Saturday, February 20, 2010

Chicken Etouffee

Last week was Mardi Gras. Since we couldn't actually go to NOLA, I decided to cook up a tribute to the region. What better way to do this than to get a recipe from Emeril himself? BAM!

Chicken Etouffee
adapted from Emeril Lagasse of Food Network


Ingredients
1 (4-pound) chicken, 2 large chicken breasts cut into 8 pieces strips
Salt
Cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable olive oil
8 5 tablespoons unsalted butter - I used Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend
3/4 cup flour
1 cup finely diced yellow onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bottle dark lager or amber beer - I used Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
1 quart cold chicken stock
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 cup hot sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup chopped parsley - The grocery store was all out, so I omitted

Directions
Season the chicken pieces with salt and cayenne pepper.

Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat and sear chicken pieces on both sides until golden brown. Remove to a platter and reserve.

Add butter to pan and when melted, add flour, and stir to combine well. Continue to cook roux, stirring constantly, until chocolate brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Immediately add onion, celery, bell pepper, and bay leaves and cook until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes, then add the beer and stir well to loosen any brown bits from pan bottom. Add the stock, brown sugar, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce and stir to combine well. Bring to a boil, return chicken pieces to the pot, and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until chicken is very tender.

Remove chicken pieces to a platter and when cool enough to handle, remove chicken meat from the bones. Return chicken meat to etouffee and continue to cook another 30 minutes, until sauce is thickened and flavorful and chicken is beginning to fall apart. Add chopped parsley and stir well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary, and serve immediately over rice or other starch of choice.



Chef's Notes
This was very delicious, but not as spicy as I thought it was going to be. The next time I make it, I will probably increase the amount of cayenne that I coat the chicken in for an extra spice factor. Since the chicken I used didn't have any bones in it, I didn't cook it for nearly as long as the recipe above suggests. I basically skipped the middle step of boiling for 1 hour and 15 minutes and only cooked it for 30 minutes. The sauce still thickened up, even thought I didn't let it boil for as long as suggested. I served it over jasmine rice.

1 comment:

  1. I love chicken etouffee. This looks like a great recipe.

    ReplyDelete