When I was a child, my mum used to make a chicken and tagliatelle dish called ‘Chicken Cacciatore’ – I always used to look forward to it! Looking at recipes for it online, it seems to vary quite a lot. So this is my own take on it, which I’m naming ‘Chicken Basghettilli‘ (basil, spaghetti and chilli…see what I did there…)

Ingredients

2 free range chicken breasts
1 onion (chopped finely)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
1 red chilli (chopped finely)
4 mini portobello mushrooms (chopped into small pieces)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée
Generous dash of red wine
Handful of fresh basil leaves (chopped finely, plus a few for decoration)
Spaghetti for two people (usually about a quarter of a standard sized pack of spaghetti)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for cooking

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 170C.

Heat some good quality olive oil (I used PS Lambis Cypriot olive oil) in a pan on the hob (it needs to be a pan that can also go in the oven with a lid).

Fry the onion until it is soft, then add the garlic and chilli and cook them through.

Add some chopped mushrooms and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, red wine and chopped basil and allow to cook for around 10 minutes, for the sauce to thicken.

Place the chicken breasts in the pan and cover with some of the sauce. Season with salt and pepper and cook in the oven for 25 minutes with the lid on.

While the chicken is in the oven, cook the spaghetti. The length of time really depends on the pasta, it will usually give you instructions on the packet. We like ours quite al dente, so I boiled it for about 5 minutes.

Serve up the chicken and sauce on top of the spaghetti and garnish with a couple of basil leaves.

Fairly easy to do, but some delicious home cooking, packed with flavour!