Chicken Cacciatore

This is a great hearty meal. It is based on a recipe my Dad makes. It is super simple to make with canned tomatoes. I, of course, had to over complicate things and start with whole totmatoes (trying to use up the batch we got this week from the farm).

Ingredients:
1/2 chicken, skinned and cut into 6 parts
3 lbs tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1/2 cup mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme)
1 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Wash tomatoes. Heat water and add tomatoes.
 

2. Remove tomatoes after 30 seconds. Peel tomatoes and cut into quarters.
 

3. Slice onions and chop garlic.
 

4.  Add tomatoes, bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 15 minutes.

5. In the mean time, cut up the chicken.

6. Add chicken, and return to a simmer.
 

7. Keep a slight simmer for 3 hours.

8. Chop herbs. Add herbs and wine and gently stir. 
 

9. Continue to simmer on low for another hour.

10. Plate and serve with a fresh salad and biscuits (to sop up the sauce).

Italian Beef Sandwich

Whenever you move to a new part of the country (or world), you need to learn the food culture. Each place is different. Chicago has sports food. Hot dogs and Italian beefs. We tried a place this weekend called Zippy’s. They’ve sold “millions”. Kim liked the “hot cheesy beef”. Hot giardinera laced with melted provolone on top.

The sandwich was good, but we both felt it lacked any real “bang!”. It could have been better, the giardinera (another Chicago thing: peppers, olives and celery in seasoned oil) added all of the flavor.

That inspired a mission for the weekend: make a better Italian beef.

We missed the mark in attempt #1. The meat was too dry (not sure what happened here) and the flavor just wan’t what we were expecting. We decided to try one more thing, we took the leftovers, sliced them and marinated in hot giardinera juice overnight. Reheated the meat in the microwave for 45 seconds. Perfecto, Italian beef beauty.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:
1 eye of round roast (1-2 lbs)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion sliced thin
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup mixed fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme)
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
grated cheddar cheese to taste
hot giardinera to taste
soft sandwich rolls

Directions:
1. Set meat out to bring to room temperature and chop vegetables.
 

2. Season meat with salt and pepper. Heat oil in pressure cooker. Brown meat for 2-3 minutes per side.
 

3. Add vegetables, herbs, water, and wine. Bring top boil. Close pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Cook for 1 hour.
 

4. Reduce pressure and remove meat from pressure cooker. Slice thinly.

5. If you can’t wait, assemble sandwich with meat, cheese and giardinera.

6. Save the leftovers. Pour 1/4 cup of giardinera juice/bits in the container to marinate the meat overnight.

7. Reheat the meat and assemble sandwiches. I would recommend mild giardinera as the meat is pretty spicy at this point.