Chicken cacciatore is a classical homestyle Italian meal that’s brilliant for feeding the family or for freezing ahead of a busy work week. The aroma of rustic herbs, sweet, colorful peppers, and tomatoes simmering on the stovetop fill the house with delight, and really stoke up your appetite for when the fall-apart chicken and salty kalamata olives hit your taste buds!

There are quite a few variations of chicken ‘catch.’ Our rustic recipe (cacciatore translates to “hunter” in Italian and was originally a campfire meal) is a cost-conscious and time-saving version that uses chicken thighs and drumsticks for the meat component, in combination with red and yellow peppers and crushed canned tomatoes. As long as you use white wine, olives, and a typical Italian-style soffritto base of onion, celery, and carrot, you can’t go wrong with the cacciatore’s veggies or the cuts of chicken!

The natural sharpness and minerality of white wine creates a lighter yet earthier flavor than the richer red varieties. You’ll find more depth to the contrast of herbs and spices, while the saltiness of the kalamata olives really comes through in the Chicken Cacciatore sauce to offset the sweetness of the tomatoes.

The best thing about chicken cacciatore is the recipe’s simplicity. Make sure your chicken is browned first, then follow a logical, step-by-step process of adding the vegetables, herbs, and re-introducing the chicken pieces to simmer, before the flourish of kalamata olives cap the finish. You can do it all comfortably inside the hour, in a Dutch oven on the stovetop.

Chicken cacciatore goes perfectly with spiral pasta, or thicker types such as shells or rigatoni, because the sauce just loves adhering to the ridges and pockets. If pasta doesn’t tickle your fancy, then creamy mashed potatoes are brilliant at sopping up all that delicious sauce!