Sunday Supper: Food and Wine Pairing of the Week

Chicken Cacciatore and Chianti

Sunday Supper is a weekly blog post highlighting the dinners we make for our family and friends. The inspiration came from the simple fact that nearly every Sunday we get together to break bread, relax and recharge. The recipes we share are our personal favourites, and since no meal is complete without wine, we offer up a wine pairing plus our thoughts on why it works with the meal. We invite you to try out our recipes for yourself and adapt them to your own family’s preferences. 

Back to the one-pot wonders. What can we say? We just love them. Easy to prepare, bloody delicious and there’s usually enough for left overs for a busy week ahead.

This particular Sunday Supper was inspired by the wine. Craving a rustic red on a blustery day, Rocca delle Macie’s Chianti Reserva was the starting point (which is apparently only available in the Ontario market  – apologies to out-of-province friends, but another Chianti should fit the bill just fine!), and working backwards from there settled on a soul warming cacciatore as the Chianti’s dining companion.

Cacciatore, which means Hunter’s Stew, is sometimes made with rabbit, and while like any Italian dish there’s millions of ways to make it, the theme is generally the same no matter what recipe you consult.

This is ours, and as always, feel free to adapt to your Sunday Supper preferences.

Chicken Cacciatore

Serves 6

What You Need

• 8 chicken thighs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 heaping Tbsp dried thyme
• 2 Tbsp salt
• 2 Tbsp pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 large Spanish onion, sliced thin
• 1 green pepper sliced into strips
• 1/2 red pepper sliced into strips
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp hot pepper in olive oil (optional)
• 1 cup red wine
• bunch of fresh thyme
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 2 cups tomato puree
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup sliced red and green olives

How You Do It

1. Season flour with salt and pepper and dried thyme – don’t be shy you will need lots of seasoning
2. Clean and pat dry chicken thighs, dredging in flour and shaking off excess
3. Heat olive oil in dutch oven or large pot and when warm sear chicken without over crowding the pot (you may have to do this in a few batches)
4. Remove browned chicken from pot and set aside
5. Adding more oil if needed, add onions to the pot and cook until slightly golden and getting soft – about 4 minutes
6. Add in peppers and garlic and cook for another few minutes until peppers start to soften
7. Pour in wine, scarping up cooked bits from the bottom of the pot
8. Add in hot peppers, if using, plus fresh thyme, bay leaves and season lightly with salt and pepper
9. Add tomato puree and chicken stock to pot  and stir to combine
10. Place a tight-fitting lid on pot a reduce heat to a simmer, cooking for about 25 minutes
11. Remove lid, add mushrooms and olives to pot
12. Nestle chicken into sauce mixture and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through
13. When cacciatore is ready, serve atop bowls of hot pasta or polenta

The Wine Sisters’ Wine Pairing

Rocca delle Macie Chianti Riserva, Tuscany, Italy, 2010
$15.95 Vintages 111641
Baking spice, leather and red fruits on the nose give way to flavours of leather, sweet and sour red fruit, spice and earth. Tannins and firm, but well integrated, and fresh acidity is balanced. Great option for tomato based braises.

How Did the Pairing Work?

Tomato-based dishes and Chianti are classics together. The high acid in the wine matches the high acid in the tomatoes, and the two calm each other down: the wine’s fruit and body is enhanced by the acidic tomatoes, while the cacciatore is sweetened thanks to the wine.