Evelyn Nesbit
CHICKEN a la CACCIATORE Two fresh young chickens, singed and jointed. Two tablespoons Italian olive oil. One tablespoon butter. Two sliced onions. Saute the onions slowly in the olive oil and butter (slow fire). Two garlic beans, chopped very fine. Have chicken clean and dry.
Cook slowly and turn every few minutes. Two fresh green peppers (sliced). Four potatoes (quartered).
Tomatoes may be added if desired. Four bay leaves.
Pepper and salt to taste. Cover and saute slowly until tender. Peppers, potatoes, etc., added at same time as chicken.
The above is a dish of which I am very fond. most truly Earlyn Verobit
A one-pan braise with no liquid specified beyond the fat and whatever the vegetables release, so the lid and a genuinely low flame are doing all the work. Everything else is straightforward once a few of the terms are translated.
- Two fresh young chickensEarly-century "young chickens" or broilers were typically well under modern supermarket size, often in the region of 2 to 2 1/2 lb dressed. One 4 lb chicken cut into eight or ten pieces gives roughly the same amount of meat; two large modern birds would overwhelm any domestic pan.
- Singed and jointedSingeing burned off the pinfeathers left after plucking, a step made unnecessary by commercial processing. Jointed means cut into serving pieces at the joints: legs, thighs, wings, breast halved.
- Garlic beansCloves of garlic, two of them, chopped fine. Add them after the onions have softened, not with them, or they will brown and turn bitter over the long cooking.
- Slow fireThe hinge of the dish. Chicken browned hard and then covered will steam in its own liquid; here the meat is meant to cook gently in fat and vegetable juices, so keep the heat low enough that the onions never colour past gold, and turn the pieces as directed.
- Four bay leavesAn assertive amount by current taste. Two is plenty for a single bird; remove them before serving.
- Potatoes in the same panQuartered potatoes going in at the same time as the chicken will absorb the fat and thicken the pan juices, but they need moisture. If no tomatoes are added, a few tablespoons of water or stock keeps the bottom from scorching under the lid.
- Timing and donenessCovered on a low flame, jointed chicken takes 40 to 50 minutes; check that the thickest part of the thigh reads 165F and that a knife slides into the potatoes without resistance. Uncover for the last ten minutes if the sauce is thin.
- YieldWith one 4 lb chicken and four potatoes this serves four generously as a single dish, with bread rather than a separate starch.
Cacciatore means "hunter's style" in Italian, a name traditionally attached to rustic braises of poultry or rabbit with onions, peppers, herbs and whatever else the pan would take. Dishes like this reached American home cooks through Italian immigrant kitchens and the Italian restaurants of New York's theatre district, though nothing in the recipe indicates where Nesbit herself came across it. The version here is notably plain tomatoes are optional, wine is absent, and potatoes stand in for pasta which fits the celebrity-contribution genre of this book, where performers were asked for a personal favourite rather than a showpiece. The signature transcribed at the end is a garbled reading of her handwritten "most truly, Evelyn Nesbit."