My Favorite Paleo Recipes: Chicken Cacciatore

It's a rainy day in San Diego, which means all of us are freaking out about traffic and accidents on the highways.  It also means that we're all pretending to that we live on the East Coast and sweaters and crockpots come out of storage.  I actually use my crockpot year round.  It's an essential piece of kitchen equipment for a busy mom who wants to have time for race training.

My bff in the kitchen

When I started Paleo my first food regret was all the italian I'd have to give up.  I'm a runner, we LOVE pasta!  So one of my FIRST paleo recipe I made was the Chicken Cacciatore that I found at Technically Paleo.  This blogger's first post was all about what's "Technically" paleo and a set of instructions on how to cook bacon.  I recommend a read because it's worth the giggle.

I'd normally serve cacciatore over noodles (and still do for the family), but now I'll serve it over julienned zucchini, onions and peppers or green beans.  I'll just eat it straight from a bowl making "mmmmmm" noises too.  This recipe gives me my italian food fix while allowing me to stay Paleo.


Chicken Cacciatore by Technically Paleo

cacciatore on green beans

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 8oz. package of sliced mushrooms
• 2 tbsp dried Italian herb blend
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 6oz. cans of tomato paste
• 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes

Instructions

1. Start by chopping the onion into large pieces. Remove the stem and seeds from the bell pepper and chop it into large pieces as well. The pieces should be about the size of your fingertip
2. Finely mince the garlic cloves.
3. Cut each chicken thigh in half, and remove any large pieces of fat or skin that may still be on the meat.
4. Add the chicken, onion, pepper, garlic, and mushrooms to the crock pot. Also sprinkle 2 tbsp of dried Italian herbs and 1 tsp of salt on top of the meat and vegetables.
5. In a medium sized bowl, combine the diced tomatoes (with their liquid) and the tomato paste. Stir them together so that they form a thick sauce.
6. Add the tomato sauce to the crock pot. Try to evenly distribute the sauce across the top of the chicken and vegetables.
7. Cook everything in the crock pot on low for about 8 hours. When it's done cooking, gently stir everything to even out the sauce.