Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

One of the benefits of having a mom who grew up in Jamaica and lived all over the United States in her adult life is enjoying all the fabulous meals she learned how to cook along the way. For example, from her 6 years in Louisiana she became an expert in cooking Red Beans and Rice, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and Crawfish Etouffee.

Those other recipes will make it to the blog someday, but today we are going to learn how to make Gumbo. Now, my dad jokes that pretty much any meat "makes the best Gumbo" to a native Louisianan. We're talking dove, turtle, miscellaneous roadkill - "Just eat around the tire tracks, honey!" Don't worry though, we will be making our gumbo with a little more orthodox meat: chicken and sausage.

A few notes before we get started:

1) My mom recommends using Andouille Sausage. If you can't find that, then spicy italian sausage (not ground) works great, too. If you have young children who can't handle spicy foods, use regular italian sausage, but you will need to add lots of creole seasoning (I recommend Tony Chachere's) to your bowl to compensate for the lack of spice in the sausage.

2) This is Cajun Gumbo, which starts with a dark roux. This means you should get the roux darker than what I have pictured. It was my first time preparing gumbo by myself and my mom says it should have been darker. It tasted great, but just wasn't quite as good as hers! My mom swears by cooking the roux in the microwave. You can do it on the stove in a skillet, but it takes twice as long and requires much more stirring that way.

3) Gumbo is even better on the second or third day. I'm not sure why this is, but since this recipe makes at least 8 servings, plan to have it on leftover night as well. You'll see what I mean!

4) Gumbo needs to cook in the pot for several hours after you prepare it, so plan ahead! If you work, this may be a better weekend meal, so adjust the menu plan accordingly.

printable recipe

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 lb Andouille sausage
3 onions
3 celery stalks
salt
cayenne pepper
creole seasoning (Tony Chachere's)
1/2 green pepper
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh parsley
4 green onions
2/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup flour
rice

Fill a stock pot with water and add the raw chicken, 1 sliced onion, 1 celery stalk with leaves, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil and cook for 45-60 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Strain out chicken and vegetables, placing chicken on a plate to cool and tossing out the veggies, but retaining the liquid. This liquid is your stock and should look like this picture.

While the stock is cooking, chop the remaining 2 onions, 2 stalks of celery and the green pepper and set aside.

Also mince the garlic, parley and chop the green onion and set aside in a separate bowl.

After the chicken cools a little, shred it with a fork.

To prepare the roux, combine 2/3 cup each of oil and flour in a large, microwaveable bowl.

Microwave on high for 6-8 minutes, stirring every few minutes until the mixture is brown: darker than golden but not dark brown. Darker than this picture, I chickened out right at 6 minutes, it should have gone for another minute or so, but your microwave may vary so watch it.

Add your chopped onion, celery and green peppers and microwave for 3 more minutes. The color in this picture is closer to what it should have looked like before I added the vegetables.

Add your garlic, parsley and green onion and microwave for 2 more minutes. At this point it should be dark brown, see how mine never quite got there? This is a classic example of "do as I say, not as I do."

Measure the stock in your stock pot. Add water so that there is 8 cups of liquid total. Once you have the correct amount of liquid, throw in 2 tsp salt, your vegetable roux, and the chicken.

Cut your sausage into 1/2" slices and cook in a skillet over medium heat until it is slightly browned and has given up its fat. This will keep your gumbo from getting too oily.

Add your sausage to the pot and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours.










Serve over rice with extra Creole seasoning and gumbo filé seasoning (optional). We like to serve gumbo alongside a salad and buttered french bread.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 12.

Jamaican Rice and Peas

My mom grew up in Jamaica, which is how I know that Jamaican Rice and "Peas" actually refers to a red beans and rice-type dish. She likes to serve this with a roast and gravy, which is delicious, but this time I decided to serve it with veggies and fruit as a light week-night meatless meal.

Some recipes I found called for a scotch bennet or jalapeno pepper cooked whole in with the rice and other ingredients.

printable recipe

Jamaican Rice and Peas

2 cups uncooked rice
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 bunch (about 8) green onions
3/4 tsp dried thyme
1 can coconut milk (usually found in Asian section of grocery store)

Cut scallions into 1/2 inch pieces.

Place the uncooked rice, green onions, and thyme into a large pot.

Drain the liquid off of the kidney beans into a measuring cup and set aside.

Add the beans to the pot.

Add the coconut milk to the measuring cup. Add water until the total liquid measures 4 cups then pour into the pot with the rice and other ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring contents of pot to a boil, then decrease heat to low and simmer, covered, for about 20-25 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and rice is soft.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 11.

Lemon Chicken

Can you believe I had never made Lemon Chicken before I tried this recipe recently? I think it's a pretty popular dish (with lots of different versions, I imagine) and now I see why.

We really enjoyed this recipe from my friend Nikki at The Saucy Spatula. It was flavorful enough for grown-ups without being too tart for the kids.

printable recipe

Lemon Chicken

serves 4

1 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into chunks
1/4 cup flour
coarse salt
2 Tbsp canola oil, divided
1 Tbsp (a splash) white or rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
10 oz prepared lemon curd (usually found in jam/jelly section of grocery store)
1/4 hot water
1 lemon, zested
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 onion, slivered

Heat 1/2 Tbsp of oil in a wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pepper, celery stalk, carrot, and onion and cook until they just start to brown.

Set aside. What's that, you say? You don't see any onion in there? Hmmm, there's a teeny tiny possibility that I forgot it. Whoops.

Combine the flour and a little salt and coat the chicken in the mixture.

Heat up remaining oil in skillet and add chicken and leftover flour/salt mixture. Saute until golden. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Leave any drippings, browned flour etc in pan and return to heat.



Reduce heat to medium and pour in a splash of the vinegar. Allow to evaporate. No picture of this because it's really hard to see what's going on when you take a picture of a black pan with a splash of vinegar evaporating in it.

Add stock or broth to the pan and scrape up the drippings with a whisk. Sorry about the terrible picture.

Thin curd by stirring in the 1/4 cup of hot water. Mine still had chunks of curd at this point, don't worry if yours does too. Just add the curd to the broth and whisk to combine. I turned the heat back up to medium-high to melt the curd.

 

When curd is completely dissolved, return chicken to pan and simmer for a couple of minutes to thicken sauce and ensure the chicken is cooked through.

Remove pan from heat, add the zest of the lemon and toss chicken pieces to combine zest. Add the veggies and stir to combine.

Serve over rice.

The recipe is featured in Menu Plan 8.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken and Fried Rice

I am always looking for new ways to serve chicken and rice so I was thrilled to come across this recipe on the Tasty Kitchen portion of The Pioneer Woman. So tasty and easy, with ingredients I already had on hand, this meal was definitely a winner!

printable recipe

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

serves 3-4

1 lb chicken breast, cut in chunks

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 Tbsp peanut butter

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp sriracha, or a few drops of tabasco

Mix ingredients and marinate chicken for 2-3 hours.

Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done.

If the sauce starts to dry up before the chicken is cooked through, turn the heat down to medium so the sauce doesn't burn before the chicken is done.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds (I forgot to do that before I took the picture-doh!) and serve with fried rice.

Fried Rice

serves 3-4

1 cup rice

sesame oil (or canola oil)

4 scallions (green onions), chopped

2 eggs

soy sauce, powdered ginger, and pepper, to taste

Cook the rice and let cool for a few minutes.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat (be conservative if you use sesame oil, it has a strong flavor).

Add the onions and saute for a minute.

Dump in the rice. I do have a way with words, don't I?

Add some soy sauce, ginger and pepper.

Cook and stir for a few minutes until heated through.

Push rice to the side, add eggs and scramble.

Mix scrambled egg into rice, cook and stir for a minute or two more and serve alongside Thai Honey Peanut Chicken.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 7. 

 

Chicken Korma

Lately I've been starting to look at dishes that I cook as a production, like a play. Some plays, you can just look at the actors on the bill and know that the end result will be enjoyable to watch. Likewise, with some dishes, I can just look at the ingredients (or cast, if you will) and know that I will enjoy the dish. Now, just as there are some plays who despite an all-star cast just aren't good, there are dishes that similarly don't live up to the ingredients placed in them. However, in the case of this dish, the recipe does justice to the ingredients.

Just look at this cast:

Cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and 3 whole cloves

chopped fresh tomatoes

And the ingredient that makes me swoon...

fresh gingerroot

It may not look like much, but just a whiff of fresh ginger is all I need to put a smile on my face.

Are you intrigued yet? Take a look at the rest of this recipe, then. It might appear like another simple chicken and rice dish, but this Indian meal is full of subtle flavor that makes it a hit in our house.

Adapted from a recipe found in a Taste of Home magazine.

Chicken Korma

printable recipe 

1 large potato

1 medium onion

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

3 whole cloves

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 garlic clove

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp minced, fresh gingerroot

2 medium tomatoes

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream

Peel potato and cut into 1/2 in chunks. Place in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes, until tender. Drain and set aside. 

While potato is cooking, mince garlic and gingerroot and place in a small bowl with curry powder. Set aside.

Chop the tomatoes, place in another bowl, and set aside.

Cut the chicken into 1/2 in chunks and set aside.

Chop the onion. In a large skillet saute the onion, cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves in oil until onion is tender. It should be very fragrant at this point. 

Add the chicken, garlic, curry and ginger, cook and stir 1 minute longer. I use medium to medium-high heat.

Stir in the tomatoes, salt and potato.Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. 

Remove from heat and pull out the cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves. At this point I was wondering why it didn't look like it normally does, until I noticed the half cup of sour cream in the top left corner of this picture, waiting to be stirred in. Duh.

Stir in sour cream. 

Serve over rice, garnish with cilantro, if desired. Obviously I have not mastered the art of garnishing with cilantro. Mine looks pretty lame. But the food was good!

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan: December 20-26.