Cooking With Tucci!
I have posted many stories about various Stanley Tucci films, TV shows, and of course, his passion for food – so Stanley takes center stage for Jo Tracy’s July cooking challenge!
Tucci’s Chicken Cacciatore recipe is a meal he grew up with, passed down for generations in his family! Jo asked us all to cook Italian, and since I am on vacation right now, I am sharing a wonderful Tucci dish I made a while back!
Let’s take a look at his terrific cookbook and family recipe!
Cooking Italian From The Tucci Cookbook!
Stanley’s cookbook is also memoir, because he tells so many great stories about the importance of these dishes in his family’s lives. Here are all of the ingredients for the recipe that the Actor says was a longtime family favorite:
2 pounds of chicken pieces, or feel free to chop up an entire bird
one onion
lots of garlic ( the “lots” part being my addition to the cause)
one Red Bell Pepper
8 oz. Mushrooms
San Marzano whole plum tomatoes
Fresh parsley
Parmesan Cheese
Olive oil, salt and pepper
“What Came First?”
The chicken of course!
Tucci uses a whole chicken cut into pieces, but I used chicken thighs and drumsticks. Heat some olive oil to medium high in a large sauce pan, season the chicken with salt and pepper and toss it in, browning the pieces on both sides, about 5 minutes each side. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
So easy, and it smells so good:
After your kitchen is filled with the delicious fragrance of the chicken, slice your bell pepper lengthwise like this:
Use the same large saute pan over medium-high heat. Drop your peppers into the pan and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, then set aside and do the same with the sliced mushrooms and let soften as well. Remove vegetables from pan and set aside – like this:
This is one of my favorite shots: glistening mushrooms lying on top of those red bell peppers…now, take your garlic and onion, add those to the pan, and after sautéing them for a few minutes, pour in a cup of white wine and dredge the bottom of the pan for any fun bits of chicken that remain:
Next, stir in the tomatoes, crushing them with your spoon as you add them to the pan. Cook for ten minutes or so to let the flavors develop, then add your chicken back to the pan:
I gave them a minute or two as I stirred it all together before one last step.
Stir the peppers and mushrooms into the chicken and then cover and cook to blend the flavors of these ingredients for about 30 minutes on medium-low heat.
Why do I love cooking so much? The smell of the process is one reason – you will understand when you cook this for yourself: a kitchen filled with this scent of great food:
I took the top off to stir it every few minutes, but since it’s simmering I didn’t have any problem of anything burning or sticking.
Of course, a dish likes this needs some pasta as a base…so while the dish is simmering I made some wide fettuccine noodles and had them ready to go – then I plated the food and added fresh parsley at the end!
Here’s Stanley Tucci’s Chicken Cacciatore!
I plated the chicken, mushrooms, bell peppers and mushrooms and then grated fresh parmesan cheese over the top, finishing the dish with fresh parsley.
As you can see, my chunks of tomato were a bit larger than they needed to be, but the combination of flavors was a delicious and I hoped for: the chicken was juicy, and if you make sure to combine the ingredients in a single bite, it’s like a free trip to Italy!
I love this recipe! And, it’s not the first time I’ve cooked with Tucci:
Yes, I tackled his iconic Pasta Pie aka “Timpano!”
This was a monster to make – look at what we went through just to get it out of the pan!
So how did it taste?
See the entire review with lots of pictures and videos here:
When not cooking Tucci, I am still influenced by his love of food – here’s a case in point:
“Sunday Gravy” With A Tucci Assist!
Yep, this “Sopranos” Sunday Gravy recipe was an Italian treat, and it had a Tucci assist as well! Click here to see why:
This post is all because of Jo Tracy, who runs a terrific Facebook page celebrating food! Click here to follow it, and add some italian dishes of your own!
https://brookfordkitchendiaries.wordpress.com
And if you like what you see, please click on my link and follow this blog as well!
Thank you for following along on my culinary journey. If you like the story, share it with friends on social media! Thanks!
Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Food, Food Travel, Food Writing, Recipes, Travel, Wacky Food, Wine
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
That must be an old book if Mario Batali wrote a forward! I think he’s disappeared of the face of the earth….. Great looking chicken. And that timpano! I need to make that one day! But I’ll need help turning it over!
It’s one of my grandson’s favorite dishes, and this looks really tasty!
A great choice for the Italian theme, John.
this looks so incredibly delicious
Aaaah Stanley Tucci…. what a man, what a book… what a recipe. A great choice, John. Enjoy the rest of your holidays and thanks for linking up!
First and foremost – I do hope all has gone well and is doing so on your holiday trip – bestest. Chicken cacciatore is one of my favourite chicken dishes and actually it seems we prepare it almost the same way. Remembering we get a plethora of the famous British cooks on TV here and have a number of world-wide famous ones of our own, we do not watch too many American food shows. Tucci has been on quite a few times fairly late at night and I have seen and enjoyed him. I do not know how many free-to-air TV stations most of you have > ours number 23-24 at the moment methinks, a lot of them carrying food segments, so, 🙂 , one can only watch one at a time! Shall look out for him again!!!
Looks really tasty!
Stanley has really inspired you. Well done, John!
Best wishes, Pete.
It’s funny how the scent of something simmering — peppers, garlic, a slow-cooked sauce — can hit you like a trail memory. Reading this, I was instantly back in Nepal.
We’d just come down from Pokhara after a sunrise over the Annapurnas. The roads were bumpy, the dust clung to everything, but the air was fresh and full of promise. By the time we reached Kathmandu, my legs were tired, but my appetite was wide awake.
That evening, we wandered through the backstreets of Basantapur. There was this little food stall — no sign, just smoke curling up and the smell of grilled choila, crispy bara, and fresh chatamari. Locals were gathered, laughing, passing plates, just like a big family dinner.
It wasn’t fancy — but it was home. And just like your story of Tucci’s dish, it was passed down, full of memory.
If anyone’s ever craving a journey that feeds the soul like that, our Kathmandu–Pokhara–Chitwan tour has that same slow, rich flavor.
https://www.himalayaheart.com/trip/kathmandu-pokhara-chitwan-tour