Chicken alla cacciatore

This is a grand sounding dish that you think should have a classic and traditional way that it should be done.  The truth about this is an old dish is it means, chicken cooked 'the hunter's way'.  Now what exactly that is very open to interpretation and in a way, that is a good thing.  You can find your way of cooking it and that is your way of cooking it. The recipe below it probably not as traditional as a average Italian recipe as I was told to cook a good Italian dish you have seven ingredients and take two away.

For my chicken alla cacciatore you will need.

1 tbsp olive oil

75g/2½oz pancettaor bacon cubes

1 onion finely sliced

500g/1lb chicken thighs,

125ml/4½fl oz white wine

1 x 400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 bay leaves

1 tsp Thyme leaves

1 tsp Rosemary

½ tsp sugar

1 x 400g/14oz can cannellini beans

Salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Start by taking you bacon and oil and frying it in a saucepan.  You want to really cook the bacon so that it crystallizes around the edge of the pan.  Add the garlic, onions, thyme, and rosemary and get the chicken thighs in the pan.  Let the chicken start to brown and the onions and herbs cook together.

Pour in the white wine and let that come to a simmer.  As it heats up use a wooden spoon to work all the crystallised juice of the pan and in to the liquid in the pan.  Finally add the tomatoes and the sugar. Let every thing reduce for a while, it takes about twenty minutes.

Finally take you can of cannellini beans and open them and drain the liquid away from the beans and rise them under a tap.  Add the beans to the pan and stir them in then just let it all het up together.

And that is about it, just serve it up and eat it with a good piece of bread and a glass of red wine, perfect.