Don’t judge til you’ve tried it. Yes, there are 40 cloves of garlic in this dish.
Chad loves garlic and I think he first started making this dish about 15 years ago.
We sat down to eat and the first thing I said was “I love my gravy!” If I do say so myself, I make a darned good gravy.
A word about cajun seasoning – I have loved many different ones. For years, I’d only use Ball’s Cajun Seasoning. It’s made in Lake Charles, Louisiana and when I moved away from there, it was hard to get. I’d have to stock up when I went home but then I started using Slap Ya Mama and loved it. It’s made in Ville Platte, Louisiana so, not too far from my beloved Lake Charles.
A couple of years ago, I started using Cajun Redhead. They use way less sodium and no MSG. There’s just some spice in there that I love. They’re also in Lake Charles. I probably first picked up a container of this while shopping in Lake Charles but now, I order it by the case. I’ll often give away a few containers but this is by far my favorite cajun seasoning. As far as the sodium, if you’ve used much cajun seasoning, you’ve probably found it to be a bit salty. I almost always add extra salt when using Cajun Redhead. If it isn’t available in your local stores and you want to try it, you can order it from their website. That’s how I have to get mine.
Here’s how I make this dish. I probably did have a recipe at one time but now I just wing it.
Ingredients:
8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
Cajun seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Dried Thyme
40 cloves of garlic
Better than Bouillon, Chicken Flavor
Flour
2 T. Butter
I start out seasoning chicken thighs – bone in and skin on. I season them generously (really generously) with Cajun Redhead. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Brown in 2 T. butter.
Remove to a baking pan and bake at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes.
Place the 40 cloves of garlic in the same pot/oil that was used for browning the chicken. Cook, stirring, til it’s light brown.
Remove the garlic, stir in flour and lightly brown. You need enough flour to make a thick roux.
Add water – enough to make the gravy a little thinner than you want it to end up. It will get thicker as the water/roux blend. Add 2 tsp. Better than Bouillon, Chicken Flavor. Simmer til the gravy is the consistency you would like. Add the chicken and garlic back to the pot and continue to simmer, adding more water if the gravy gets too thick.
Taste and add seasonings if needed. Sprinkle about 1 tsp. dried thyme and stir into gravy.
Jill McCaughey says
I, too, make 40 garlic chicken, with thighs, and I brown the thighs, then put in Dutch oven with a chopped onion, fresh or canned mushrooms, and 40 buds of garlic. I make a gravy when they are done, using corn starch and chicken boil lion in liquid. Similar dish, can’t be beat, smells wonderful, but very mild flavour. Everyone loves it, Jill in Phoenix/Calgary
Liz says
Looks good, but I bought the chicken breasts today. I have everything, except the cajun seasoning. I tossed a bunch of mixtures due to the various additives that they have in them. But, I find the recipes for similar mixtures online and make up small batches.
I checked the Cajun Redhead website and the list of ingredients look good but I had to look up “oleoresin paprika” thinking it was a special type of paprika. Nope, it is a natural food coloring, though it may have some spiciness to it. I checked out some recipes and many of them have oregano, but none of them had allspice, coriander and ground celery which is on the Redhead list. They also had red pepper, but who knows what type of pepper it is. There is a secret recipe going on there!
I suppose if you have absolutely nothing to do, you could try to figure out the recipe. Nope, I think knitting is a better use of your spare time!
Since this was the first time out to a grocery store since 3/16, it was an interesting trip. They had precautions all around and about half the customers had masks on. I did since I had just gone to get my lab work drawn. All the staff had the masks and gloves. There are sneeze guards at the checkout and only plastic bags – no paper. The prices were either the normal ones for produce or a tad higher for meats. Limits of two packages for meats. so I bought “London broil” cut and chicken breasts. I’ll be cutting up and repacking the meats for the freezer. It will be nice to have some fresh meat and veggies for a few days.
More places in OKC and Edmond are opening up with precautions. I check the daily stats and in my zip code there are no active cases. But, a lot of activities have been canceled because of the lead times. My sailing club was supposed to host a national regatta for girls, but the organizing group cancelled all national regattas. Sad since it would have been fun to see the young ladies try to handle the Oklahoma winds and heat.
Judy Laquidara says
The oleoresin paprika is extracted from sweet red peppers so I doubt it has much spiciness.
There are a lot of things I’ll make myself but I’m pretty happy to support individual type businesses so I’ll continue to buy it from Cajun Redhead.
Sorry your regatta for girls got cancelled. I guess in the end, it’s better to be safe but dang it. . I’m so ready to have some social activities.
Tricia says
Can you give me any tips on making sausage gravy (like for biscuits and gravy)? I can’t get my gravy to taste like anything other than flour!. I’ve even had many a restaurant gravy that is tasteless. Thanks!
Judy Laquidara says
I don’t make milk gravy but if I did, I’d brown my flour lightly in the sausage grease or with a bit of butter if there’s not enough grease, then add the milk, then season it up with black pepper and a bit of salt. Only add enough flour to absorb the grease/butter and basically make a light roux.
Otherwise, I don’t have a clue.