Hunter's Chicken — easy and delicious Cacciatore

Cut into roughly 5cm×5cm pieces. Remove fat and skin from:

500 grams boneless chicken thighs

Thighs with bones are fine to use, too, but account for the increased weight.

Put in a plastic bag:

¼-⅓ C flour, whatever you need to coat the amount of chicken you are using.

¼ t salt

¼ t pepper

Shake it around to mix. Add the chicken pieces and shake to coat. Set it aside.

Prepare the other ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½-1 C sliced or chopped mushrooms

1 can tomatoes, chopped or whole. If whole, cut them up.

¼-½ C dry white wine

1 bay leaf

⅛ t thyme

½ t basil

1 chicken bouillon cube

salt/pepper

Heat in a frying pan:

2 T olive oil

When hot, shake off any excess flour from each chicken piece and place them in the pan. Fry one side until golden, turn over to fry the second side. Add the onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Stir around a bit.

Add the rest of the ingredients. Add a tablespoon or 2 of water to the tomato can to rinse it, then pour that in. Stir to mix, cover, and turn the fire down very low. Cook for 45 minutes or so, stirring occasionally so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. It is finished when the chicken is fall-apart tender and the sauce has thickened nicely.

Serve with pasta, potatoes, rice, or crusty bread.

Focaccia and Pizza

Mix in a bowl:

300 grams all-purpose flour (中力粉 churikiko in Japanese)
8 grams salt

Mix in:

1 t dry yeast

Whisk gently, then add to the flour mixture:

1 t honey

1 C warm water (236 ml)

Mix with a rubber scraper until dry parts are gone and you have a sticky, wet dough. Cover the bowl with a plate and let it rise for several hours until doubled in bulk.

About an hour or two before you want to eat it, put parchment paper in a baking pan, and spread a little olive oil on the paper. Then, as if the dough were a square, pull one side up and over, then another side up and over, then another, then another. Finally, pick up the gooey mass and put it in the pan. Spread it out to reach the sides of the pan. If the dough doesn't spread well enough, let it sit for a while, then try again. 

Again, let the dough rise until doubled in size. If your house is cold, put it in the oven at 40ºC for 30-60 minutes. Remove from oven and preheat to 220ºC. Use your fingertips to poke holes all over the dough. (Sprinkle on a little olive oil. Maybe 1 T.)

Bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

If you want to add relatively dry toppings (thinly sliced mushrooms, garlic, herbs, etc.), do this before baking. 

If you want to use the focaccia as a base for pizza, bake the focaccia as described above until almost golden (19 minutes or so), then remove it from the oven. (Turn it over.) Top it with sauce and cheese. Set the oven to grill and place it near the top of the oven for 8 minutes until toasted to your liking.