Chicken Gumbo - Wednesday tea time family meal done!

It's a shame. My family are not really 'foodie' people. I tend to be rather interested in the health benefits of various foods and food combinations, however my family are rather different to tend to opt for standard plain Jane homey meals with a lot of meat. I much rather prefer to not eat meat and so tend to eat separate meals. However this week I had arranged for myself to cook up a family meal which we could all eat. I searched the BBC Good Food website to find a recipe for 'Chicken Gumbo' which was basically like a paprika chicken one pot dish. I adapted the recipe slightly to my standards - also making the dish the night before as I wasn't sure whether I was going to the cinema with my mother on the Wednesday and so might be too tired to do on the evening. This was okay I thought as it may taste better after letting the dish settle and infuse the flavours.

We didn't end up going to the cinema in the end due to wrong showtimes displayed on the website - yet instead did a bit of retail therapy around avonmeads! =]

Got home to bung this one pot into the oven on really low for a long time ~ 1.15hrs.

I served this with Mash, julienne carrots, broccoli, green beans and baby sweetcorn. Mum was fussy. She had to pick out the celery, no sweetcorn or green beans.   

I was brave too and added a splash of skimmed milk into the mash as I know mum would have put butter into hers.

Chicken Gumbo - Courtesy of BBC Good Food site

Ingrediants:
4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
3 celery sticks, finely chopped
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
400g can chopped tomatoes
400ml chicken stock

small handful sage, leaves chopped

Method

1. Boil the chicken in a saucepan until just cooked through. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and cut up into chunks. Set aside.


2. Add the onion, green pepper and celery to the pan, put on the lid and cook for 5 mins, stirring occasionally until softened a little. Stir in the spices, thyme and bay leaf and cook for 1 min until fragrant. 

3. Return the chicken and any juices to the pan with the flour, stirring to coat everything. Pour in the tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil, cook for 5 mins. Add half the sage. Turn down to a simmer, put on the lid and cook for 10 mins. 
As an alternative I placed the casserole dish into the oven on low for 1.15hrs.

4. Season and serve, scattering the rest of the sage over.