Categories
Featured Main Dishes Recipes

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo from www.jasonscooking.com

BackgroundAbout this Recipe

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m a huge fan of cooking.  I’m also a huge fan of cold afternoons with nothing to do.  Put them together and (if you come over to my house on said afternoon) you get gumbo!  My gumbo just includes the stuff that I like (chicken and sausage) and excludes the things I don’t like (okra and shrimp in stews) so please feel free to use this as a base recipe and add or remove things that you like or don’t like.

People often shy away from making gumbo because the roux scares them.  When made on the stovetop, it takes a long time, you have to stir it constantly, and you can’t take a break.  It can also burn at the end and then you have to throw out the whole batch and start from scratch.  This problem is solved using Alton Brown’s oven technique for making the roux.  It takes longer to do, but you don’t have to babysit it.  Once you get past the roux, gumbo is pretty darn easy to make!

The RecipeRecipe
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Creole
Serves: 6 - 8
Ingredients
  • 4 oz All Purpose Flour
  • ½ Cup Vegetable Oil
  • 1 Cup Onion, Diced
  • 3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
  • ½ Cup Green Bell Pepper, Diced
  • ½ Cup Celery, Diced
  • 14.5 oz Can Diced Tomatoes, Drained
  • 1 Tbs Salt
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • ½ tsp Dried Thyme
  • ¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs, Cut into 1” Cubes
  • 1 lb Andouille Sausage, Halved and then sliced into half moons
  • 4 Cups Chicken Broth
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 1 Tbs file powder
  • Cooked White Rice for Serving
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°
  2. Whisk the oil and flour together in a 5 ½ quart cast iron Dutch oven or other sufficiently large, oven proof pot. Cook for 1 ½ hours (or more if you want a darker roux), whisking every 30 minutes. As it cooks, the roux will get darker and darker and that’s good.
  3. When the roux is done, carefully transfer the pot to the stovetop over medium-high heat and carefully add the onions, garlic, bell peppers, and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring the whole time. Your roux can still burn at this point so make sure you keep stirring.
  4. When the onions start to turn translucent, add in the tomatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, cayenne, chicken and sausage and stir to combine.
  5. Add in the chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pot to get any of the brown bits into your gumbo and toss in the bay leaves. Stir to combine, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.
  6. minutes before serving, add in the file powder, stir to get the lumps out, kill the heat, cover and let the gumbo to rest…you’d want to rest too if you were gumbo.
  7. Serve with rice!
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

If you like shrimp in your gumbo, add the raw shrimp in at the end when you kill the heat and add in the file powder 10 minutes before serving. That should keep them from overcooking and turning into rubber.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Frozen Gumbo Kit from www.jasonscooking.comYou can freeze a roux! The best way to freeze this (in my opinion) is to cook, cool, and bag the roux in one bag quart-sized bag, prep and bag the veggies and spices in another quart-sized bag, and prep and bag the meats in a gallon-sized bag. Pop the quart sized bags in the gallon bag with the meats and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.

When you’re ready for gumbo: thaw the bags in the refrigerator overnight, heat the roux over medium heat until it’s hot and continue the recipe from there. These gumbo kits make a great gift for a new mother or as a get well gift for someone recovering from surgery.

Fun FactsFun Facts
Red Brick Roux from www.jasonscooking.com
Red Brick Roux

There are 4 stages of a roux that are described – and identified – by their color. They are white, blond, brown and dark brown. The “red brick” stage is somewhere between brown and dark brown. You can tell that you’re at red brick because the roux literally takes on the color of a red brick.*

*Obviously it doesn’t literally take the color of a red brick.  That would be remarkable – as in something that is able to be remarked upon.

Categories
Featured Main Dishes Recipes

Weeknight Low Country Boil

TemperatureHigh°Time20 – 25 mins

Weeknight Low Country Boil from www.jasonscooking.com

BackgroundBackground

It seems that almost everyone we know was born in September/October so I think a lot of the upcoming posts will start off with, “I was at a birthday party the other day…” Anyway – I was at a birthday party the other day that featured the mysterious and elusive Low Country Boil.

Having never been to a low country boil*, I was excited and imagined Jeff, the birthday boy, slaving away for hours over a large pot set atop an open flame. On Saturday, Jeff called and asked if he could borrow a pot for the boil and I said sure but you have to come and get it. He asked if I could just come over early and bring it with me. Thinking that a boil would take hours, I suspiciously asked how early and his answer shocked me.

“About 30 minutes…”

Abwah?!? That’s right…it takes about 30 minutes to do an honest to goodness low country boil, making it a perfect candidate for a weeknight dinner. It should have clicked earlier with me since you’re using one of the fastest cooking methods to cook food that doesn’t take very long at all to cook. Swing by the store on the way home and have a low country boil tonight!

For those of you who don’t know what a LCB is, it’s a party where you boil up a bunch of seafood, meat and vegetables in a large pot, dump it out onto a newspaper-lined table and invite your friends to dig in with their hands.

*I have a very hazy memory of going to a boil once but I could be making that up.

The RecipeRecipe
Weeknight Low Country Boil
 
Prep time
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Author:
Recipe type: Mains
Serves: 4 - 6
Ingredients
  • 1 Pouch Zatarain’s Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil in Bag
  • 1 ½ - 2 lbs Small Potatoes, (we used petite red, white and blue potatoes but you can use new potatoes)
  • 1 lb Kielbasa Sausage, Cut into 1” Chuncks
  • 4 Ears of Corn, Shucked and Cut in Half
  • 1 – 1 ½ lbs Raw Easy Peel Shrimp, Rinsed and Deveined
  • 1 Lemon
  • Old Bay Seasoning
Instructions
  1. In a really large pot, combine potatoes, sausage, seasoning pouch and enough water to cover everything by 2 – 3 inches and bring to a boil over high heat.
  2. After about 10 minutes of boiling, add the corn to the pot and let everything boil for another 10 minutes.
  3. Test the potatoes for doneness by fishing one out and poking it with a skewer, if it encounters little to no resistance, it’s done.
  4. Once the potatoes are done, add the shrimp and let it cook until they are just pink. This should only take about 2 – 3 minutes and overcooked shrimp is gross.
  5. Drain the water from the good stuff and serve on a large platter or on a newspaper-covered table.
  6. Finish with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of Old Bay.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

The possibilities are endless with a low country boil so add crawfish (yuck), chicken thighs, crab legs, lobster, or anything else you can think of to this tasty dish.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Can you use frozen shrimp for this recipe? Heck yes! Most shrimp is processed and frozen on the boat and then defrosted in the store so feel free to skip the middle man and head to the freezer aisle. Defrost them in cold running water for about 15 – 20 minutes while you’re prepping and cooking everything else.

Fun FactsFun Facts

I once lived in Charleston, South Carolina and was surprised to find out that there were 2 regions in the state. The southernmost counties that are on the near the water are known as “the Low Country” and the rest of the state is called the “Upstate.”

Categories
Breakfast Featured Recipes

English Muffin Breakfast Casserole

Temperature375°Time40 mins

Breakfast Casserole

BackgroundBackground

Every good southern cook should have a breakfast casserole up their sleeve. There are hundreds of different recipes and they’re all variations on “pour scrambled eggs over tasty breakfast foods and cook” so you should be able to find one that suits you. This recipe is the first breakfast casserole that I ever had so I thought I’d share it with you first.

All of the prep-work for this sausagey, eggy, cheesy breakfast casserole is done the night before, so this the perfect breakfast for a large crowd. Once you learn the basics of this casserole, you can substitute your favorite things in until you create your very own perfect breakfast casserole.

The RecipeRecipe
English Muffin Breakfast Casserole
 
Prep time
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Author:
Serves: 9 - 12
Ingredients
  • 1 lb Hot Breakfast Sausage
  • 1 Large Onion, Thinly Sliced into Half Moons
  • 1 Large Bell Pepper, Thinly Sliced
  • 12 Eggs
  • ¾ Cup Sour Cream
  • ½ Cup Milk
  • 7 English Muffins
  • 2 Tbs Butter, Melted
  • 2 Cups Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
Instructions
Prep the Casserole
  1. Crumble and cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat until it’s browned.
  2. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked to a paper-towel lined plate and pour off all but about 1 Tbs of the fat left in the pan.
  3. Add the peppers and onions to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook until they are soft and translucent - about 5 minutes.
  4. While the peppers and onions are cooking, beat the eggs, sour cream and milk together in a large bowl.
  5. Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
  6. Split the English muffins and line the bottom of the dish with them. Pour the butter over the English muffins and then layer on the cooked sausage, peppers and onions, and cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the top, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Cook the Casserole
  1. Wake up and stumble through putting the coffee on
  2. Preheat the oven to 375°
  3. Cook the casserole for 35 – 40 minutes until the eggs are set in the middle.
  4. Let the casserole rest for 10 – 15 minutes and serve.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Leave the sausage out for a tasty vegetarian (or at least ovo-lacto vegetarian) breakfast casserole!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

This casserole, like many other casseroles will freeze beautifully! Instead of refrigerating overnight before cooking, freeze before cooking. Move it to the refrigerator before you go to bed and cook as normal.

Fun FactsFun Facts

Breakfast casserole also goes by the names egg strada and crustless quiche.

Categories
Breakfast Featured Jason's Favorites

Homemade Frozen Sausage Biscuits

Temperature400°Time25 mins

BackgroundBackground

It is well known that breakfast is the best meal of the day.  If you were to ask everyone in the world what their favorite breakfast food was, I’m pretty sure the unanimous response would be a sausage biscuit, making the sausage biscuit the single most delicious food in the world.  It is also the perfect grab-and-go breakfast!  If only we could have a delicious sausage biscuit on hectic weekday mornings…

Wait a minute…

We can!!

At it’s most basic, this recipe is

  • Make sausage (or cook up some store-bought sausage)
  • Make biscuits
  • Put sausage in biscuit
  • Freeze

Here are the recipes that you’ll need for this marriage of deliciousness:

The RecipeRecipe

Homemade Breakfast Sausage
 
Prep time
Cook time
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Author:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 - 1.5 lb Ground Pork
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • ½ tsp Dried Sage
  • ½ tsp Dried Thyme
  • 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
  • ¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • ½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 Tbs Mustard Powder
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400°
  2. Combine all ingredients in a big bowl until it's one big mixture - think meatloaf.
  3. Divide mixture into 8 equal portions (mine are about 2.5 oz each) and form into patties
  4. Place patties on a sheet pan and cook for 10 minutes, flip the patties and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
  5. Test for doneness and enjoy!
  6. You can also cook these on the stove top in skillet.

Buttermilk Biscuits
 
Author:
Ingredients
  • 3 Cups Flour
  • 4 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 Tbsp Sugar
  • 5 Tbs Butter
  • 3 Tbs Vegetable Shortening
  • 1⅓ Cup Buttermilk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450°
  2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl
  3. Cut in cold butter and shortening with a fork, your fingers, or a pastry cutter until you get pea sized chunks of flour/butter/shortening
  4. Pour in buttermilk and mix to combine. The mixture will be clumpy kind of like dry cookie dough.
  5. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and bring together into a dough - being careful not to overwork the dough.
  6. Pat dough out into a rectangle that is about ½ an inch thick and cut into biscuits. I cut them into squares because I didn't want to get out the biscuit cutters and reform the dough but you can cut rounds if you'd like.
  7. Place on greased sheet pan and put into the oven for 12 - 15 minutes. Watch them at the end and pull them out when they are golden brown and delicious.

Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Freezing is not necessary. Eat as many fresh sausage biscuits as you want!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

So you’ve made the sausage and biscuits and put them together into a delicious sausage biscuit.  Assuming there are any left here’s what’s next…

  • Wrap Sausage Biscuits individually in aluminum foil and freeze.
  • The night before you want to enjoy a sausage biscuit, take one out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator to thaw.
  • Place wrapped and thawed biscuit in a 400° oven and cook for 30 minutes until heated through.

No time to reheat in the oven?

  • Remove thawed sausage biscuit from aluminum foil and wrap in a paper towel.
  • Microwave on high for 50 seconds until heated through.  Some sort of witchcraft in the paper towel keeps the biscuit from getting that “microwaved bread” texture.  This is the method I use since I get up at 5:45 in the morning.

Forgot to put the biscuit in the fridge the night before?

  • Remove thawed sausage biscuit from aluminum foil and wrap in a paper towel.
  • Microwave on high for 75 seconds until heated through.
Fun FactsFun Facts
  • A biscuit refers to a cookie in the United Kingdom and Canada.
  • White flour, commonly used to bake biscuits, is almost instantly metabolized into sugar. Biscuits will quickly spike your blood-sugar level.
Categories
Breakfast Featured

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties

Temperature400°Time25 mins

BackgroundBackground

I’m going to show my hand in the controversial bacon vs. sausage debate and align with Team Sausage.  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and, while all of the breakfast meats are delicious, sausage is my favorite.  Don’t get me wrong, I love bacon – I just love sausage a wee bit more.  There’s nothing quite like a spicy/sweet sausage patty inside a light and fluffy buttermilk biscuit to get your day started off right.

The RecipeRecipe
Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties
 
Prep time
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Making your own breakfast sausage is super easy and you probably have most if not all of the spices you need in your cabinet right now!
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Southern
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 - 1.5 lb Ground Pork
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • ½ tsp Dried Sage
  • ½ tsp Dried Thyme
  • 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
  • ¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • ½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 Tbs Mustard Powder
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400°
  2. Combine all ingredients in a big bowl until it's one big mixture - think meatloaf.
  3. Divide mixture into 8 equal portions (mine are about 2.5 oz each) and form into patties
  4. Place patties on a sheet pan and cook for 10 minutes, flip the patties and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
  5. Test for doneness and enjoy!
  6. You can also cook these on the stove top in skillet.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Here are some things you may not know about sausage:

  • It’s incredibly easy to make at home.
  • You can cook it in the oven!

I had no idea you could cook sausage in the oven!  I’ve been cooking it on the stove top like a schlub for years.  Like bacon, sausage in the oven is super easy and way less messy than cooking it on the stove top.  Give it a shot and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Sausage patties freeze beautifully and can be cooked from frozen on the stove top or in the oven.

  • Place uncooked sausage patties not touching in a single layer in the freezer until they are solid.  Once solid, transfer them to a freezer bag and keep them for up to 6 months.
  • When ready to cook, remove the number of patties you need from the freezer and cook in a cast-iron skillet directly from the freezer until they are no longer pink in the center (about 5-6 minutes per side).

You can also freeze cooked sausage patties and reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop for a quick and mess-free breakfast!

Fun FactsFun Facts
  • 83% of sausages are made from pork.
  • Sausages were called bangers during the Second World War because they contained so much water they exploded when fried.