Tonight’s weekly Farscape night went the direction of many Farscape nights lately, filled mostly with eating and visiting until it was too late to get a proper episode in. But at least dinner was good! I love hosting dinner for friends, so when it’s our turn to host for Farscape it’s always a treat figuring out what to make. Since I had the leftover Zantho Zweigelt 2002 wine, and we picked up some great chicken breasts on super sale, I decided to make Chicken Cacciatore.

This recipe is deceptively easy, and the key is in the simmering time.  It made plenty for our group of five (including one who had seconds) and yielded four meals of leftovers! I bet the leftover sauce would freeze very well, too. Like many of my recipes, it’s sort of slapped together, but here’s what I do, in a nutshell:

INGREDIENTS (makes 6–9 servings):

• Chicken Breasts (about 3lb), cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup of flour, with some Italian herbs and pepper mixed in
• 1 very large or two small onions, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup chopped baby carrots
• 6 sundried tomato halves, chopped
• 1 tbsp sundried tomato paste (regular would work too)
• 1 can/jar spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts Garlic & Herb, but remember not to add ANY salt if you use a canned sauce)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup dry red wine
• Italian Herbs to taste
• 1-2 bay leaves

Heat about 3 tbsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Dredge chicken breast chunks in flour/herb mixture and place in the pan to brown on all sides (about 10 minutes). Add onions, pepper, sundried tomatoes and carrots and cook until the onion is translucent.

Next add the sauce, tomatoes, wine, herbs and bay leaves. Let this simmer, loosely coverd and stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. Serve over spaghetti or, as I did, angel hair pasta.