Chicken Cacciatore

Method

1. season5 min
   chicken salted on all sides, patted dry, left 20 minutes if there is time
   chicken + salt + pepper, surface dried thoroughly. Skin that is even slightly wet will not brown — the water has to boil off first, and while it does the skin poaches and turns rubbery instead of rendering
2. sear14 min
   heavy pan, olive oil, medium-high, skin down and undisturbed 6-7 minutes, in batches
   chicken browned skin-side down until deep gold and the fat has rendered, then turned briefly and removed. Do not move it while the skin is setting; lifting it early tears the skin and leaves the browning in the pan. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the rendered fat — the rest would make the sauce greasy
3. saute12 min
   mushrooms first over high heat in one layer, then the soffritto over medium
   + mushrooms browned hard and set aside, then + onion + carrot + celery cooked until soft and sweet, then + garlic for a minute. Mushrooms are browned separately and returned later, because in with the wet soffritto they release their water and stew grey. Ten minutes on the soffritto is not padding — undercooked, it leaves a raw vegetal edge nothing later covers
4. deglaze6 min
   red wine in, scraped, reduced by about half
   + red wine, scraping the fond off the base and simmering until the raw alcohol has gone. Reducing it now rather than letting it boil off during the braise is what keeps the finished sauce from tasting sharp and thin
5. braise40 min
   tomato, herbs and chicken returned skin-up and only partly submerged, lid ajar, low
   + crushed tomato + rosemary + bay + chicken (+ peppers), simmered gently until the meat pulls easily from the bone, about 40 minutes. Keep the skin above the liquid line and the lid slightly open — sealed, condensation drips back and the sauce never concentrates. Low and slow is what converts the collagen in these cuts to gelatin, which is why thighs get more tender over time while a breast would only get drier
6. reduce8 min
   chicken lifted out, mushrooms returned, sauce boiled hard uncovered
   the sauce reduced with the chicken out of the pan (+ mushrooms, + olives, + capers) until it coats a spoon. This separation matters: the liquid needed to braise is thinner than the sauce you want to eat, and boiling it down with the chicken still in would overcook the meat to fix the sauce
7. rest5 min
   chicken returned to the reduced sauce, off the heat
   everything together briefly (+ vinegar, + parsley), and taste for salt last — the sauce concentrated as it reduced and so did its seasoning, which is why salting to taste before reducing so often ends up too salty