I made a recipe from Mary Ann Esposito called Hunter-style chicken or pollo alla cacciatora. It turned out tasty and is really a nice healthy dish too. Gotta love that.
4 pounds chicken, cut-up
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-ground black pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil [I used significantly less, you don't need more than a tablespoon or 2]
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 bay leaf [yuck, sorry I left out]
2 cans whole tomatoes - (28 oz ea)
2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 yellow), cored, seeded,
and cut into strips
1/2 pound button mushrooms, sliced [decided against mushrooms too but I'm sure they'd be good]
Zazzy's addition:
I really felt it was too bland with no spices. I used a couple teaspoons of Herbes de Provence but you could use any combination of herbs you like. Oregano, basil, rosemary, fennel seeds, and marjoram work well together. I also added about a teaspoon of crushed red pepper.
1. Wash and dry the chicken pieces. Rub the pieces with the salt and pepper and set them aside.
2. In a large heavy-duty skillet, heat the olive oil and cook the onions until they are soft but not browned. Stir in the garlic and continue cooking until the garlic softens. Add the chicken pieces and brown them evenly on all sides. Add the bay leaf. Add the tomatoes, squeezing them slightly with your hands, and also add any tomato juice. Lower the heat to simmer, cover the pot, and cook the chicken for 1/2 hour.
3. Uncover the pot, stir in the peppers, cover the pot, and cook until the peppers are soft and the chicken is fork-tender. [Okay, I added the peppers in the beginning. Took about 45-60 minutes overall to be perfect] Stir in the mushrooms, cover the pot, and cook about 5 minutes, or just until the mushrooms are soft.
4. Serve immediately with good crusty bread, or with rice or potatoes.
5. This recipe yields 8 servings
It turns out that
This Recipe is posted on her website, Ciao Italia. I encourage you to check it out.
With my modifications, there are 16 grams of carbs and about 400 calories per serving. The thing is, you're going to have a vat of sauce left over - for the next time you make the dish or it's really similar to swiss steak and you might use it for that. Because you aren't eating anywhere near all the tomatoes and peppers, you aren't going to get that many carbs. Unless you eat the good crusty bread.
BTW, I froze the leftover sauce and made the dish again a couple months later - the chunks in the sauce weren't as chunky but it was still very tasty!
Recipe from "Ciao Italia - Bringing Italy" Home by Mary A. Esposito, (St. Martin's Press, 2001)
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