Crock Pot Cacciatore

Traditional recipes call for bone-in chicken but in the crock pot it falls apart and you wind up with little bones, cartilage, and so forth mixed in and I am not a fan of that.  Whenever I use any chicken whether bone-in or boneless I always remove the "unsightly" sections that I wouldn't want to eat.  I'll let your imagination go to work with that. 


Ingredients:

3 pounds boneless chicken thighs and breasts (use both or either, I like both)
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz. fresh mushrooms – quartered
1 roasted bell pepper – jarred (or roast remove skin) - chopped
1/3 cup white wine (or chicken stock if you don’t have wine)
1 28 oz. canned plum tomatoes in their juice – hand crush
1 8oz can tomato sauce
Salt ( to taste - about 1 or 2 tsp)
Black Pepper (to taste about ½ tsp)
½ tsp Italian Seasoning blend (or oregano)
¼ tsp Red Pepper Flakes

PREPARATION

• Rinse Chicken and pat dry. Season the Chicken pieces with salt and pepper on all sides.
• Heat 1 TBS Olive Oil in a large skillet on medium heat, add the onions and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally.  Place in crock pot.
• Add to onion in crock pot, 1 tsp Salt, ¼ tsp Pepper, ½ tsp Italian Seasoning, Red Pepper Flakes,  Mushrooms, Red Bell pepper, Tomatoes and Tomato Sauce
• Add  1TBS Olive Oil to skillet and heat.  Add the Chicken pieces to skillet and brown on both sides – remove and nestle into the vegetable mixture.
• Deglaze skillet with Wine and pour into crock pot – fold it into the mixture.
• Cook on high setting for about 3-4 hours  - OR – Place on low setting and head off to work!

Serve with your favorite pasta or spaghetti squash