Chicken Cacciatore with Roasted Garlic Polenta

Chicken cacciatore translates as “hunter’s” chicken. Every region seems to have its own variety, but basically it’s a hearty chicken stew. The kind you might want if you were holed up in a deer stand. Or just holed up in your apartment due to a global pandemic.

The great thing about polenta in a pandemic is that unlike rice and pasta, it’s still abundantly available. You can skip the polenta entirely, serve it with noodles, bread, spaetzle, or whatever carb you wish, but I find the creaminess of the polenta pairs really nicely with the acidity of the tomatoes. Fair warning, polenta takes about 1.5 hours to make, which means it’s the perfect thing to cook when you’re under lockdown!

Chicken Cacciatore with Roasted Garlic Polenta

Polenta

1 head of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup polenta (I use the medium-grind from Bob’s Red Mill)
2 cups whole milk
3-4 cups of chicken stock
2 tbsp mascarpone (I didn't have any so I used cream cheese. Shrug.)
1-2 tsp kosher salt (make sure you taste before adding it all)

Preheat the oven to 350˚F

Cut the top off the bulb of garlic, drizzle olive oil over top. Wrap the entire bulb in aluminum foil, and set in the oven for 50-60 minutes while you’re doing everything else.
In a saucepan, bring the milk and stock to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Add polenta in a slow stream, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. The whisking is important because polenta will clump together badly if it hits the liquid all at once.
Whisk until liquid is evenly absorbed. Generally you'll want to keep the polenta moving reasonably often so it doesn't form a weird skin.
Reduce heat to very low. Cook, uncovered, for about 1 hour, stirring as needed. Add a bit of stock if it becomes too thick.
Remove from heat and add mascarpone (at room temp), 3-4 cloves of mashed roasted garlic, and salt.
Cover polenta and transfer to a double boiler. WTF is a double boiler, you ask? It’s a way to provide gentle, indirect heat when you’re doing delicate things like tempering chocolate, or finishing polenta. You can MacGyver one by filling a larger pot with a few inches of water, bringing that to a boil, lowering to simmer, and then carefully setting your polenta pot inside. Make sure the water doesn’t seep in! Let it simmer this way for at least 30 minutes.

Chicken Cacciatore

4 chicken thighs
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups white or cremini button mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup dry, un-oaked white wine
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp capers
2 cups fresh tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, chopped*
1 large 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1/2 small 6 oz. can of tomato paste
2 bell peppers
1-2 tsp dried oregano or 2 tsp fresh thyme (I didn't have oregano)
1/2-1 tsp dried red chili flakes
salt and pepper
Parmesan, grated (for topping)

Put flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken pieces in seasoned flour until lightly coated.
Heat olive oil in a large pot, cook the chicken pieces until evenly browned. Remove chicken from pot and set aside.
Add a little more olive oil and brown the shallots, garlic, and mushrooms. If the pan gets very brown, deglaze with the white wine. Don’t be afraid of the browning—brown food tastes good!
Add chicken broth. Let it all simmer for a minute.
Add tomatoes, bell peppers, tomato paste, capers, peppers, and spices, bring all of it up to a boil then lower to a simmer.
Nestle the chicken pieces into the sauce and make sure they are all covered.
Let the whole pot simmer on relatively low, for about 30-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Drink more of your wine and contemplate the paradoxical strength and tenuousness of human connection.
Serve the chicken over polenta, and top liberally with grated cheese!

*A note on tomatoes: Use your tastebuds here! If you’ve got super flavorful cherry tomatoes, you’re golden. If you’ve got big ol’ beefsteaks that taste like wet cardboard, add more tomato paste to punch up the flavor. Don’t be shy about dumping a jar of Ragu in there. I won’t tell.

FOOD CHAIN WORKERS

As I’m sure you know, it takes a lot of people to get that precious Oatly from the farm into your fridge. Spare a thought for the incredibly hard-working humans who are keeping our food supply chains running. These are the hands that are planting, harvesting, processing, packing, preparing, serving, selling, and delivering the food that we all rely upon. What can you do to support these food workers? The Food Chain Workers Alliance has five great ideas that go beyond donating (but cash helps too!)—check them out here.