32. Light Seafood Gumbo

I had a day off so I decided to may a recipe that takes more time. I found this one in the Light and Luscious cookbook (ISBN 0-8487-1150-5). This book contains “standard” recipes and a lighter version. This is the light version.


Light Seafood Gumbo

4 (6 ounce) skinned chicken breast halves
2 quarts water
½ cup all purpose flour
Vegetable cooking spray
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups onion
1 ¾ cups chopped celery
1 ½ cups chopped green pepper
½ cup green onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoons dried whole thyme
1 teaspoon dried whole oregano
½ teaspoon pepper
3 bay leaves
1 (13 ½ ounce) can no-salt-added chicken broth
1 (6 ounce) can no-salt-added tomato paste
½ pound smoked turkey sausage, sliced
1 pound unpeeled medium size fresh shrimp
6 cups cooked long grain rice (cooked without salt or fat)

Combine chicken and water in a Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 45 minutes. Cover; chill 8 hours. Remove chicken; skim and discard fat from broth, reserving broth. Bone and chop chicken.

Place four in a 15x10x1inch jellyroll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until very brown, stirring every 15 minutes. Set aside.

Coat a Dutch oven with cooking spray; add oil. Place over medium heat until hot. Add onion and next 4 ingredients; sauté until tender. Add thyme and next 3 ingredients. Add browned flour; stir until smooth. Add reserved broth, chicken, canned broth, tomato paste, and sausage. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 1 hour. Peel and devein shrimp; add to broth mixture. Cover and simmer 10 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Discard bay leaves. Serve over rice. Yield: 12 (1 ½ cup) servings.

Changes and Shortcuts: I used a little less onion that the recipe calls for and I didn’t have any green onions on hand. I used boneless chicken. The broth would probably have a slightly stronger flavor if I used chicken on the bone, but it just didn’t seem worth the work of picking the bones. I only had red peppers in the fridge, so I used them instead of green peppers. I also had two links of chorizo in the freezer that went in too.

Results: This is time consuming, but worth it if you have the time. Browning the flour is a great idea and I may try that in other recipes. The theory is that it replaces a roux of flour and oil. I think the flour could be browned a head of time, maybe the day before, to save some time.

Keeper? YES!