This dish does well in Crock Pots and you can’t beat it for an easy dinner on a busy day. Just throw the ingredients into the Crock Pot the morning and by the time you get home, you have succulent, fall-off-the-bone chicken dripping with rich, garlicky sauce. We have a very small two person crock pot and I can just fit 4 thighs in it. That gives us enough for a nice meal together plus one lunch.
Cacciatore Ingredients:
4-6 Chicken thighs
4-6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 15 oz can whole tomatoes
1/8 to 1/4 cup red wine
A touch of Salt, black pepper, and red pepper
In the morning, add the above ingredients to your crock pot and turn it on low. Go have fun!
Polenta and Kale Ingredients:
1/2 cup course or medium ground corn meal
1 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
About 8-10 Kale leafs
About 1/2 an hour before dinner, bring two cups of water to boil. Whisk in the cornmeal slowly using a fork. Turn down the temperature to very low. Cover with a lid. Every 5 minutes or so, stir the polenta with a fork to keep it from sticking to the bottom. Don’t worry, it will get stuck, just give it a good scrape and keep it moving. If you can remember to keep visiting the kitchen and stirring your polenta during commercial breaks, go watch the news or something while it cooks. This will take about 30 minutes. Add more water if needed. Add butter during the last couple of minutes and add salt and pepper to taste.
Five or ten minutes before dinnertime, de-stem the kale and chop it roughly. Bring a steamer pot to a boil and add the kale. Steam for 5 minutes.
Skim the top of the crock pot and remove as much fat as you can. Check your Cacciatore for seasoning. Add salt and pepper if needed. Spoon some of the polenta into a serving bowl, add a nice pile of kale and top with the cacciatore. Add a little sauce on top.
I had a leftover italian sausage from dinner the night before, so i sliced that up and added it too. If you are really having a busy day, this dish is great served on rice. Or you can always cook the polenta the night before, let it chill in a Pyrex dish overnight, cut it into squares and then heat them up in a skillet with a little olive oil just before dinner.