JOHNNIE’S SHRIMP GUMBO

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY JHONNIE SMITH

Johnnie’s Shrimp Gumbo (Leaner Version)

1/8 cup canola oil

1/8 cup butter (I used I Cant Believe Its Butter)

Garlic powder

Creole Seasoning

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut up

1 pound of large, cleaned and deveined shrimp (raw)

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped green peppers

1 10oz box or 16 oz bag of frozen okra (I used 16 oz.)

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

¼ cup flour

1 32oz box chicken broth (fat free)

1 cup water

½ cup tomato sauce

Pinch of parsley flakes

1 boil-in-bag Jasmine Rice (Optional – I added this to the recipe)

DIRECTIONS

Season to taste chicken pieces with garlic powder and Creole seasonings. Let stand 30 minutes. Melt butter and oil in a heavy bottom Dutch oven oven medium heat. (I used my heavy weight faberware pot). Cook chicken until light brown; remove from pot. Remove from pot and set aside. Add onions, celery, green pepper, okra and garlic to the pot; stirring until vegetables are almost tender. Stir in thyme, salt and pepper to vegetables until combined. Then add flour to vegetables, cooking about to minutes. It will look like a thick mess but that is okay. Stir in broth, tomato sauce and water; stirring until you make sure the lumps of flour are gone. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Add meat back into pot and simmer for 1 -2 hours, stirring occasionally*. Before you are ready to add shrimp, this is when I added the Jasmine rice and cooked for about 10 minutes. Next add Shrimp and parsley, simmer ad additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you don’t add the rice to it, you can serve it over a pot of hot rice. Also, I made Garlic Cheese Biscuits with mine.

*If you want a darker gumbo, you can add up to a tablespoon of kitchen bouquet OR as I did brown some flour in a small pan until it gets the color you want and add some water to it stirring continually (gravy) and add it to your pot. This is it and Enjoy!!