Baked Italian Chicken

This dish is based on chicken cacciatore; it’s a good example of how I adapt a recipe to the ingredients on hand. It starts with chicken I’ve already cooked, contains vegetables I keep in stock, and uses a sauce that I almost always have around.

The result is a hearty, flavorful dish that’s easy to prepare ahead of time in stages and then heat in the oven when you need it. (For added convenience, use vegetables that you have pre-chopped and stored in the freezer. Saute them straight from the freezer; the extra liquid won’t hurt the sauce!)

This recipe may not be suitable for a Very Low Carb (VLC) diet, but will work for those with more moderate carbohydrate allowances. The range of vegetable measures is strictly a matter of taste; use whatever sounds good to you.

Baked Italian Chicken

Ingredients

• cooked legs, thighs, and wings from the Slow Cooker Roast Chicken
• optional: some additional chicken from the slow cooker, if you need to stretch the recipe a bit
• butter for sautéing
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup chopped bell pepper (any color)
• 1/2 – 1 tsp minced garlic
• One 4-oz can mushroom stems and pieces, with liquid
• 1 cup Easy Low Carb Pizza Sauce
• 1/2 cup water or chicken broth/stock
• salt to taste (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)
• pepper to taste (1/4 tsp or so)
• optional: 1 Tbsp dried parsley (I like parsley. You might not.)

Directions

1. If you’re serving this right away, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place chicken pieces in a 3-qt casserole dish. (If you have small children, you may want to remove the meat from the bone first.) Make sure there are no stray bones in any additional chicken, then add it as well. Set the casserole dish aside.
3. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add celery and saute for a minute or so, then add onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Saute until the onions are tender but not translucent.
4. Add mushrooms and liquid and stir well.
5. Stir in pizza sauce, then add water or broth and stir again. Add salt, pepper and parsley (if using) and stir well.
6. Allow to simmer for a minute or two so that the flavors will start to blend. Then pour over the chicken.
7. To use now: If the chicken was hot when you started, bake this for 5-10 minutes–just until the sauce has that “baked and finished” look. If the chicken was cold, bake for 15-20 min (to finish heating the meat).
8. To use later: Refrigerate for 1-2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen casserole overnight in the refrigerator. Bake refrigerated casserole at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Yield: 4 – 6 servings.

Nutritional Information:Each of 4 servings contains approximately 13.9 g carbohydrates, 3.6 g fiber, 10.3 g net carbs, 33.5 g protein, 20.3 g fat, and 369.3 calories.