This is a simple yet classic version of an Italian classic. You will need about five hours from start to finish and it will serve 8. This is my Dad’s go to Italian entree and he makes it for me every time I visit.
Ingredients
- 8 chicken thighs
- 56 oz tomato sauce (2 cans)
- 2 green pepper – diced
- 1 onion diced
- 5 cloves garlic smashed and minced – separated
- Fresh basil or 1 TBL powder (maybe more)
- 2 TBL Fennel seeds
- 2 tsp sugar
- S & P to taste
- Garlic powder (optional)
- Olive oil
- Pasta – or your choosing. I like to use fettucine or penne.
Process
- Mise en Place – prepare you ingredients before you start.
- Sauté onions in olive oil on MH until translucent (~5 mins). Half way through, add the green peppers.
- While onions are sautéing, warm up a second sauté pan with olive oil.
- Bread chicken. Add flour to a bowl along with salt, pepper and perhaps garlic powder. Pat each piece of chicken dry, then flour in the bowl just before frying. Fry ~4 mins on each side until crispy brown.
- Add half of the minced garlic to the onion sauté for one minute.
- Add tomato sauce, sugar, fennel and 1/2 the garlic and the basis to onion mix. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Add chicken to the tomato sauce after pan frying.
- Cover pot and simmer chicken in sauce for 3-4 hours. During the last hour, skim the chicken fat and oil from top of sauce. You will need to do this multiple times.
- To serve, carefully remove the chicken, it will be very tender and fragile. Place on a bed of pasta and smother with sauce.
