Easy Cajun Food

One of my favorite cooking utensils is the crock-pot because with a little work in the morning before work there is a hot dinner when you walk in the door. There is a downside and that is that chicken doesn't take very long so I tend to make these meals on Sundays when I am home for the day. A few years ago a good friend of mine gave me The Ultimate Slow Cooker Book by Better Homes and Gardens. One of the things that I really loved about this cookbook is that some of these recipes have two parts: make one dish and eat it two ways. I find this to be particularly awesome since I eat alone and this means that I don't have to eat the same thing 6 days in a row.

When I was in high school we lived in Louisiana and I realized that I just love the food. I tend to eat it when I go home for the holidays but over time I am realizing that sometimes it is just good to make what you want at home. These two recipes are similar to gumbo and jumbalaya, two of my favorite things. It will seem odd that it calls for Pace Picante sauce but I find that this is a pretty good knockoff that didn't require hours and hours of work. This may not work for you if you have a family recipe that has been handed down for generations but I like this.

Stewed Chicken and Andouille

1 lb andouille sausage, sliced

1 onion sliced

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

16 oz Pace (or any other picante sauce but I use Pace)

1/2 cup water

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp dried thyme

2-3 cups frozen okra

1- Put everything but the okra in the crockpot, give it a little stir and top with the okra

2- Cook on low 6-7 hours or high 3-3.5 hours

3- Make some rice close to the end

4- Before serving remove 4 chicken thighs and one cup of the sausage mixture (the liquid). I think I pull out a little more than a cup but it doesn't matter. If you are on top of things you can shred the chicken here. Then pop into the freezer or store in the fridge for less than a week.

Bayou Shrimp and Rice

12 oz thawed shrimp (without the peels, obviously)

Reserved Chicken and Sausage mixture, make sure the chicken is shredded

2 1/4 c water

1 1/4 c Pace

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 c rice

Any left over okra from the frozen bag

1-Mix the liquids in a pot (plan ahead for size everything is going to go into this pot) and stir. Add the rice, bring to boil, reduce to simmer for about 14 minutes

2- Add the shrimp and the chicken and sausage mixture (and okra if you are adding extra). Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for about 5 minutes until the shrimp are cooked and the rice is done.

I really enjoy making this, I made it on new years day this year. I hope to try and make a real southern gumbo one of these days but it just makes so much food so I tend to stick to these meals. I hope that you try this, many of the recipes that I share with you are just for fun but this one is amazing. Be sure to let me know if you try it or if you have a good recipe for gumbo. I hope that you like this and that it is as enjoyable to you as it is to me.