Dredge the pieces in flour, coating them lightly and tapping off excess flour. Season the chicken pieces generously with salt and pepper. Cut the breast in half crosswise, giving the knife a good whack when you get to the bone to separate the breast cleanly into halves. Cut off the wing at the joint that connects it to the breast, then cut each wing in half at the joint.
Or, if you like, cut the backbone in half crosswise and add it to this dish.) Place the chicken, breast side down, on a cutting board and cut the chicken into halves by cutting through the breast bone lengthwise. Reserve the backbone, wingtips and giblets- except for the liver- to make chicken stock. With practice, you’ll get a sense for where the joints lie.Ĭut each chicken into 12 pieces: With a sturdy knife or kitchen shears, remove the backbone by cutting along both sides. If you’re off target, just wiggle the blade of the knife to get a feel for where the joint is, then make another cut. If you’re struggling, stop for a second and take a look at what you’re cutting you should be cutting between the bones at the joints, not actually cutting through the bones. When you cut up chicken, or anything for that matter, your knife should glide along. In this case, increase the cooking time by 20 minutes, adding more water or stock as needed to keep the hen covered as it cooks. Best of all, though, is to make this dish with an older hen. It can be made using only chicken breasts, if that’s your preference, but to keep the chicken from drying out, you should cut the cooking time in half, reduce the wine to 1/4 cup and the tomatoes to 3 cups. If you don’t want to cut up a whole chicken, you can buy pieces-get all legs and thighs if that’s what you like. Somewhere along the line-probably on its trip from Italy to America-the pheasant or guinea hen in this dish was replaced by chicken. The “caccia” in cacciatore means “hunt,” so I guess this is chicken hunter’s style.
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