Chicken Cacciatore

As tradition, I always cooked on New Year’s Eve because for many years already I spend this holiday alone. Worry you must not, it is a choice, and it does not mean that I am lonely. In fact, this is the only day that I could spend my day in the apartment by myself. This is also the only time that I could clean the apartment my own way and then enjoys the neatness and quietness of it. More importantly, I like to do experimental cooking when I am alone.

Chef had made grocery for me before he left for his parents’ house. He bought ingredients for the puttanesca I wanted to cook and two whole chicken for whatever menu I would like to prepare. He told me that I could fry it or make a casserole using his mom’s recipe. However, I thought that this is New Year so it is best to make my own exploration and experimentation. To inspire me, I browse the internet.

The internet provided me different chicken recipes but I have limitations. I do not want to buy more ingredients for one and I should not consider baking because our oven is broken. From the array of recipes, two catches my attention, Chicken Cacciatore and Orange Chicken. I finally choose the former after studying the applicability of the two recipes.

Here are the ingredients of the cacciatore: garlic, onion, peeled tomatoes, chicken stock, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, chili, salt, pepper, and white wine. I almost have all the ingredients except for the bay leaf and white wine so I ran to the grocery first. It is already 5:30 PM and I was hoping that the grocery would not close early.

When I got back home, I started to prepare all the ingredients. I worked with the puttanesca first, my own version, with the aid of the internet. This was easy except for peeling the whole tomatoes. I made two batches of boiling the tomatoes because they are also ingredients to the cacciatore. It is already nearing eleven o’clock and I could already hear and see fireworks outside. I need to finish this by twelve because I have some photo taking to do by twelve midnight.

Fortunately, I already fetched the chicken out from the freezer before I went to the grocery so there is really no need of waiting for it to thaw. Now is the bigger problem, I need to cut the chicken into four pieces and I do not know how to do it the chef’s way. I consulted the internet again and behold, there is a video on how to quarter a chicken. 11:15PM.

I wanted to perfect the recipe. The instruction says that I need to season the chicken with salt and pepper. I opened the cupboard and took the salt. I saw the row of McCormick spices and checked which one is the pepper. I saw a jar with oregano name erased and replaced with pepper. To make sure, I sniffed at it. What I am expecting? I sneezed. It was pepper indeed. I dashed the chicken with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, the cookware that I am not sure what the name is in English was heating already so I poured oil in it. Then I placed the onions, garlic, and sautéed them until brown, then followed by chicken stock and white wine. What an expensive ingredient the white wine is, I thought. I made a sip fist before pouring half of its content. I must taste it before the fire. I let the liquid boil until half of it evaporated. Next, were the tomatoes, the rosemary, thyme, the bay leaf, and dried chili. I went to my laptop several times to make sure of the sequence. The chicken came last and waited for another 45 minutes to cook. While it was cooking, I took my camera and tripod to start taking photos of the fireworks in our terrace. My hand was busy pressing the shutter while my chicken cacciatore is cooking by itself.

After I tired myself of taking pictures, I called out my guest to have the media noche. I was not alone that night after all. This soul surprised me and I surprised him with my cooking. I asked him if I could pass as a cook. His verdict? Well… He is still alive. ;)

My last hyperactivity of 2009 is cooking media noche. For four hours, I dashed the kitchen and bedroom to make sure that I followed the instruction well. I also used my hands slicing, dicing, mincing, cutting, smashing, and all other “ings” in preparing the ingredients. I practically use all my senses in the process. Did I sweat? I need to. I ran out of salt for my cacciatore. Hahaha.