By Christy Turnipseed
Chances are cold weather puts you in the mood for comfort food. But you probably don’t have the time to put it all together. Two kitchen appliances I love (besides my Le Creuset Dutch Oven) is my Crockpot and rice cooker. With a Crockpot you can just walk in the door after a long day at work to dinner almost prepared. Also, a rice cooker is my new favorite. I’m terrible at cooking rice. I mean, bad. Rice cookers are fairly inexpensive and you never ruin a batch of rice! Amazing!
Now you don’t need both to prepare this dish – which I call lazy “gumbo” — but if you make it before work or during a lunch break, you can come home to a great dinner.
It is a “gumbo” with quotation marks because instead of making roux I made an easier vegetable soup based type.
So it’s not a really an authentic style gumbo, but it works when you’re in a hurry or when you’re not feeling your best and still want dinner on the table.
Lazy Chicken and Sausage “Gumbo” in the Crockpot
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cubed (or if you are really lazy you can cube some and lay a few whole ones on the bottom of the Crockpot and shred later, which I did)
1/2 lb. fully cooked kielbasa sausage, chopped
3 medium celery stalks with leaves, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 medium Spanish onion, chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes with juice
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (leave them whole and pull out the steams later)
1 bag frozen succotash (corn and lima beans)
1 32 oz. chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne (or more to your liking)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 6oz. can tomato paste
1/2 bag whole frozen okra
3 cups hot cooked white rice
Frank’s Red Hot Pepper Sauce, to serve
Fresh Thyme leaves, to serve
Directions
Mix chicken, sausage, celery, carrot, onion, tomatoes, peppers, thyme, succotash, broth and all seasoning in 4- to 5-quart slow cooker.
Cover and cook on high setting 3 hours or low for 6 hours.
Stir in tomato paste and cook on medium setting for 35 minutes.
Add frozen okra, turn heat to low while making rice.
Spoon “gumbo” over rice and serve with hot sauce if preferred and fresh thyme leaves.
Christy Turnipseed is Birmingham born and raised. She’s a vintage jewelry designer for Lil’ Seeds. She’s a foodie, art and music lover and blogs at al.com and lifeofaturnip.com. She’s on twitter@cturnip.