RealCajunCooking.com lets you choose from hundreds of authentic Cajun recipes. Learn to easily prepare and cook original Cajun-style family meals with help from south Louisiana's Cajun cook and connoisseur, Jacques Gaspard, who's been preparing great Cajun meals for decades. Create the best gumbos, seafood, jambalaya, stews, salads and deserts -- the way they were originally prepared. Besides great original recipes, you will discover a hodgepodge of stories, recordings, videos and humorous anecdotes to entertain. So enjoy! Don't forget to tell all of your family and friends about Real Cajun Cooking.
Remove the skins from the chicken thighs and set aside for later use. Add the thighs and 8 cups of water into a large pot. On medium-high heat bring to a boil before adding the dry seasoning and processed vegetables (onions, green bell pepper and celery). Continue boiling for 30 minutes on medium heat then remove the thighs from the boiling liquid and set aside to cool down. Continue cooking on medium heat while stirring occasionally. Debone the thighs and put the meat back into the pot. Continue boiling on medium heat.
Part II - Processing the Chicken Skin
Season the chicken skins with salt and ground red pepper and using a microwavable bowl nuke the skins for 10 minutes on the high setting in your microwave oven. (I use a 700 watt microwave oven. Larger models may take less time to render the oil out of the skins.) After extracting the oil set it aside for later use.
Part III - Canned Biscuits Dumplings
On a glass or porcelain plate paint some of the chicken oil on the surface then lay the biscuit dough on top. Season the individual biscuits to taste before applying more oil. I like to use black pepper and Old Bay seasoning. Note: The seasoning you add to the dumplings is to your taste and is in addition to the list of seasonings above which are added to the boiling liquid.
Next, knead the biscuit dough into a ball and pinch off 3 equal dumplings from each biscuit. Add the dumplings to the pot and continue cooking for another 20 minutes on medium heat.
This Easy Homemade Baking Powder Biscuits Recipe was handed down to me by a dear friend and fellow restaurateur who has since retired to the scenic landscapes and beautiful sunsets of the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
Remembering "Miss Mary" (Mary Richard, Kaplan, LA.) Her baking powder biscuits taste great with morning breakfastand bold N'awlin's style coffee.
Ingredients
Baking Powder Biscuits
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of baking soda
4 Tbs shortening (chilled unsalted butter is fine)
1 cup milk
Instructions
sift flour once
measure and add baking powder and salt
cut in shortening (butter) and gradually add milk until soft dough is formed
roll out on slightly floured cutting board and knead about 4 times
cut out 2 1/2" diameter biscuits
bake in pre-heated oven at 450°F. for 12 to 15 minutes.
This savory Cajun Chicken Stew Recipe is easy to prepare, but the one common mistake folks make is trying to prepare a chicken stew with young fryers. A mature hen makes a better stew. The reason why? The meat on a young chicken will fall apart quickly during the cooking process. It takes longer to cook a hen and therefore all of the herbs and spices have more time to come together to create the savory taste.
Ingredients
1 four to five pound hen cut into pieces (never use fryer)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup all-purpose four
2 cups onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
prepare roux with flour and oil until brown in color
add onions, celery and chicken
cook 2 to 3 minutes before adding water, garlic, bell pepper and seasoning
simmer in covered pot until hen is tender (around 1 1/2 hours)
add more water if needed
Serve over cooked rice. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Note: You may substitute the wet roux with 1/2 cup of powdered gumbo roux. KT
The one ingredient in this recipe which justifies the title, Spicy Cinnamon Brownies--Cajun Style, is the 1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper which is added to the mix. But, don't fret! That part is completely optional. We can omit the ground red pepper and still create a spicy and rich brownie mix which will have your family and friends coming back to you and asking for another serving. Guaranteed!
in a bowl add together the chocolate morsels, oil, eggs, water, cinnamon and pepper, mix well
slowly add and thoroughly mix-in the Best Choice Walnut Brownie Mix
add the room temperature cream cheese and swirl-mix the cheese throughout the wet mixture
poor in a well buttered (or oiled) 13" x 9" x 2" glass or metal pan
bake for 21 - 24 minutes at 350 degrees F. (do not over-bake or brownies will turn out dry)
Note: You will know when the brownies are done by inserting a dry toothpick in the center. If you pull it out and the toothpick is wet with mix on it, then you will need to bake your brownies for a couple more minutes. If the toothpick comes out dry it means they are done.
Give your brownies time to cool down before cutting them into squares.
So, the next time you want to create some spice in your life (and your desert), try this Spicy Cinnamon Brownies--Cajun Style recipe out for size. You will be glad you did.
I would love to hear your comments. Thanks and have a great day!
It was about a decade, or so, ago when I trucked-in a couple dozen sacks of live crawfish from south Louisiana to Texarkana, Arkansas for re-sale. I would do this to pay for the cost of my 700 mile round-trip to my home town when I visited family and friends. I also made a fair profit for my efforts, too.
Nick, my partner, was helping me as we sold the mud bugs out of the back of my old pick-up truck on the west side of Hwy 71 South (south of the city limits) under a huge oak tree which, luckily for us, was strategically situated just a couple hundred feet from the only convenient store in the neighborhood. E-Z Mart - lots of traffic.
It was also next to a cut-off road (a short-cut of sorts) which led in the direction of the river bottoms to a gypsy settlement. That was the day when I discovered that gypsies, like us Cajuns, love to eat crawfish, too.
In fact, the bulk of our live crawfish was sold to them - mostly during their commute back home from work.
With a few magic markers and a poster I had printed the words "Live Crawfish for Sale" in large letters and affixed it to the tail-gate of my truck so everyone could see it. But, I'm getting a little off-track here.
Particularly, I wanted to recount how on that day, before the mad rush of sales began, this attractive pre-middle aged woman approached our vending area in a brand new cream-colored Cadillac convertible (top down). I especially noticed how long it took her to get out of her car.
When I focused on and through the dark-tinted windshield I could barely make-out that she was applying lipstick, adjusting her white oversize plastic-rim sunshades and ever-so-slightly tilting her rose-colored sun hat before making her way out of the vehicle.
I thought to myself, WOW! Big sale! ... on it's way! Then, almost simultaneously, I asked myself, "Why would she want to load a sack of mud bugs in that fancy brand new car?" Something wasn't quite right?
As she approached us I said something like, "howdy mam ... I do appreciate you stopping by ... today we are running a 50 lb. special for only twenty-five dollars", when she graciously and politely interrupted my sales spiel and said in a demur-sounding voice, "No, no ... I don't need to buy 50 lbs."
Then she asked, "how sturdy are they?"
I flinched and said, "beg your pardon, mam?
She repeated, "how sturdy are they?"
"I guarantee you mam that a couple of these craw dads tied together and tethered to the front bumper of your new car could probably pull you out of the ditch if you ever got stuck ... that's how sturdy they are", I bragged. (That was me trying to be funny.)
Then I continued on, "I assure you mam that they were swimming in water only yesterday and they are sturdy enough to keep alive at least 2 or 3 more days until you are ready to cook 'em up. All you gotta do is keep 'em dampened, cooled and tightly packed together in the sack. (That was me trying to be smart.)
Then she anchored those few words into my memory bank which have lasted to this day and will probably hang-on for many many more. "Oh no", she said. "I don't want to boil it or eat it ... I want it for my fish aquarium to help clean it out."
"She wants 'IT', I thought? ..."IT" ... as in ONE? ... as in SINGULAR? ... UNO?
Then she asked, "Is it okay if I pick-out the one I like?"
I looked-up at my partner and friend who was now grinning from ear-to-ear and then I looked back at her. Hell, I couldn't even make out what color eyes she had through those dark over-grown sunglasses. But, I did look into her shades and with one of those 'don't you feel like a total idiot smiles' I politely said, "Yes mam ... you betcha."
I then dumped-out a couple dozen into one of the empty buckets. These particular craw dads were at full maturity and were the 'red swamp' variety with the strong red pincers like the one in the photo above. One pinch could draw blood.
She gazed-down at the quarry and said, "Oh my! Which one should I choose?"
We ended-up giving her the one she picked-out (no charge), plus another one for good measure. We call it lagniappe.
