• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Flour
• 3 cups Chopped Onion
• 1.5 cups Celery
• 1.5 cups Green Pepper
• 2 cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1-2 cooked Chickens
• 5-10 Bay Leaves
• Cajun Spices
• Smoked Sausage (or meat of your choice…andouille or beef sausage works best)

Boil chicken in a large pot with 1 cup of the chopped onion, bay leaves, and cajun spices. Set aside to cool, then pull chicken.

Make roux by stirring flour and oil over medium heat until the color of chocolate syrup. Lower heat as the roux gets dark…stir continuously. This should take about 30 minutes. Add onions, garlic and celery and simmer over low heat about 10 minutes.

Add chicken broth 1 cup at a time and stir until smooth enough to pour all the broth in. Add couked meats of your choice and season to tase with Tony’s, hot sauce, etc. Simmer for a while.

A few notes: Lucy uses a rotisserie chicken from the grocery & 2 large cans of chicken broth. Debone chicken & add after broth. I also add all 3 c. onions after roux is cooked.

Enjoy!

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Tomato and Basil and Potatoes with Peppers and Onions

Ingredients

* 1 1/2-2 pounds fingerling potatoes or baby red potatoes
* 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
* 1 cubanelle pepper (an Italian mild green pepper), seeded and thinly sliced
* 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
* 4 large cloves garlic, cracked away from skin
* 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
* 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
* 2 cups shredded parmesan cheese, available in tubs near the deli counter at the grocery store – make sure to get shredded cheese, not grated
* 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6-8 ounces each)
* Coarse salt and pepper
* 4 Roma tomatoes or small vine-ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
* 15-20 leaves fresh basil, cut or torn into a chiffonade

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 500°F.

Cut fingerling potatoes into halves or quarters, depending on thickness of fingerlings – thin, small fingerlings may also be left whole, while larger potatoes should be quartered to speed cooking process. If you are using small red potatoes, halve or quarter them in the same way.

Cover a large cookie sheet with foil. Place potatoes on the cookie sheet. Combine with peppers, onion, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Coat the potatoes, peppers and onions with EVOO, just enough to coat vegetables in a thin layer, 2-3 tablespoons. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Place potatoes in the oven and roast for 20-22 minutes, until potatoes are just tender and peppers and onions are crisp at edges. Toss mixture with tongs, turning the potatoes after 15 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, transfer them to a serving dish and peel the foil off the cookie sheet and discard for super-quick clean up!

While potatoes cook, prepare the chicken: roll out a 2-foot piece of waxed paper or foil near the stove top. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat – your pan must be very hot when the chicken is added. Pile the shredded cheese on the work surface created with the waxed paper or foil. Season your chicken breasts with black pepper but no salt; the cheese will add enough salt to the taste of the dish. Press the breasts firmly into the cheese. Coat both sides of breasts with as much cheese as possible.

Add 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil to the skillet, one turn of the pan. Set breasts into the skillet and cook for 7 minutes on each side, until cheese forms an even, golden casing around the tender chicken breasts.

While chicken cooks, combine the chopped tomatoes with basil in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to your taste.

Drain off any excess oil from chicken as you remove it from the skillet. Top chicken with big spoonfuls of raw sauce and serve with potatoes, peppers and onions.