Chicken Cacciatore

I was too hungry tonight to take a picture of the chicken cacciatore before I dove in. Do you ever have nights like that? I meant to have dinner ready by 6 pm, but by the time I finished giving the girls a bath, it was almost 6 pm already, and I still had to make the salad and salad dressing. We sat down to eat by 6:15, but by then the girls and I were famished. There aren't very many times when I've seen Sabrina eat as quickly as she did tonight. It also helped that she really liked the chicken cacciatore. "This is really yummy!" she told me, and then she asked for more. Michael, who isn't the biggest fan of chicken thighs, also liked this dish a lot, so I think it now has to go into our regular dinner rotation.

Cacciatore means "hunter" or "hunter style." My particular rendition of this recipe didn't involve much in the way of hunting, except perhaps hunting down the crock pot in the very back of my cupboard. And it did take me a while to hunt down a jar of marinara sauce that didn't contain any soy or corn products. To my relief, I eventually did manage to track down and capture a jar that was just right.

Chicken Cacciatore
serves 3 adults, or 2 adults and 2 children

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces of brown rice spaghetti noodles (if serving 2 adults and 2 children), or 8 ounces of rice spaghetti noodles (if serving 3 adults). I use Trader Joe's brand because it's inexpensive, but I'm sure there are other brands available.
  
• 1 large yellow onion
  
• 1 package containing 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs that are all-natural, kosher, or organic
• 1 24-ounce jar of Bertolli Vineyard Premium Collections marinara with Burgundy wine (This is one of the only marinara sauces I have found that does not contain any corn syrup, soybean oil, or citric acid.)
• 2 Tbsp. dry red wine. I used Burgundy.

Instructions:

A little more than 7 hours before you want to serve the dinner, begin the recipe. Peel the onion, cut it in half, and then slice it into half-moon shapes. Lay the onion half-moons onto the bottom of the crock pot so that they cover the bottom. Thoroughly rinse the chicken thighs and place them on top of the onions. Then pour the jar of marinara sauce over the top of the chicken thighs so that the sauce completely covers the chicken.

Cook the chicken in the crock pot for 6 to 7 hours on low. Or if you prefer to start out with frozen chicken thighs, cook them for 1 hour on high and then 6 hours on low.

30 minutes before the chicken will be done, put a large pot of salted water on the stove over high heat to bring to a boil. When the water comes to a boil, add the spaghetti noodles and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. When the noodles are done, pour them into a colander and thoroughly rinse them in hot water. This will prevent the noodles from sticking together and becoming one large spaghetti blob that is virtually impossible to break apart.

When the chicken is done, remove the chicken thighs from the crock pot and place them on a plate. Add 2 tablespoons of red wine to the marinara sauce and stir. Serve the chicken cacciatore by placing some spaghetti on each adult's plate, adding 2 chicken thighs, and ladling sauce over the noodles and chicken.