We love to cook and get family together to celebrate any time we can. We had good reason to celebrate as it’s our 34th (Erin and myself) and my Mom and Dad’s 61th wedding anniversary. Wow, how time flies when you are having fun! Right, baby? My mom and dad, along with my in-laws, came to the house to celebrate. We decided to go old school and cook a chicken fricassee served over puff pastry shell, garlic green beans with pancetta, and stewed okra. Amanda also pitched in with some incredible divinity pie and Louisiana pecan balls. Not exactly Keto/low carb, but heck, we deserved to be treated with the anniversary and all!
Chicken fricassee is a pretty simple recipe and even one that I can’t hardly mess up. It’s basically a chicken stew without all the carrots and potatoes that are in a traditional chicken stew and but starts from a roux. Let’s take a look at the ingredients:
Note: I didn’t put out the white onions, green onions, garlic and bell peppers. I prefer fresh from the garden but I didn’t have any green beans and a limited supply of my Orange Jing Okra. I also didn’t put out the can of roasted diced tomatoes for the stewed okra.
The first thing you need to do is cut up your seasonings (GG’s terminology) so you are prepared to add it as you get your fricassee on! This includes 2 white onions, 1 bunch green onions, 1 sweet bell pepper, 1 stalk of celery and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.
I use a whole chicken hen for this recipe. Go ahead and cut it up. I did pretty well as I didn’t cut myself this time!
Season your chicken before browning it. I used some fresh ground pepper and some “Slap Your Mama” Cajun seasoning.
To get things going, pour four tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil into your cast iron pot and bring to medium-high temperature. Once hot, go ahead and put your chicken in. Brown it on all sides and remove.
Next step is to add 4 tablespoons of all purpose flour to the oil in the cast iron pot, 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix in the flour so no lumps are left and keep moving around the flour so it doesn’t burn. You will have some tidbits from the chicken in the roux. Don’t worry about that, just keep moving the flour around until it gets dark brown.
Once you’ve got your roux to the right darkness, its time to add 4 cups of chicken broth. Add the 4 cups of broth and bring to a boil. Add all the seasonings and cook until soft.
Cut back to med low and and add chicken back to pot. Cover and cook for 2 hours or until meat is coming off the bone. About 15 minutes before serving, add some chopped green onion and some chopped parsley (fresh from the garden).
For the sides, I used some green okra from the store mixed with some of my Orange Jing okra from the garden. I put a can of diced roasted tomatoes, 1/2 a small onion, and okra in a pot, with a little beef broth and let that cook down. It needs a good bit of time to stew so don’t wait to the last minute to start this. For the green beans, I fried up some pancetta in a sauce pan. I added some beef broth to deglaze the pan. Add the green beans and an entire clove of elephant garlic (minced) and put the top on the pan and let that steam until ready.
One of the unique ingredients is the use of the puff pastry shells. Erin’s grandmother, GG, served her chicken fricassee in the puff pastry shell and it both looks and tastes great. Throw those in the oven for about 20 minutes to get ready to plate.
Now, we are ready to plate. Let’s add some chicken fricassee into the puff pastry shell.
We can now add some garlic green beans with pancetta and our smothered okra.
Voila! It looked and tasted out of this world.
And finally, after eating all this great food, Amanda served her divinity pie and Louisiana pecan rolls for desert.
We love to get together as a family and make memories. The wedding anniversaries were a great excuse to cook, eat, and celebrate together. The food was delicious and the company was even better. Even with COVID-19 around, take the time to make memories now, when you can. You can do it in a smart and social distancing manner, but go ahead and make memories with family and friends.
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Chicken Fricassee Recipe
Chicken Fricassee is an old school recipe passed down from my Grandmother-in-low, Mrs. Nita Davis, from Gramercy, LA. Anything she cooked was great and so is this Chicken Fricassee recipe.
- 4 TBSP All purpose Flour (For the Roux)
- 4 TBSP Vegetable Oil (For the Roux)
- 1 Large Chicken
- 4 Cups Broth, Chicken
- 2-3 Onions, White (Diced)
- 1 Bunch Onions, Green (Diced)
- 1 Pepper, Bell (Diced)
- 2 Stalks Celery (Diced)
- 5 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
- 4-5 Sprigs Parsley (Diced)
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
- Cajun Seasoning to Taste
- 1 Pack Puff Pastry Shells
Chop up your vegetables and put them in a bowl, cover and place them in the refrigerator. Hopefully, these are fresh vegetables from the garden!
Put oil in cast iron pot and bring heat up to medium-high.
Prepare whole chicken by cutting it up into individual pieces. Season your chicken using salt and pepper, along with “Slap Your Mama” or other favorite cajun seasoning.
Place chicken into hot cast iron pot and brown your chicken on all sides. Once browned, remove chicken and set aside.
Next, we need to make a roux. Add 4 tbsp of all-purpose flour to the oil 1 tbsp at a time. Keep stirring the roux using a wooden flat edge spoon (preferably) or whisk so you keep moving the particle of flour around and so that it doesn’t stay in the same place and possibly burn. Note that there may be some skin and some meat from the chicken in the oil and that’s okay. That’s flavor. Keep cooking your roux until it turns a medium dark brown color.
Combine 4 cups of chicken broth with the roux. Bring it back up to a boil.
Add in the cut up seasonings (vegetables). Cook until seasonings get soft.
Add the browned chicken back to the pot, along with the juices. Cut heat back to medium -low and cook until meat is falling off the bone which usually takes at least 1 hour.
With about 15 minutes to go, add the parsley and some additional chopped green onions.
Serve over puff pastry shell or white rice.
Now, enjoy the simple life by sitting with your family and friends. Celebrate whatever the occasion and make memories. Please let us know how you like this post or have suggestions on future posts.
If you like this content, make sure you check out my Cajun Meat and Cornbread recipe!! Also, check out all my content on my Louisiana Simple Living YouTube channel.
Enjoy! Remember, if you can dream it, you can do it!
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Tasted as good if not better than it looked!!!! Thanks!!!