- Chicken cacciatore with served with cheesy polenta. Now, the secret here is
to make sure that we slice this chicken breast in half. Basically, we're going to turn
it into two nice escalopes. That way it cooks evenly,
but more importantly, we get a nice color on it and
when we start making the sauce, it's incredible. Hold the breast straight down. Get the knife and
just slice through, keeping your hand nice and
flat, go all the way through. Open that up, we've got
two beautiful breasts. Once the chicken's cut in
half, we lightly flour it. Season the flour,
really important. The excess flour helps to
thicken the wonderful sauce. Shake off any excess flour. The good news about this is
that we sear the chicken, take out the chicken,
make the sauce and put the chicken
back in the sauce. The correct way is keeping
the chicken nice and moist, and more importantly,
the flavor is incredible. Take my seasoning again, salt,
pepper, teaspoon of olive oil in. Bring the pan up to light smoke. Chicken breasts
in, and the secret here now is to get some great
color on those chicken breasts. In we go. The flour protects the
outside of the breast and stops it from drying out. A little touch of
butter goes in. It helps to brown the
chicken even more, the oil prevents the butter
from burning, and then look. Beautiful. Two minutes each side. The secret's to
color it quickly, and then we put it back into the
pan once we've made the sauce. Chicken comes out, we literally
leave that to rest there. Now, we crack on with the sauce. Onions in first. This is the base of
a cacciatore sauce. Caramelized those onions. Fresh oil in there, lightly
season, a little touch of butter. Really important now
to fry the onions. Literally caramelize them. That help sweeten
the dish, and more importantly, it gives a really
nice texture to the chicken. Once you've got the
color on the onions, a teaspoon of minced garlic. Carmelize the onions,
carmelize the garlic, and now deglaze with white wine. Remove your eyebrows,
turn the gas down, and this is where the sauce
starts to take on almost like a league of its own,
because the depth of flavor in there already is incredible. Reduce the white
wine down to a syrup. That gets it really sweet. Removes the alcohol. but more importantly, gives
a nice texture to the sauce. Couple of tablespoons of tomato
sauce in, mix that in, and then half a cup of chicken stock. Bring that to a boil. Once it starts to boil, turn
the gas down, and let it simmer. Once that's reduced down, we'll
add the capers and the olives, and then finish it
with touch a butter. First off, the
fresh tomatoes in. Now the base of
the sauce is ready. Put the chicken back in
to the sauce, and now, take that sauce, start
literally cooking the chicken. The secret here is that we
got the color on the chicken, the actual chicken starts to
absorb all that amazing flavor. Turn the gas down
and let it simmer for seven to eight minutes. Now, romanesco. I call it a posh cauliflower. These have been blanched
in boiling water for 30 seconds, shocked in
ice, so it retained the color, and the secret here
now is to char them. Get a hot pan, lightly
season, salt and pepper, line the base that pan
with a touch of olive oil, just a smidgen. In you go. Beautiful. Now leave it sort of down,
so it starts to char. Once we've got that char
on there, a little touch of butter right in the middle. It starts to brown
so quickly, it puts a wonderful flavor all over. Then just give that
a nice little toss. The flavor in this
is incredible. Gas off, just lightly
sprinkle the chili flakes, and then just squeeze the
fresh lemon juice over it before it comes out. Great. Beautiful. Now, to finish the polenta. Heats up the beautiful
polenta, and then, as it gets up to
room temperature, hit it with your fontina cheese. Fontina gives it that sort
of rich, buttery, slightly sour-y flavor. It is incredible. Beat that in and bring
it up to temperature. So the polenta,
melts the cheese. But don't boil it. If you boil it, cheese
starts to lose its fat, and it looks greasy. We are ready to serve. Now, to finish the chicken. Have a look what's
happened to chicken. The sauce is reduced down,
the chicken is cooked, and we now sprinkle our olives. That gives the sauce
the saltiness on there. Fresh capers gives that tartness
to the chicken cacciatore. And then, finally, our lemon. That gives the
acidity to the sauce. Before we mix that in, one
final ingredient, and that's the fresh basil. Take out basil leaves, find
your largest one first, and then stick all the ones inside. Roll that nice and tight,
and then from there, one finger in front,
two behind, and just let the knife do the work. Lift that up and sprinkle
that over your chicken. And then from there, just mix
that in with your chicken. The basil gives
it its freshness, the olives give it
a nice saltiness, and then the tartness behind
those capers is extraordinary. All right, start off with our
creamy polenta in the middle. Beautiful. Lift up half the chicken, and
just, very carefully, place that on top of your polenta. Second one. Beautiful. Your charred romanesco
goes around the outside. And then, finally, just
take some of that sauce, cover you chicken over. This dish screams Mediterranean,
so the way to finish his now is with a little
touch of arugula, a little touch of olive oil,
lemon zest, lemon juice, some little shard of aged parmesan. That give it a little
bit of saltiness. So we just lightly dress
that, and then just drop the salad, beautifully. That's a beautiful, amazing,
incredible chicken cacciatore. Mm, that is good.
