May 10th Chicken with peppers, onions and tomatoes.

Woke up too early this morning.  Jackie, Andre and Benno will be arriving around 4pm--I'd originally thought Jackie and I could shop and then cook--but my middle of the night brain reminded me that it would actually be dinner time when they arrived after a meal-less flight---and it would be a good idea to have a meal ready to go.
I've been accumulating chicken legs,thinking of some kind of Moroccan dish but instead decided I'd revert to my old favorite chicken cacciatore from Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook.  Although this was a regular for decades, one of my most enduring comfort dishes,  it somehow didn't get included in the 52 recipes. Years ago, after major surgery, when I was bed-ridden and unable to cook a meal, my friend Carol brought the family dinner every Sunday (she claims she only did it once or twice, but in my memory there were many weeks when she and Neil arrived bringing this chicken) the meal I most remember was some variation of  As I was making coffee, I began browning the chicken for this version:  
POLLO ALLA CACCIATORA
4-6 pounds drumsticks (about 16--though I think the dish would be better with whole legs, i.e. thighs and drumsticks) )
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-2 cups flour
salt
pepper
1-2 cups dry white wine
1 1/2 cup thinly sliced yellow onion (two medium onions)
2 peppers, red, yellow or green, seeded and cut into thin strips
3-4 carrots, sliced very thin
2-3 stalks celery, sliced thin as well
4 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
1 28 ounce can plum tomatoes, chopped, with juice
1/4-1/2 cup chopped parsley.

Wash chicken pieces in cold water, drying thoroughly with paper towels.

Chicken legs, looking sadly and deceptively un-browned (is it the lighting?)

Heat the oil in a large skillet (it should be large enough to hold all chicken pieces without crowding).  Roll the legs in the flour (which you've put on a plate), and brown until golden brown on all sides.  Although my biggest pan ultimately held the entire dish, I had to do the browning in two batches--removing the browned legs to another pan, sprinkling them fairly generously with salt and pepper.
Spoon off most of the fat, leaving the bits of browned chicken and some fat behind.  Add the wine and boil rapidly reducing it by about half.  Scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Lower the heat, add the sliced onion and cook for five-ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Return the chicken to the pan, along with the pepper, carrots, celery, garlic and tomatoes with juice.  Turn and baste a few times while cooking.  It should be done in about a half hour (depending on how long you browned them, how large the legs, etc.).

So the main course was ready before 9am.  It rested until Jackie, Andre, Ivan and Benno arrived completely hungry at 3pm.  I sent Ivan and Benno to Zelda's to buy a baguette while I re-heated the chicken, made a quick salad.  I served the chicken over spaghetti  (this is certainly not what Marcella would do) sprinkled parsley over it all--and we had a fine very late lunch.  

There are, needless to say, endless variations of this dish.  If you want the original Marcella Hazan from p.309 of The Classic Italian Cookbook, in a complete, readable and unstained  form you can find it here.