Faux Chicken Etouffee

I like spicy food. Ok, I really like spicy food. And after a week of not being able to taste anything due to cold medicine I wanted something flavorful and spicy. It also helped that I spent 2 days at home instead of going to work and watched the foodnetwork and the travel channel. After watching Anthony Bourdain's show, "No Reservations" about the restaurants in New Orleans (after Katrina), I just had to have me some etouffee. Since I have never been to New Orleans and have only had cajun food at Bourbon and Toulouse in Lexington, Kentucky, I figured I would do the best I could. What I came up with was a bastardized version that resembled something like what I imagine a real etouffee to taste like.

The previous night I cooked some bacon and reserved the grease. (It had not been sitting around for days and nothing makes things taste better than a little pork fat.) Every good southern girl keeps her bacon grease even if she is in the public health profession. I figure if hot bacon grease doesn't kill it, nothing will.

Gather together:
1 lb of chicken boobs (cut up in to strips)
some flour (enough for the flour and to make a roux)
1 can of beer (I used the finest American Lager I had...the beast)
3 stalks of celery (diced)
1 small onion (diced) I also added 1 shallot
1 red pepper (diced)
2 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)
2 bay leaves
blackening seasoning (I use salt free)
Butter

Dredge the chicken in seasoned flour (enter blackening seasoning). Cook in bacon grease on medium heat. Do not burn the oil or the flour on the chicken, so keep it on medium. After the chicken is browned and throughly cooked, remove and set aside. If you need to add some butter at this point to make about 2-3 tables spoons of liquid please do so. Remove your hot pan off the burner while you add flour one tablespoon at a time until you get a brown roux. It will resemble liquidly brown sugar (not paste). Put back on the burner on low medium & cook this until it is a milk chocolate brown, but not burnt. If it smells burnt, do not use. Add the veggies and coat in roux. Let the veggies get soft in the roux then add the can of beer and about 1/2 cup of chicken stock or water. Add bay leaves and seasoning. Add Simmer this for about 15-20 minutes until thick. Add the chicken back to the pan and cook for another 10 minutes adding water if the gravy needs to be thinner.

When this is finished it should be a brownish color gravy with chicken bit and vegetables in it. Served over rice with garlic bread.


This is really good. I know it's not the real thing. I think the real thing has tomotoes or milk or something else in it. It seems like a spicy chicken fricassee to me. My husband was even happy to eat seconds. It was filling (but not over filling) and it felt like home. I can imagine I would like New Orleans if it tastes anything like this.