There are some dishes that belong to big family tables, paper plates, folding chairs in the shade, and a crowd coming back for seconds before the first round is done. This oven baked 3-ingredient chicken cacciatore is that kind of meal: simple, thrifty, and deeply comforting, with old-fashioned Midwestern practicality written all over it. It leans on a few pantry-friendly ingredients to make a savory tomato-and-pepper sauce that slowly bakes into the chicken until everything is tender enough to scoop right out of the pan.
Serve this over buttered egg noodles, fluffy white rice, or mashed potatoes to catch every bit of the sauce. A green salad, green beans, or a pan of roasted carrots make good company alongside it, and a loaf of warm bread is never out of place when there is this much rich tomato gravy in the dish.
Oven Baked 3-Ingredient Chicken Cacciatore
Servings: 6 to 8
Ingredients
3 to 4 pounds bone-in chicken pieces, such as thighs and drumsticks
2 jars (24 ounces each) pasta sauce or spaghetti sauce
2 large green bell peppers, sliced
Directions
1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a large baking dish or oval casserole dish.
2. Arrange the chicken pieces in the baking dish in a single layer, skin side up if using skin-on chicken.
3. Pour the pasta sauce evenly over the chicken, then scatter the sliced green peppers across the top.
4. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove the foil and continue baking 30 to 45 minutes more, until the chicken is very tender and cooked through and the sauce is bubbling.
5. Let the dish rest for 10 minutes before serving so the sauce settles a bit. Spoon the sauce and peppers over the chicken and serve hot.
Variations & Tips
Use different chicken pieces: Thighs are especially flavorful here, but drumsticks, leg quarters, or a cut-up whole chicken all work well. Just keep the pieces in a single layer so they cook evenly and soak up the sauce.
Choose your sauce carefully: Since there are only three ingredients, the pasta sauce does a lot of the work. A roasted garlic or onion-and-herb sauce gives the dish a little extra depth without adding more fuss.
Add onions if you have them: If you do not mind stepping beyond the strict three-ingredient version, a sliced onion baked in with the peppers gives the dish a sweeter, old-style cacciatore flavor and stretches the pan even farther for a crowd.
Make it ahead: This is one of those dishes that tastes even better after the flavors have had time to mingle. Bake it earlier in the day or the day before, then reheat gently, covered, in the oven until hot.
Skim or remove the skin if desired: If your chicken releases a little extra fat during baking, simply spoon some off the top before serving. You can also remove the skin after baking for a lighter finished dish while keeping all that good flavor in the meat.