Amazing! Seriously, one of my favorite healthy and hearty meals! My husband too! And my kids! And, it’s so easy if you have a Crock Pot to use! Cacciatore means “hunter-style” and is usually made with rabbit! Right now we’re enduring social isolation and practicing social distancing. But, I am still able to place curb-side pick-up orders from local farmers markets here and a nearby butcher will even deliver their meat! So until all of that becomes undoable, we’re going to go ahead and continue to use chicken breast here. No rabbit stew! Fresh vegetables, herbs and canned tomatoes to create the cacciatore in the crock pot. No added flour or any unnecessary ingredients.
Fresh mushrooms, fresh yellow and red peppers, red onion and kalamata olives! Chicken breast for a lean protein and a can of organic tomatoes. Herbs for flavor and plenty of garlic as well. Having all the ingredients slowly simmer together, the kitchen will smell so incredible and your taste-buds will start to tingle with anticipation!
Begin with sauteing fresh garlic, sliced onions over medium heat in olive oil. Add the mushrooms and red pepper to soften. Add 1-2 tsp oregano and basil as well as 1 tsp of thyme.
We’re not using rabbit, but you can use chicken thighs as some prefer the flavor the meat adds to the meal. Most often I use chicken breast as it is the leaner meat and when cooking in the crock pot, that allows it to be juicy and not dry. But when I’ve added some thighs, the meat falls off the bone and it does add a savory flavor! Always use an organic pasture raised chicken. Image courtesy of pinterest, you can see the difference in nutrition between breast and thigh. You’ll get a higher fat with lower protein if you keep it all thigh.
But, if you’ve read Deep Nutrition by Dr. Cate, she explains the nutrient needs on an ancestry basis. What our genes need! Her four pillars of cousine, one includes meat on the bone; more information found here drcate.com/the-four-pillars-of-world-cuisine/
Cooking meat bone does two great things.
1) It enables the bone nutrients to infuse into the meat, imparting wonderful flavors.
2) Heat, water, and acid break down the collagen. When making bone stock (by boiling bones in water with an acid source, for instance tomato sauce) you fill the water with molecules called glycosaminoglycans. These molecules act as joint growth factors, keeping the collagen in your joints healthy and facilitating the repair of damaged joints
So, as the vegetables are sauteing, warm up olive oil and fresh garlic in a pan and brown both sides of the chicken. I brown the chicken with a bit of oregano and basil as well as parsley.
Browned the chicken breast below.
Don’t cook it! Once it’s visibly brown, add to crock pot with vegetables and pour tomatoes over. Add another tsp of herbs such as oregano, basil, parsley and thyme. Add a good dose of kalamata olives and allow to simmer for about an hour to two hours on low heat. My crock pot low heat is pretty high, it always starts to boil about 45 minutes in, so depending on your own settings and the thickness of the meat, it may be longer.
I add greens to this Chicken Cacciatore to give it some additional nutrition but it also offers great taste with kale and spinach! Fresh basil at the end when serving and you could open your own restaurant! A Nutritiously Well-Fed restaurant!
| Prep Time | 5-10 mins |
| Cook Time | 1-2 hours |
| Servings |
people
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- 2 lbs chicken breast along with a pound or less of chicken thighs if prefer
- 1 tbsp olive oil for sauteing
- 2-3 tsp oregano
- 2-3 tsp basil
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp parsley
- 2-4 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 1 cup yellow and green peppers
- 1 medium Red Onion sliced
- 28 oz organic tomatoes
- 1/2-1 cup kalamata olives
Ingredients
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- Heat Olive oil and sliced garlic in pan. Add 1 tsp oregano and 1 tsp basil and a bit of parsley. Allow chicken to brown on both sides but do not fully cook
- Heat olive oil and sliced garlic in pan. Add 1 tsp of oregno, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp thyme. Add sliced onions and then mushrooms and peppers. Softening but not fully cooking
- Add Chicken and canned tomatoes to crock-pot, then adding vegetables to pot. Add 1 tsp of herbs each and allow to simmer on low to medium heat for about 1 - 2 hours depending on your crock pot settings. Mine gets very hot.