Crockpot Chicken Fricassee !

Well, this is “sort of” a crockpot recipe.  A portion of the prep has to be done in a skillet, but after that, it’s all downhill.

Fricassee means “stewed in it’s own juice”, essentially.  And this recipe really couldn’t get much simpler, or more delicious.  This is one of those classic “rice & gravy” dishes of Cajun country.

 

When I took my first bite of this dish after making it, I thought, “I’ve had this before.”  Which essentially means that I nailed it, because I’d never made it before—and that means someone made it for me.  Someone born & raised in Southern Louisiana who learned it from their momma.  Well, I learned it from a cookbook, but at least now I know whoever wrote the cookbook knew a thing or two.

 

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, excess fat trimmed & discarded

black pepper

cajun seasoning

flour

2 tbsp light butter

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup sliced green onions (or 1 tbsp dried chives)

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp minced parsley

1/2 tsp thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

 

Directions:

Season the chicken thighs* liberally with black pepper & cajun seasoning and dredge in the flour until fully coated.  Shake off any excess.  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and quickly saute the chicken until medium brown on both sides.

 

Transfer the chicken to the crockpot.  Drop the onions into the pan, cook 1 minute, and then scrape into the crockpot along with any gradoux (aka the browned bits) into the crockpot.

 

 

Add all the remaining ingredients to the crockpot & give a quick stir to mix.

 

 

Cover, and cook for 3.5 hrs on High, or 8 hours on Low (we went with the former option---started it cooking before church on Sunday and it was ready by 1pm).

 

 

As you can see, the meat just falls apart after it’s been stewing.

 

Serve over brown rice (4 cups cooked [2 cups uncooked] will be enough for what this recipe makes.)

 

NOTE: Every time i tried to type the word "thighs" in this post, I first wrote "things". So, sure... you know...season your chicken things. :D

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesdays

Crockpot Recipe: Chicken Sauce Piquante

 

This is a pretty versatile recipe—I made it with chicken, but in during my days in Louisiana, I had rabbit sauce piquante, alligator sauce piquante, squirrel sauce piquante…you get the idea.  “Piquante” is french for “prickly”—a reference to the spiciness of the sauce.

This dish has a ton of flavor & spice, without a lot of fat.  So let’s get started:

Ingredients:

3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat & cut into strips

2 tsp cajun seasoning

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 cup instant roux mix

1 cup water

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped bell pepper

1 cup celery

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 jalapeno, minced

1 cup canned crushed tomato

1 14oz can diced tomatoes

1 tsp Tabasco

--

Directions:

Season the chicken with half of the spices & set aside.  In a large skillet, mix the roux powder and water & cook over medium-high heat, whisking to combine.  Bring to a boil, and then whisk constantly as the sauce thickens. 

Once the roux is nice & thick, add the onions, bell pepper, & celery to the mix, and cook for 5 miutes, stirring often.  Then add the jalapeno & garlic & cook for one more minute.

Transfer this to your crockpot & add the tomatoes, Tabasco sauce, seasoned chicken, and the rest of the spice mix. 

Stir to mix, cover, and cook either on High for 3.5 hours or Low for 8 hours.  Do a taste test & add additional seasoning+hot sauce to taste (we like a lot of heat, so we tend to use about double the cayenne & hot sauce).

Serve over steamed brown rice—you can garnish with some green onions if you have them.

(Note: our rice didn’t cook all the way through on their own, so we threw them into the crockpot at the very end to finish cooking & soak up some of the sauce.  This makes it look a bit like creole jambalaya, but the flavor is much different.)

What it would look like if we hadn’t mixed in the rice:

Makes 8-10 servings.

Nutrifacts:

Calories 209.3

  Total Fat 4.3 g

  Saturated Fat 1.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.1 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g

  Cholesterol 85.9 mg

  Sodium 983.8 mg

  Potassium 408.7 mg

   Total Carbohydrate 18.8 g

  Dietary Fiber 5.7 g

  Sugars 3.1 g

   Protein 22.3 g

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesdays

Weekend Recipe: Part 2: Rice & Gravy from Pot Roast Leftovers

"Rice & gravy" is a staple dish in Louisiana homes, and refers to the basic "style" of the dish. Like so many Cajun dishes, this requires a modifier, as in, "what TYPE of rice & gravy?" which just mean what meat will be used. Sometimes it's a duck rice & gravy, there's beef rice & gravy, chicken rice & gravy...whatever's on-hand.

(Fun fact: I was not aware that there was more than one type of "spaghetti" until I moved to Louisiana. So when you tell a Cajun that you made spaghetti, they will ask "what kind?" This question refers to the type of meat you used. So a traditional meat sauce spaghetti would be "ground meat spaghetti", or there's shrimp spaghetti, chicken spaghetti, etc. But I'm getting off topic. ...and kinda craving spaghetti now.)

There are also traditionally two types of gravies down south--either brown or red. Red gravy is tomato-based, where brown gravy is usually made with the drippings from the meat.

Elsewhere in the world, this dish might be called smothered or stewed meat over rice. (But it probably tastes better in Louisiana...of course...I'm biased.)

So, since we have leftover pot roast, and delicious au jus from that roast, it's only fitting to make a nice quick rice & gravy!



How do we go about it? Couldn't be easier.

1. Take about 2 cups worth of au jus, roast & veggies (minus the potatoes--we don't need to double up on starches) & set aside.



2. Pour off the au jus into a measuring cup, then top it off with water until you have 1 cup of liquid.

3. Break out your trusty can of cajun gravy mix (if you don't have one, you need to. This stuff is fantastic on anything--mashed potatoes, steak (with some sauteed onions & mushrooms), and of course, rice & gravy--I mean...there's a recipe for it on the can.


4. In a saucepan, cook some rice--we like to use instant brown rice. Prepare as stated on the package.

5. In a large skillet, add the gravy mix and your 1 cup of water-au jus, and whisk thoroughly. Heat to boiling. The gravy will reduce down to a beautiful dark brown, like so, in a matter of about 4 minutes:


5. Add your pot roast leftovers to the gravy & heat over low.

6. Once your rice is nice & fluffy:


Serve the roast & gravy mix over rice, and DEVOUR.



Makes about 4 servings.

Nutrition facts:

Calories 347.5
Total Fat 12.3 g
Saturated Fat 4.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 55.0 mg
Sodium 489.7 mg
Potassium 204.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28.9 g
Dietary Fiber 2.6 g
Sugars 1.8 g
Protein 25.2 g
Vitamin A 91.3 %
Vitamin B-12 0.0 %
Vitamin B-6 5.3 %
Vitamin C 7.5 %
Vitamin D 0.0 %
Vitamin E 1.1 %
Calcium 3.8 %
Copper 7.4 %
Folate 3.6 %
Iron 14.6 %
Magnesium 9.3 %
Manganese 12.0 %
Niacin 8.9 %
Pantothenic Acid 1.3 %
Phosphorus 2.6 %
Riboflavin 2.0 %
Selenium 0.5 %
Thiamin 6.7 %
Zinc 5.2 %