The Crippes family chicken cacciatore (sorta)

My Grandma Crippes would have been 84 on Monday, so to honor her memory I made one of her lovely recipes. And then, because I’m a terrible grandchild, I tweaked it a whole bunch and made it in a Dutch oven.

I’ve made her chicken cacciatore recipe several times before but it’s always been as a casserole.

And, to be honest, I’ve always made a bastardized version based on my mom’s version of Grandma’s recipe. My mom tells me the recipe originally included mushrooms but no one in my immediate family liked them growing up so they got scrapped in my mom’s making.

This time I made even more changes, and probably should have made even more. But I kept the heart of the recipe in tact, which is tomato sauce, marinated artichoke hearts, and sauteed chicken. Aside from removing the mushrooms, I added onions and extra artichokes.

The change I should have made for the Dutch oven is to tweak the sauteed chicken by either not dredging it in flour or cooking it in canola oil rather than olive. What happened was a nice blackened layer of flour-y oil coated the bottom of my Dutch oven when I made it this way. Hotter oil or no flour would have fixed that.

Fortunately, it was still fine. The burnt layer was still there after it came out of the oven but didn’t impact the flavor any — just made the house smokier for a bit.

I do like this Dutch oven method, though, because it was a one pot meal. I even made the angel hair pasta in it first while I did the other prep work. I didn’t combine it all at the end because that is not how it’s been served in my family, but it’s possible … though I’d add less than the full 1 pound mentioned below.

Anyway, here’s what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 (14.5 oz.) jar marinated artichoke hearts
• 1 ½ to 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch chunks
• 1 c. flour, for dredging (optional)
• Oil, for sauteing
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 (28 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
• ¾ c. Chardonnay (or dry sherry)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used more)
• Basil, chopped or torn, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parsley, chopped to taste
• 1 lb. pasta, cooked according to package instructions, for serving

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the Dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat. Drain the marinade from the artichoke hearts into the skillet, and add oil. Dredge chicken chunks in flour, if using, and brown until golden. Do this in a couple batches, depending on the size of your Dutch oven.

Remove the chicken from the Dutch oven to a plate.

Meanwhile, add more oil as necessary and saute the onion, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, artichoke hearts, crushed tomatoes, wine, and the spices to the Dutch oven. Cook until boiling, stirring occasionally.

Add back in the chicken, and stir to mix.

Cover the Dutch oven, and bake in the oven for about 30 to 35 minutes until bubbling and flavors are mixed. Let cool slightly, serve over cooked pasta (preferably spaghetti or angel hair), and enjoy!