Chicken Cacciatore

“Why are you taking pictures of your food?”, a friend asked me last night as I was cooking dinner. I realised this morning while loading up the latest photos that I have A LOT of pictures of food on my camera. It feels a bit obsessive and weird. But on the other hand, with my ongoing battles with the hospital, this blog is my evidence that I am doing what I’m told!

So, I had a few friends round last night and as I can’t go out to eat (how the hell do you explain “low-residue diet” to a waiter?!!), I made dinner. I really like chicken cacciatore and hadn’t made it for a while, and it's a good meal for feeding a crowd (and a good, stick your ribs choice on a cold night), so I adapted up my usual recipe from my trusty old, all-round Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

Everyone needs a good basic cookbook

In a large pot, I used about 1 tbsp of olive oil to lightly brown a package of chicken breast fillets.

Then I added 200ml of chicken stock (from a cube, I hadn’t defrosted any of my homemade stuff), 300ml of tomato passata and about 50ml of water (to get the rest of the passata off the bottom of the jar). Then I added about 2 tsp of white sugar, 2 tsp of garlic powder, 1 tbsp of onion granules, 1/4 tsp of salt, fresh ground pepper, 1 tsp of oregano, 1 tsp of basil, 1/4 tsp of thyme, 1/4 tsp of rosemary and a bay leaf.

Possibly used a bit too much liquid

I brought it to a boil, then turned it town to a simmer with the lid on and left it for 25 minutes. As it was quite liquid, I tilted the lid for the last 15 minutes to let some of it evaporate off. In the meantime, I boiled up a big pot of spaghetti to go with it.

By the time it was done, we were all hungry and I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. But it was tasty!! And I got thumbs up all around from the guests!