Chicken Gumbo

Gumbo is an original creation and is a staple in South Louisiana cooking. The word "gumbo" comes from the Congo "quin-gombo" which means okra which is a thickening agent. While classified as a soup it really is more like a stew in taste and texture. Additionally, gumbo is served over rice, whereas, soup is not.

There are many different types of gumbo from chicken to wild game to seafood and the recipes vary somewhat. The gumbo we make most often in our house, simply for ease, economics and availability, is Chicken Gumbo. I have to admit, my favorite is Seafood gumbo but it gets really expensive to make if you don't live in South Louisiana! Here is a basic Chicken Gumbo recipe that you can start with and add other types of meat such as sausage, venison, duck or seafood. Have fun experimenting!

3 tbl Oil
3 tbl Flour
1 pkg Boneless Chicken breasts
1 pkg boneless chicken thighs
1 med onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 10 oz pkg frozen sliced okra
Tony’s, salt and pepper
Parboiled rice

In large pot, brown chicken in oil. Remove from pot when thoroughly browned on both sides. Add oil and flour and make a dark brown roux. Add onion and stir well; then add okra and blend well. Add all other vegetables except tomato and allow to cook down, cover if necessary to retain moisture. Cut up chicken into large bite size pieces. Add about 4 cups of water, tomato, and seasonings; blend well. Add chicken and stir. Cook down for about an hour adding more water if necessary. Recheck seasonings. Serve over rice.

***Note: If you will be making Giblet Gravy for the holidays, now would be the time to cook it as you need pan drippings and a little meat, not to mention that it can be frozen ahead of time. Add some extra chicken when making your gumbo then set aside some of it and all of the pan drippings from when you brown the chicken as stated above, then make your gravy while your gumbo cooks! This way, you can make the gravy ahead of time without having to do any extra work to obtain the two aforementioned ingredients.

Pot Roast

Pot Roast is a very popular dish in South Louisiana cooking. It involves the French technique of braising or pot roasting which comes from the French word “braiser”. The meat is seared at a high temperature, then finished in a covered pot with liquid, resulting in a succulent, flavorful meat and gravy. Coq au Vin is a well known French dish in which the braising technique is used.


History aside, it’s one of my favorite wintertime dishes as it fills the house with a wonderful aroma and is a hearty, warming, filling dish for a cold winter night. It’s one of those things where you sit on the couch under a heavy afghan in your warm fisherman’s sweater eating a big bowl of pot roast while watching your favorite movie or football team with your family. And then you fall asleep, warm and happy. Hmmmm.

When I was in Junior High, we lived on a corner; our side yard was very large and a long rectangular shape, completely unimpeded by shrubbery. It was the perfect place to play football and all the neighborhood boys and school friends would come play ball at my house in the fall during football season.


We would play no matter how cold it was and continue until it was so dark that we couldn't see anymore. By the time we quit and I went inside I was chilled to the bone, shivering badly and hungry as a bear. My mother usually had something cooking that was good and hot and she would hold up dinner until everyone went home and I came in. But what I loved and remembered about those meals was Pot Roast! By the time I changed clothes, she had dinner served. I would grab a bowl, go sit next to the fire and watch whatever my father had on TV and eat that wonderful incredible food. The warmth it brought would slowly spread through my cold body all the way to my finger tips and toes and leave me in a satisfied bliss.

POT ROAST (requires a large oven safe pot or roasting pan)

2 large chuck roasts
1 large onion chopped
5 stalks celery chopped
1 medium bellpepper chopped
8 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large bag baby carrots
5 large Red or 10 new potatoes, cubed (skin on)
Flour
Oil
Beef bouillion (I use Better Than Bouillion paste)
Tony’s

Salt, pepper and flour roasts, then brown both sides in oil. When browned, remove from pot. Add onion, celery, bellpepper and garlic and sauté, scraping the residue and drippings from the bottom of the pot. When vegetables are sauted well, push them to one side (or remove them entirely) and place roasts in bottom of pot. Place vegetables around the roasts; add potatoes and carrots and mix them with the sauted vegetables. In a large container, add 4 cups water and 3 tablespoons of bouillion (or 6 cubes) and dissolve. Pour into pot and add enough water to cover 1” over the top of the roasts and vegetables. Season with Tony’s and stir. Cover and bake in oven at 350 degrees (or cover and slowly simmer it on the stove) until roast is fork tender. Serve over rice.

**Note:

See Tips and Information on Better Than Bouillion paste.

When browning floured meat, leave it alone and don't move it for a few minutes (the residual flour around it will brown), then you can turn it. Otherwise the floured crust will come off and stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.

The Best Chili

I was never a big fan of chili as there was really only one recipe that I ate growing up and it was really basic with only four ingredients. My mother usually got distracted with other things so she didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the recipe or the process therefore, it just wasn't very good. While I've had good chili through the years, I just never obtained a recipe.

Last year, one of my aunt's brothers was in town visiting and made a huge pot of his special chili. Everyone loved it but my cousin and I thought it was a little on the "hot" side. You know, some people like their food so darn hot you can't taste anything at all because your mouth is on fire and you're sweating like a dog! That's how this chili was. However, I saw that it was a really good recipe and worth a little modification. All it needed was to have some of the heat taken out and some veggies added to it for flavor. When I made my modified version I thought it was fabulous and was so excited about it that I invited my cousin over to have some and he loved it! Since then, several friends have eaten some and they agreed that it was wonderful! Trust me....my friends and family would let me know! Here is the best chili recipe I know of!

3 lbs lean ground chuck
1 onion chopped
4-5 stalks celery chopped
½ bellpepper chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
½ small bottle Italian dressing (Zesty or Viva)
1 to 1-1/2 lg bottle Mexene Chili Powder or your favorite
2 pkgs dry onion soup mix
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans chili beans (not red kidney beans)
1 bottle 32 oz of V8 juice
Optional: Cheese of your choice (shredded cheddar or cubed Velveeta , plain or Mexican)

In a large pot brown the meat, ensuring that it is broken up and very crumbled. Then add onions, garlic, bellpepper and celery. Cook until wilted. Add all remaining ingredients (except cheese) and stir well. Simmer about 2 hours, check seasonings. Season to taste then cook another 30 min to an hour. Optional: Add sliced cheese to each serving and stir to melt.

Brisket

It was deer hunting season, and I was spending a long weekend at a friends house out in the country. Her husband had several hunter friends, myself included, out hunting on the property late one afternoon. I had paired up with another hunter friend, Ronnie, to hunt off his stand and we were out in a gully on our way when we heard a thunderous noise. Before we even had a chance to think, a huge herd of cattle was stampeding towards us kicking up a wall of dust, dirt clods and debris; it looked like a storm. Ronnie tried to scare the cattle in a different direction but it didn't work and I dove under the roots/base of a large fallen tree at the head of the gully while he dove behind a large tree nearby. From where I was, it felt and sounded like an earthquake. I glanced up and could see the undersides of the cattle jumping over me...one wrong move and one of them could have landed right on me. I was terrified.

Fortunately, we came out unscathed. Ronnie drove us back to our friends house and upon entering the kitchen, we were so shell shocked and weak in the knees, we both collasped on the kitchen floor in tears. It was the first time I ever saw this grown man cry. We sat there holding each other in total silence, teary and emotional until someone came home and jolted us back to reality. We were terrified realizing how close we came to being killed. Needless to say, that was the last time I went hunting!! Thanks Ronnie!

My friends father had already planned to cook a nice brisket for everyone that night for dinner. He had already done the prep work and it had been marinating overnight. When he got in from the hunt, he took it out and fired up the grill and cooked the most succulent, fork tender brisket I had ever eaten. We planned to have a sit-down meal after the hunt but with the "excitement" of the day and that wonderful brisket, we were having cocktails and talking so much that we stood around eating the entire meal standing up, just picking at the food and eating the meat slice by slice before we realized everything was all gone! And it was wonderful that way too! Gotta be flexible!

This can be done entirely in the oven, but it's better to follow the recipe. This marinade recipe can cook 2 large briskets, so mix it all then freeze half if you are only cooking one brisket.

2-3 bottles of soy sauce
1 lg can pineapple juice
1 sm bottle Italian dressing
1 bottle worchestershire sauce
½ cup brown sugar
1 tbl garlic powder
lemon pepper (this makes it good!)
1 large brisket

Mix all ingredients together except lemon pepper. Divide quantity and freeze half if not preparing 2 briskets. Marinate brisket in refrigerator for 24 hours. Remove brisket and place on broiling pan and season generously with lemon pepper and more garlic powder. Cover entire broiling pan & brisket with foil and seal well (I used a 9x13 pyrex casserole dish). Cook in oven at 250 degrees until 2/3 done, about 1 –1/2 hours. Take the remaining marinade the brisket was in and pour into a sauce pan and simmer on stove or on the pit while brisket cooks in the oven. Take brisket out of foil (***SAVE JUICE) and place on BBQ pit over low burning coals. When brisket is browned well on both sides, wrap in foil again and cook on pit for another 30 min per pound. When done, slice brisket. Combine juice and pan drippings, pour over meat and serve.

**** If you choose to cook the brisket entirely in the oven, just keep it covered and cook it at 250 degrees until done. It will take a few hours but is well worth it.

Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup

In the mid 1990's I was living in Dallas and was leaving to go home to Louisiana for a visit during a particularly blustery and cold winter. I stopped to fill up my gas tank at a station just down the street from my house. While there, a Hari Krishna man handed me a carnation through my car window and wanted to discuss his religion with me. I politely declined but he gave me the flower anyway. I set it on the passenger seat with the intention of throwing it away at my next fill-up in North Louisiana. I forgot. I drove with that flower in the car next to me for the next 7-1/2 hours until I arrived at my mother's house. Unbeknownst to me, that Hari Krishna had the flu! Thirty-six hours later I was.....sick....as....a....dog. Ugggghhhh.

Fortunately, my mother had dinner at a friend's previously in the week, in which the friend served a wonderful Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup. Mom called her friend, got the recipe and made it for me. Oh My Gosh, it was divine! It warmed me up, soothed my sore throat, helped clear my stuffy head and was hearty enough to fill me up for awhile, gave me a little energy and was very comforting. It was the best vegetable beef soup I ever had. Upon my return to Dallas, when I finally felt up to it, I called Mom and got the recipe. I've been making this soup ever since....winter, spring, summer or fall...doesn't matter, I love it anytime of the year and all the time! The quantity of this recipe is very large so I like to put half of it up in the freezer for later use. To make this recipe you will need a large soup pot.

4 pkgs of stew meat or 1 lg roast, cubed
1 12 oz can tomato paste
5 stalks celery chopped
1 lg onion chopped
½ bellpepper chopped
1 bag peeled baby carrots (I use a large bag)
6 cloves garlic (I coarsely chop mine)
1/4 cup Worcestershire
2 tbls salt
2 tbls cayenne pepper
2 tbls Tony’s

Place all above ingredients in a large soup pot and fill pot with water to cover 3" over, stir, bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Allow to cook down thoroughly, approximately two and a half hours, stirring occassionally.

Add:
1 can yellow corn, drained
1 can lima beans, drained
1 can green beans, drained
1 can early peas, drained
1 lg bag shredded cole slaw (1 lb)

Cook for another 2 hours or until vegetables are cooked and tender. Recheck seasonings and serve with buttered and toasted french bread.

****The secret to any good soup, especially this one, is to slowly simmer it for hours. I start it early in the afternoon so it's ready by dinner or cook it on the weekend for the next week.

Jambalaya

Jambalaya (pro: Jum ba Lie ah) was an attempt by the Spanish to make paella in the New World. With the French influence, two different types of jambalaya developed: Creole or Red Jambalaya which includes tomatoes and Cajun jambalaya which does not. I've had many different types of jambalaya from wild game jambalaya's to seafood jambalaya's and all were excellent. However, the one I make the most is a cajun recipe made with chicken, pork and sausage.

How I came about this recipe is a story in itself. I attended a casual rehersal dinner for a family member. The host/hostess served jambalaya and it was wonderful, one of the best cajun meat jambalayas I've had. Repeatedly, I tried to get the recipe from the host and all he would say was that a friend had cooked it and that it was a basic recipe with a few special secrets. Well, that just egged me on to find out the secrets! I picked through the dish for the ingredients and taste tested each bite in an effort to discern the items that made this particular recipe so good! When I thought I had finally figured it out I wrote it all down. A few days later, I cooked a big pot of my "new" jambalaya recipe and it was perfect!!! Here it is...


1 pkg chicken thighs
1 pkg pork chops
3 8 – 10” links good quality Pork sausage, sliced (I prefer Manda's)
1 lg onion chopped
3 stalks green onion chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 stick butter
1/3 cup oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cans chicken broth
salt, pepper, Tony’s to taste
3 cups parboiled rice

Remove pork from bone and cut it and chicken into bite size pieces. Season chicken and pork chops with salt and pepper. Melt butter and oil in large pot. Add meats and cook until brown, remove from pot. Add vegetables to pot, cover and cook down. Add seasonings and soup to pot, blend well. Return meats and pan drippings to pot and cook about 5 min. Add rice, blend well and cook another 5 min. Pour in chicken broth and add water to cover 1” above mixture. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer without lifting the lid or stirring again until all rice is cooked and water has evaporated, approximately 40 minutes. Stir again before serving. See Tips and Information on Manda's and parboiled rice.