Slow Cooked Sausage Chicken Gumbo

When you are busy trying to multi-task and do a lot of things around the house, or even run some errands outside of the house, it’s hard to impossible to tend to the cooking of an elaborate meal. But of course we all want to eat well, and we want to eat meals that have been well prepared. One way to have the best of both worlds is to make some slow-cooked dishes in a crock pot, and if you like southern style cuisine, gumbo is a dish that lends itself well to being prepared in this manner. Below is a recipe for some slow-cooked sausage and chicken gumbo.

Ingredients:

1 pound of boneless chicken thighs, cut up
2 cups of cut okra
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
3 minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 pound sausage, sliced
ground cayenne pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup shrimp, cleaned and cooked
1 1/2 cups uncooked regular long-grain white rice
3 cups chicken broth

Directions:

Combine flour and oil in a saucepan and mix well, cooking over medium-high heat for about five minutes. Reduce heat medium-low and cook for another ten minutes. Place flour and oil mixture in your crock pot. Add all of the remaining ingredients except shrimp, rice, and broth. Cover and simmer on a low setting for around eight hours or so. Add cooked shrimp to the gumbo and mix well. Cover and continue to cook on low for twenty to thirty minutes. Meanwhile, cook rice in the broth or water according to package directions. Serve gumbo over the steaming cooked rice.

Makes 6-8 servings.