Don't Waste That Leftover Marinara – Make This Old-School Chicken Dish

When you're making a simple spaghetti dinner for the family — you know, the kind that comes out of boxes and jars — it seems like there is always a mismatch between quantities of pasta and sauce. And if you aren't careful, that leftover jar of marinara will find its way to the back of the fridge and end up bubbly and topped with specks of mold by the time you remember it's there. But there is a simple solution to this problem, and it is found in a classic Italian chicken recipe.

Chicken cacciatore, also known as pollo alla cacciatora, can be translated as "hunter's chicken," a rustic tomato-based stew of chicken with aromatics like onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper, and garlic as well as herbs, wine, and olives. It is a warm, comforting meal that is perfect for clearing out the fridge of not just your leftover marinara, but also that bottle of red wine you opened last week, the carrots in the crisper that are starting to get soft, and whatever other vegetable leftovers you might have from the week — and it's easy to throw together to boot. Served alongside soft polenta, leftover pasta, boiled potatoes, or even just a loaf of crusty bread, you have yourself a wonderful meal fit for the whole family.

Chicken cacciatore is one of those vintage chicken dishes that no one makes anymore, but it is primed and ready for a resurgence. And another piece of its beauty is that you can either toss it together at the end of a long day, or start it before work in the slow cooker. Either way, you are in for a delicious dinner without too much effort.

In our one-skillet chicken cacciatore recipe from recipe developer Michelle McGlinn, it takes less than an hour to get dinner on the table, and half of that time is just the stew simmering, so you can kick your feet up, have a glass of wine, and relax. This recipe calls for both canned diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes, but substituting the leftover marinara for one or both of those cans — depending on how many half-full jars you have in the fridge — will result in an even richer stew.

Or you can take inspiration from Julianne De Witt, and use up the remnants of last week's pasta dinner in her crock pot chicken cacciatore recipe. You'll have to sear the chicken thighs, but after that, it is just tossing them in the slow cooker alongside diced vegetables, herbs, olives, capers, and, of course, marinara sauce, and then letting the crock pot do its work. Start it in the morning to come home with dinner ready, or use this recipe to make time to enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon. It doesn't get much better than that.