Can I Use An Alternative To Celery Salt For The Pollo Alla Cacciatora?

Our answer

Nigella's Pollo Alla Cacciatora (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) is a speedy version of the Italian chicken stew cooked in the "hunter's way". It includes celery salt, which is a seasoned salt made from salt and ground celery seeds.

Normally the stew would be started by slowly cooking a soffrito, a mixture of finely chopped onion, carrot and celery. The celery provides some savouriness that balances the sweetness of the carrots and tomatoes. As this is an Express version of the dish, NIgella uses spring onions (scallions) as they soften quickly and the celery salt helps to add an underlying savoury note. If you don't have celery salt to hand then you can omit it. We would suggest replacing the celery salt with a large pinch of fine sea salt. Taste the stew before serving, to see if it needs any extra seasoning.