Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Etouffee


Recipe: Tyler Florence

* Extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 pound andouille sausage links
* 4 leg-thigh chicken pieces
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (we used less than half this amount)
* 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
* 2 ribs celery, roughly chopped
* 1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
* 4 cloves garlic
* 1 (12-ounce) can beer (Lager Times from Trader Joes)
* 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
* 2 bay leaves
* 2 tablespoons paprika
* Pinch cayenne pepper
* 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 scallions diced

Directions

Set a Dutch oven (I used a large stock pot) over medium heat and add a 1 TBSP of olive oil. I cut up the sausage and browned slightly as I rendered some of the fat. Remove and set aside on a paper towel. Season chicken with plenty of salt and pepper and add skin side down to the pan. Cook over medium heat to render fat for 7 to 10 minutes, then turn to brown both sides of the chicken. Remove and set aside on a paper towels.

With the pot still over medium heat add 2 tablespoons butter to melt with the fat then add flour and whisk to incorporate, and then swap to a wooden spoon. Cook until it is nice and brown (you want a nice deep rich colored roux), about 10 to 12 minutes.

Dice the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic. Add the vegetables to the pot with the roux and stir with a wooden spoon. Cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes to sweat out some of the moisture, then deglaze the pot with the beer. Add the stock, bay leaves, paprika and cayenne. Return the chicken pieces to the pot and simmer until the chicken is tender, about 1 hour. Remove the chicken pieces from pot to a cutting board and shred the meat. Discard the bones and return the meat to the pot. Cut the andouille sausage into chunks and nestle back into the pot amongst chicken to heat through.

Give it all a final taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with plenty of parsley and scallions.

When this was finished Mark ended up skimming off quite a bit of the fat. Due to the fact that we didn't add as much flour our Etouffee had less of a gravy consistency.

This was absolutely delicious! We served it with jasmine rice because that just happened to be what we had on hand. It worked very well with it. In the picture you can see that Mark topped his serving with red chili flakes for a little kick.

1 comment:

  1. The etouffee was absolutely delicious. I plan to make this dish for my family in the near future, and will probably follow Molly's lead in using less flour. The consistency was perfect and very flavorful. Thanks again to Mark and Molly for always serving up healthy portions of friendship, flavor and fun. A solid dose of TF never hurts, either!! I highly recommend this recipe...or finagling yourself an invitation to the James house for a spectacular dining experience.

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