich (or any other normal, easy, kid food) and you’re up a creek.
Reply
Maria says:
December 15, 2018 at 10:37 am
Great recipe. I loved chicken cacciatore and made this for my family on Sunday, they all loved it!
Reply
Alexandra says:
March 12, 2020 at 12:47 am
Really yummy. This is now a regular in our house!
The kids love it!
Reply
- Nonna Box says:
  May 9, 2020 at 4:35 pm
  Awesome! Happy you guys love it!
  Reply
Bob Moore says:
April 12, 2020 at 11:57 am
Love how you explain Italian cooking
So simple to see and watch.
And yes if only Apple would have a aroma sensor that we could smell your cooking!!! Bravo !!!
Reply
- Nonna Box says:
  April 12, 2020 at 4:24 pm
  Grazie mille Bob! I am glad you enjoyed it!
  Reply
philip catagnus says:
May 1, 2020 at 10:11 pm
I’m going to try this recipe out its the seems to be the most traditional one I have seen, my brother is into web designing and programing and though I know this might seem to have been something simple I love the max bar you put in to adjust the amounts of the ingredients by the serving number so simple but yet so awesome and convenient I have never seen that on a recipe page before so thank you!
Reply
- Nonna Box says:
  May 9, 2020 at 4:26 pm
  Grazie mille Philip! I hope it turned ok great.
  Reply
Patricia says:
February 3, 2021 at 11:04 am
My family is from southern Italy; we don’t add carrots or celery to the dish. We make it with double the onions and use bay leaf instead of rosemary and red wine vinegar, instead of the wine, which gives the dish an extra dimension.
Reply
- Nonna Box says:
  February 3, 2021 at 2:19 pm
  Grazie mille for sharing your version Patricia! Every home has its own variation.
  Reply