Water, 1.5 cups/300 ml fresh from the mountain stream.īouillon concentrate, enough to flavor 2 cups–foil wrapped cubes are pocket stable. Tomato paste, 4 Tablespoons sure, he could pack a tin. A dedicated hunter would more likely pack a hip flask of cognac or grappa, if only to avoid the extra weight. Crimini or chanterelles would authenticate, but let’s be realistic. Green onions, or of course, ramps! 2 or 3 each. Sweet bell peppers, any color, 1 each you can’t be picky in the forest. Ingredients:Ĭhicken, 1 each, approximately 4 lbs/1.8 Kg, cut into breast, wing, leg and thigh pieces.įlour, start with a shaker full–about 5 oz dry/150 g. Meanwhile, we can cling to fanciful monikers for the sake of a little melodramatic charm on restaurant menus. Trying to cook over a campfire does not appeal to me whatsoever. Gas/electric stoves and other modern conveniences make this and many other dishes easier to prepare. There really was a time when $5.95 was pretty hard to come by. Wide lapels and leisure suits notwithstanding, we may actually see Cacciatore start showing up again on swanky menus one of these days–$45 instead of $5.95. Old people are always quick to remind (everybody else) that there is nothing new under the sun and that everything comes back eventually. We used to do it with just the breasts too, but what would our deer-stalking friend do with the legs and thighs? If care is taken in the preparation it’s just as good as any other bone-in chicken dish.
![chicken hunter style mushrooms carrots chicken hunter style mushrooms carrots](https://tastycraze.com/files/lib/400x296/pile-polovdjiiski.jpg)
Chicken Cacciatore can be very good, in a delightfully messy kind of way. People would say “that must have been some kind of hunter.” The crux Why should “Chicken, Hunter Style” be any different? Imagine if that was the way it was listed on stateside menus.
![chicken hunter style mushrooms carrots chicken hunter style mushrooms carrots](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/30/2020/08/hunters_chicken-816fc17.jpg)
Veal Parmigiana is not the only way veal is served in Parma, and Fettuccine Alfredo and Caesar Salad did not even originate in Italy. Many of us knew even then that the designations of “classical” dishes depended on the suspension of disbelief for the sake of romance and imagery. They would sigh wistfully as if they actually remembered such a time. Our culinary instructors’ eyes gleamed playfully as they explained the etymology of this dish. Somebody surmised that this whimsically conceived hodgepodge of ingredients would include mushrooms, onions, peppers, fresh herbs, tomatoes and sometimes olives. He would forage in hopes of possibly snaring a rabbit, which could also be prepared “alla Cacciatore.” Was there a time when one might encounter a wild chicken in the woods? That would DEFINITELY be before my time. Our devoted outdoorsman might either happen upon these items while rummaging through the thickets and underbrush, or have them stowed away in his haversack. The romanticized premise was that the ingredients might be gathered by a lone hunter on sojourn in the forest. Waiters and maître d’s had a reputation for mocking people that only spoke English. With no internet to google, most diners hesitated to inquire in fear of being shamed for not knowing. Of course, most Americans had no idea what either Cacciatore OR Chausseur actually meant.
![chicken hunter style mushrooms carrots chicken hunter style mushrooms carrots](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7912/45797804034_f72ba88258_z.jpg)
Sometimes they called it Chausseur, which is the French word for Cacciatore, which is the Italian word for “Hunter” or idiomatically “Hunter style.” Chausseur usually omitted the tomatoes and olives and was brown instead of red. Versions of Cacciatore even showed up in cafeterias and buffets, of which there was an abundance in those days. Back then we served a lot of quasi-French/International/American items like Stroganoff, Veal Oscar, Sole Meunière and Surf ‘n’ Turf. Ubiquitous in ersatz Eye-talian restaurants, it cluttered up a lot of “continental” menus as well. In my 20’s there was a fairly popular dish called Chicken Cacciatore.