Chicken Cacciatore

This is hunter's food. Cacciatore means just that: the kind of meal a hunter might prepare over a fire with whatever the day offered. Foraged herbs. A bird. Tomatoes from a nearby garden. The dish has survived centuries because it asks so little of technique and so much of ingredients.

Start with the chicken. Bone-in pieces braise better than boneless because the bones release gelatin into the sauce, giving it body. Ask your butcher for a whole bird cut into eight pieces, or buy thighs and drumsticks if you prefer dark meat. The skin should be taut and the flesh should smell clean, like nothing at all.

The tomatoes matter more than you might think. In late summer, use ripe ones from the garden or the market, peeled and crushed by hand. The rest of the year, canned San Marzanos are honest and good. Do not apologize for them. A farmer in Italy grew those tomatoes at perfect ripeness and preserved them within hours. That is integrity.

Every meal is a meaningful choice. When you braise chicken with tomatoes from a farm you trust and peppers you watched ripen at the market, the dish tastes different. It tastes alive.