Pollo alla Cacciatora, an Italian Braise

The Dish we recommend for this recipe. Dish Symphony No.2

Cacciatora is an Italian dish whose name means “hunter's style”. It is built on tomato, onion and chicken.

At Inspice we always think about making recipes easy to cook at a Japanese table while getting more out of the flavours, and this cacciatora follows the same line.

Using chicken drumettes means the savoury juices and collagen that seep out melt together with the vegetables and spices (Dish 2) into something that makes you smile without meaning to.

Our favourite way to eat it is to pull the meat off the drumettes with a knife and fork, coat it in the sauce and take a bite.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• Chicken drumettes: 8
• Onion: 1
• Carrot: 1/2
• Tinned tomatoes (whole tomatoes recommended): 400g
• Butter: 20g
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Soy sauce: 1 tsp
• Dish Symphony No.2: 2 tsp
• Wine: 100ml (red or white both work. The taste differs but each is good in its own way. If you have none, you can substitute vinegar: 1 tsp and a little sugar, but do use wine if you possibly can)
• Olive oil: 2 tbsp

Preparation

• Chop all the vegetables finely.
  
  

Method

1. Take a lidded pot, pour in olive oil: 2 tbsp and set over medium heat.
2. Add the chicken drumettes: 8, sprinkle lightly with salt (not in the list above), and once they are lightly coloured, lift them out into a bowl.
3. Melt butter: 20g in the pot, then add the onion: 1 and carrot: 1/2 and fry over medium heat until translucent.
4. Add the tinned tomatoes (whole tomatoes recommended): 400g and stir together.
5. Add salt: 1 tsp, soy sauce: 1 tsp, Dish: 2 tsp and wine: 100ml, and once it comes to the boil, put the lid on and simmer over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes.
6. Taste, adjust with salt, and it is done. If you would like some heat, add chilli or ground chilli to taste before eating.
   
   

   That final salt adjustment matters a great deal. The saltiness shifts depending on whether your butter is salted or unsalted, so at the end adjust it to the point where you think “that's good”. If it is under-seasoned only the sourness stands out, so add enough salt for the flavour to have a clear outline.