Chicken Cacciatore

Adapted from Rookie Cookie

Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian and refers to a meal cooked with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and herbs. While preparing this meal, we also learned that braised means cooking using moist and dry heat, typically seared and then covered and cooked in the oven. (Thanks Wikipedia!) We love learning new "terminology" while trying new recipes!

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• olive oil cooking spray
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 15 oz. can stewed tomatoes
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Spray skillet with cooking spray and cook chicken over medium-high heat for 3 minutes on each side, so the chicken is brown on each side but not cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and put in a sprayed baking dish.

In the same skillet, cook onion and garlic until softened. Then add chicken broth, stewed tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir and let simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add thyme and bay leaf and stir. Let simmer for another minute, then pour the mixture on top of the chicken.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Then it's ready to serve!

Yield: 3 servings