Chicken Shrimp Creole

Chicken Shrimp Creole


2 bacon strips
½ pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bay leaf
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp hot pepper sauce
1 lb. Uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 cups cooked brown rice


1. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 1 tbsp drippings. Crumble bacon and set aside. Saute the chicken, onion, green pepper and celery in drippings for 5-6 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.

2. Stir in the tomatoes, bay leaf, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and pepper sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the shrimp and reserved bacon; return to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Discard bay leaf. Serve with rice.


Makes 6 servings; 2/3 cup shrimp mixture with ½ cup rice
Cal 272; fat 6; fiber 4

 
 
I was really disappointed in this.  It looked really great, it smelled good, but the final product was BLAND!!!  There was no flavor to this whatsoever, and I didn't even follow the recipe from the beginning.  As I started making this and realized the blandness factor, I started adding and doctoring and seasoning.  I added more garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, chili powder and that's just what I remember.  I seasoned the chicken while it was cooking; I added almost double, if not a little closer to triple on the hot pepper sauce.  It had heat, but I'm not sure if that was from the Tabasco, or the cayenne pepper. 
 
The next day, I had leftovers for lunch and had mixed the rice in the night before, I definitely liked what that did to the rice, so I would recommend, cutting your liquid in your rice down, and when you run out of liquid, dump the rice into the pot and let it all simmer and bubble for about 10-15 minutes, then serve it.  It was a lot better that way, and there was a lot less "juice".  I will definitely make it again, but there will be some serious seasoning going on.