Chicken and “Sausage” Etouffee (Cajun Stew)

Add to favorites

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe.

Two of my favorite Cajun dishes are etouffee and Marengo. Like lots of Cajun food they are basically stews. Simple, flavorful meals.

Because in the ZReduction phase we are not allowed to eat the customary andouille sausage that would be in etouffee I decided to improvise and make a sausage of sorts to go into the dish. It worked just fine. So I hope you enjoy this dish. I have made this version fairly mild.  You can always kick it up to downright spicy.

Servings: Serves 6. Makes 9 cups of etouffee. Each serving is 1-1/2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground sirloin
• 2 Tbl of Cajun spice mix
• 3 chicken breast halves cut into one inch pieces
• 1 large onion diced (2 cups)
• 1 red bell pepper diced (1 cup)
• 2 Tbl minced garlic
• ½ tsp of dried sage
• ½ tsp of dried thyme
• 3 cups of organic chicken broth
• 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
• 1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tsp of hot sauce
• 6 green onions, diced. White and light green parts only.
• 3 Tbl of chopped parsley

Instructions:

Let’s make “simple sausage” first. Lightly spray a sauté pan with olive oil. In a bowl combine the sirloin with the Cajun spice mixture. Just mix with your hand. Put the ground sirloin in the sauté pan. Break into large hunks at first. Brown one side and gently flip the blobs over. When they brown on the other side break them up into hunks about 1” in size. Think of the sausage that’s on a pizza. Little blobs like that.  When the sausage is cooked just set it aside and make the rest of the etouffee.

In a soup pan add a bit more oil and then sauté the chicken pieces. When they are about half cooked you can add the peppers and onions. Cook on medium high until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle. Add the garlic, sage, thyme, broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire and hot sauce. Bring to a low boil and cook this until all of the ingredients are hot. Then add back in the sausage. Heat.

In traditional Cajun cooking you would have started with a roux (and oil and flour mixture) that makes a gravy. In this dish you won’t have the roux (because of the oil and flour) but you will still have a fairly thick sauce.

When you serve etouffee, you traditionally have diced green onions and a bit of minced parsley on top for a garnish. You won’t even miss the fact that etouffee is usually served over rice. Rice is so yesterday!

This dish reheats marvelously and is easily transportable to the work site.

Enjoy!

Cheers,