Chicken Gumbo

Package deboned chicken thighs

Package deboned chicken breasts

1 c chopped onion

1 c chopped green pepper

1 c chopped celery

2 pkgs frozen okra

3-4 boxes chicken broth

Roux

          Fifty/fifty amounts of flour and oil (I use olive oil and just really don’t measure; probably end up being about ¾ cup of each.) and cook (I use a large cast iron skillet).  I stand over it, stirring with a spatula, it burns easily; have to throw it out and start over.  Once I get it to a brown color I want, I add one cup of chopped onions and turn off the heat; this sort of starts the onions cooking and cools down the roux.  After a while I add some Swanson Chicken Broth (99% fat free, no msg) and stir the stuff to make it thinner.

I work on the chicken thighs, scraping the fat etc off and cutting the meat into smaller pieces.  I place the cut up thighs in a bowl, add olive oil and mix up the mess; that helps keep pieces separated.  I season the pieces of thighs with salt, pepper and some Tabasco sauce.  In a large pot that I’ll cook the gumbo in I stir fry the thighs so they’ll brown and the remaining fat on the thighs will melt (If I decide to use andouille sausage, I cut it up and put it browning first, you can find it at Byerly’s in the meat section, I use the whole package).  I cut up the chicken breast in bite size pieces and add to pot once the thighs are browned and continue browning the stuff.  Once that is done, I add one cup each of chopped onions, celery and green pepper (I use colored peppers if I have any).  I let that cook up a little while, then I add the roux and any of the chicken broth left from the box (Now If I want okra in it, I add it now *)  I then add two or three more boxes of chicken broth and just let it cook, about 2 hours just simmering.

·    Okra: put in a large skillet with olive oil and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees, stirring every once and a while.  I do it until the slime is done with.  I usually do that a day ahead, and refrigerate it.

·       

White rice recipe I use

2 cups rice

3 cups water (I now use chicken broth instead of water and use 2 ½ cup of broth; makes for a more flavorful.) 

I usually wash and soak the rice for about 30 minutes. I now rinse the rice five or six time, soaking each time in the water)

I put rice/water in micro-wave bowl

10 minutes at 60 %

10 minutes at 30 %

That’s it.