Easy Chicken Cacciatore
Easy Chicken Cacciatore Recipe – Fresh and flavorful, this chicken cacciatore tastes just like your favorite Italian restaurant dish, but is easily homemade in only about 30 minutes!
I love to leisurely putz around my kitchen on the weekends. We make huge breakfasts that we don’t serve until almost noon. We bake cookies. We eat dinners that take 1 1/2 to 2 hours to prepare. It’s fun to do that sometimes.
On weeknights however, I often find myself rushing around trying to throw together a healthful and appealing meal before kiddie bath time, stories, and bed.
In the last few years many of my glacial recipes have mutated into what I call “tired mommy recipes.” These are meals that I’ve found shortcuts for, to reduce the prep and cooking time.
Here are My Top 3 Time-Saving Dinner Tips for Tired Parents, or Tired People in General…
1) Have your butcher prep your meat while you are shopping. After all, that is their job. They will do just about whatever you ask… Take bones out of chicken breasts, but leave the skin on. Remove fat. Butterfly fish or chicken. Slice meat to your desired thickness. Clean shrimp. Even chop a roast into stew chunks for you!
2) Make sauces in large batches and freeze for later, or buy good quality jarred sauces.
3) Prep your veggies on grocery day before you put them a way, or buy pre-cut veggies.
Speaking of tired mommy recipes, one recipe I occasionally like to speed up is my Easy Chicken Cacciatore recipe.
Zesty, Flavorful Chicken Cacciatore
This Easy Chicken Cacciatore Recipe is inspired by our favorite Italian restaurant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mary’s Trattoria. It’s a cozy little restaurant with old family portraits on the walls and doilies covered with oil cloth on the tables. It reminds me of a mom and pop shop you’d find in a back alley of any Italian village.
I absolutely love Mary’s version of Chicken Cacciatore… Simple, rustic, and hearty with loads of mushrooms.
When we moved away from Tulsa, I weaseled the ingredient list out of the owner. I have played with the proportion enough now that think I’ve got perfect match. Try this recipe with your family, and I think they’ll love it, too!
What You Need for Homemade Chicken Cacciatore
This easy chicken cacciatore takes a lot less time than the traditional recipe, but is packed with zesty, earthy and comforting flavor!
Here are the ingredients you need:
- Dried spaghetti
- Mushrooms – thinly sliced
- Boneless chicken breasts or chicken cutlets
- Flour
- Butter
- Olive oil
- Garlic – minced
- White wine
- Marinara sauce – either jarred or homemade
- Fresh basil or parsley for garnish
Using a quality jarred marinara or pre-made homemade sauce is really the key to making a restaurant-level chicken cacciatore in a fraction of the time. As I mentioned above in my 3 Tips, I highly recommend making a large batch of tomato sauce on a lazy Sunday when you’ve got plenty of time, and freezing portions for enjoying a quick weeknight meal such as this!
How to Make Easy Chicken Cacciatore
Start to finish, my chicken cacciatore recipe takes only about 30 minutes to make fresh at home. Perfect for enjoying in the middle of a busy week, this dish is quickly made on the stove and brings the whole family to the table for a comforting meal together.
Here’s how you make chicken cacciatore at home:
1. First, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the dried spaghetti per package instructions.
2. Meanwhile, heat a very large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet, and sauté the sliced mushrooms until they are soft and brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet and set aside.
3. Butterfly and separate chicken breasts. (To skip this step you can buy chicken “cutlets” at the store, which are thinner slices of chicken breast.) Salt and pepper both sides of each piece of chicken, then dredge in flour.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Wait until butter is melted, then add the chicken to the skillet. Sauté the chicken 1-2 minutes per side, until lightly browned. Add the white wine and minced garlic to the skillet. Cook the chicken in the wine for another 3 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken from skillet and tightly cover with foil to keep it warm. Add the mushrooms and 3 cups of marinara to the skillet and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
To serve, place a heaping pile of cooked spaghetti on each plate and top with two chicken cutlets and a generous helping of the mushrooms sauce. Garnish with fresh basil or parsley.
Keep leftover chicken cacciatore in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The chicken and mushroom sauce will also keep well in the freezer for up to 3 months, but I recommend and serving with freshly-cooked pasta.
Looking for More Easy Weeknight Meals?
- Cilantro Lime Shrimp Pasta
- Skillet Chicken Puttanesca
- Chicken Sausage Apple Squash Sheet Pan Dinner
- Clam Pasta (Pasta Alle Vongole)
- Chicken Broccoli Quinoa Skillet
- Bruschetta Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Easy Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried spaghetti
- 12 ounces thinly sliced mushrooms
- 4 boneless chicken breasts or 8 chicken cutlets
- 1/4 cup flour
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 3 cups marinara (homemade or jarred)
- fresh basil or parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions, then drain.
- Meanwhile, heat your largest skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Sauté the mushrooms until they are soft and brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the skillet.
- Butterfly and separate chicken breasts. (To skip this step you can buy chicken "cutlets" at the store, which are thinner slices of chicken breast.) Salt and pepper both sides of each piece of chicken, then dredge in flour.
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Wait until butter is melted, then add the chicken to the skillet. Sauté the chicken 1-2 minutes per side. Add the wine and garlic. Cook the chicken in the wine for another 3 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from skillet and tightly cover with foil to keep it warm. Add the mushrooms and 3 cups of marinara to the skillet and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
- To plate, place a heaping pile of spaghetti on each plate and top with 2 chicken cutlets and the mushrooms sauce. Garnish with fresh herbs.
Notes
Nutrition
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Somethingaboutcupcakes is my fb page and girl can not live by cupcakes alone. This is a special recipe that I will be sharing with my family at the weekend. Thank you Sommer for your recipes xoxo
Leisurely weekend cooking really is the best, isn’t it? Love this recipe for quick but flavor packed weeknight meals!
A great classic recipe and very easy for an everyday dinner.
Love this easy recipe. Thank you.
Yum! What an elegant weekday meal!
If only ever day could be spend with the long breakfasts, cookies and hour long dinner making sessions, complete with wine and no dishes :)
Hello Sommer! Winter Fox here, from the Arapaho Tribe YMCA circa 1981-1985, how are you?! Well, that’s a silly question, I can see you are doing just great and after running into your dad last month I know you are just are great as you appear! It was SO great to see your dad and he told me alllll about you and what you’ve been up to, so I had to check out A Spicy Perspective ASAP! I LOVE what you are doing here, and I’ve already put to use a few of your 20 tips in the kitchen- love the onion in the freezer “trick!” I love to cook myself, but I am really just beginning to take it more seriously these past couple of years. I admire your expertise on cooking here, and plan to visit ASP regularly! I live in Nashville now by the way, so we’re not tooooo terribly far away from each again! Take care, and I look forward to “seeing” more of you and your brilliant work on ASP soon! Much love, Heather Roberts
Oh my gosh, I got soooo sidetracked I meant to tell you I made the chicken cacciatore for dinner last night, that’s why I commented under this recipe! I just forgot to actually comment ABOUT the dish, ha! It was delicious, so good, thank you! I’ll have to visit Mary’s Trattoria next time I’m home and try the real deal ;)
Love, love, love your recipe for Chicken Cacciatore. We had it last night – it was easy and delicious!
Thank you Sommer, you're a genius.
Hope you have a wonderful day.
Georgie