I don’t know about y’all, but I love gumbo. Love it. For real. For this recipe, I did not make a roux, but you could easily use glucomannan as a thickener to keep this on plan. I used to like to add white rice to mine, and you can certainly add brown rice if you like, but I’m using Chana Dal beans for added protein and carbs. They are easy on your blood sugar!
Easy Chicken Gumbo
4 chicken breasts, cleaned (as in, cut off all that grody blubber aka fat)
2 quarts of chicken broth
1 16oz bag of frozen gumbo veggie mix
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbs creole seasoning (I like Zatarain’s)
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup of Chana Dal beans, or more or less depending on how many you’re serving
1/2 – 1tsp glucomannan, if desired
Soak Chana Dal beans for at least an hour in enough water to cover by an inch. Drain. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add chicken and cook an additional 15 minutes. Remove chicken, and cut into chunks (or you could chunk the chicken while it’s raw, but touching raw chicken makes me itch). Return to pot with veggies and seasonings. Cook until veggies are tender. Serve it up in a pretty bowl!
OR, if you want to cook the beans by themselves, like I did, follow the directions below. The hubby doesn’t care for beans or lentils.
Soak Chana Dal beans in enough water to cover for at least an hour. Drain, rinse, add enough water to cover again. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes, turn off the heat, and set aside for now.
Poach chicken breast in chicken broth with salt & pepper, creole seasoning, and onion powder. Remove and cut into chunks (again, or you could chunk the chicken while it’s raw, but touching raw chicken makes me itch). With a ladle, remove enough broth to cover Chana Dal beans again. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, at least 30 minutes. Check for doneness, and cook longer if needed, although it shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes if you soaked them first. They cook better this way. Put chicken back into pot, and add veggies, and more broth or water if needed. Cook until veggies are nice and tender, about 15-20 minutes. If using glucomannan to thicken, remove about 1/2 cup of broth into a bowl or large cup. Slowly sprinkle in the gluccomannan and use a stick blender or whisk by hand. I like a stick blender because I find glucomannan lumps are hard to break up otherwise. When all the glucomannan is whisked in, add the broth back into the pot and whisk gently, and cook another 5 minutes to thicken. Glucomannan’s thickening properties are intensified when it’s cooked, so try 1/2 tsp to start.
To Serve if beans are cooked separate:Spoon out 1/2–1 cup of Chana Dal beans into your bowl, and top with the gumbo soup. This is an E (Energizing) meal, so it’s higher in carbs and low in fat, so don’t go pouring in butter or something. Most of the carbs in this meal come from the Chana Dal beans. 1/4 cup dry beans contains 21g net carbs, and the veggie carbs are cancelled out. You could leave the Chana Dal beans out and make this a Fuel Pull, meaning it’s low fat AND low carb. You could also make this with shrimp if you wanted, but I’m allergic. *sob*
These are the cooked Chana Dal beans.
Yummy gumbo all dished up!
This post is linked over at Stacy Makes Cents for Trim Healthy Tuesdays. Hop over and check out more great recipes to help you on your Trim Healthy Mama journey!
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