Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Chicken Gumbo


I made this the other week for for tea, whilst feeling incredibly poorly I'll have you know, and it was the right mixture of spice and comfort. I'm suffering with an awful cold at the moment which means getting myself into the kitchen is a real effort but having done a big grocery shop when I was fit and healthy, I can't let the food go to waste so cook, I must.

As I said above, this was ideal comfort food as I served it with a pile of creamy mashed potatoes and the cayenne pepper in the gumbo left my lips and taste-buds, which have been slightly numbed by my cold, tingling.

The recipe is adapted from a BBC Good Food recipe as I didn't buy all the ingredients required, instead used up things I had in the fridge already which worked well (ie swapped streaky bacon for diced pancetta with herbs) and I tweaked a few other ingredients to suit our tastes.  The original recipe also uses chicken thighs but I'm not a thigh lover so I always cook with breast.  You could also quite easily up the veg in this dish too by adding a red pepper.

The result was good, it was very tasty, warming and filling - the perfect meal for a dark, damp night.  

This recipe serves 2.

Chicken Gumbo

Ingredients

2-3 skinless chicken breasts, diced
groundnut oil
80g pancetta, cubed or chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 tsp plain flour
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
300ml chicken stock
1 green pepper, cut into chunks
2 bay leaves
2 springs thyme
1 tsp cayenne pepper
100g chorizo, sliced or diced

Method

Season the chicken then fry gently in 2 tbsp of groundnut oil until golden all over. Remove from the pan and put to one side.

Add the pancetta to the pan and cook until golden and crisp. Add the onion, garlic and celery an cook until they are starting to soften and colour. Sprinkle the plain flour over the pan and cook, stirring until everything turns golden.

Tip in the chopped tomatoes and keep stirring until everything is combined. Stir in the chicken stock, then add the chopped green pepper, herbs, cayenne pepper and chorizo. Pop the cooked chicken back into the pan and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Simmer for 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the sauce has started to reduce.

And that's all there is to it. As I said above, I served it with mashed potato but you could also just serve this as it is with chunks of crusty bread.

love & kisses
Mrs M x

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