How to Make Chicken Cacciatore with One Pan | Recipe | Anna Olson

A weeknight dinner classic from the new cookbook Anna Cooks! Chicken cacciatore translates to “hunter’s chicken,” referring to the origins of the dish—a hunter bringing home their take (chicken?) in addition to mushrooms and herbs gathered in the forest while out hunting.

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• Recipe Information •

Serves 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Note: The stew can be prepared ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat, covered, over medium heat, stirring only occasionally to keep the chicken pieces intact.

Cooking for a crowd? To bolster the stew to make it heartier or feed a few more, cook 1 lb (450 g) Italian sausage meat in the pan and remove before searing the chicken, then add it back to the pan when you add the chicken to braise.

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• Ingredients •

Extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan
6 to 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2.2 lb/1 kg)
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
½ lb (225 g) cremini mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
1 cup (250 mL) dry white wine
2 cups (500 mL) crushed tomatoes
Salt and black pepper, to taste
¼ cup (32 g) roughly chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 Tbsp (4 g) chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp red chili flakes (optional)
1 cup (130 g) pitted kalamata olives (optional)

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• Directions •

1. Drizzle the olive oil in a large sauté pan or medium Dutch oven over high heat. Add the chicken thighs, skin side down, in a single layer in the pan and sear for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken to a plate and reduce the heat to medium.

2. Add the onions, carrots and peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes, until the onions become a little translucent. Add the mushrooms and increase the heat to medium-high, sautéing until any excess moisture has evaporated, another 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, bay leaves, oregano and chili flakes and stir 1 minute more.

3. Add the white wine and bring this to a simmer, still on medium-high heat, followed by the crushed tomatoes. Once the liquid begins to bubble, reduce the heat to medium to medium-low to maintain a gentle simmer and add the chicken back to the pot, nestling it in skin side up. Cover the pan and simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring gently once or twice while cooking, until the chicken is fully cooked.

4. Before serving, remove the bay leaves and season to taste. Stir in the olives. Stir in the parsley immediately before serving.

5. Serve with wide noodles with butter or olive oil, or boiled potatoes.

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Excerpted from Anna Cooks by Anna Olson. Copyright © 2025 Anna Olson. Photographs by Janis Nicolay. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.