8.18.2016

Old-Fashioned (Greasy) "Sticky Chicken"

  To some folks it's "sticky chicken", some call it "grease gravy" and others call it "smothered chicken".  It's a dish I remember from my youth that I go for years between cooking, but I really enjoy it when I do. The topic came up on our local Facebook group and once I heard about it, the ol' "envie" got ahold of me. (envie pronounced through the nose "au-VEE". It means a CRAVING.) Since it was rainy, I thought that seemed like a good time to indulge in this old dish. (actually, even if it hadda been sunny and hot, instead of rainy and hot...I'da done the same.)
  I called the local grocery to make sure they were not flooded, grabbed my "shramp" boots (what we Cajuns call shrimp boots...what the shrimper fishermen wear...and regular Cajuns, too.) and jumped in Tinker Bail (my Jeep) and drove to da "Pig". (Piggly Wiggly...gosh, I've gotta explain everything to some of yall, don't I?)  
   When I got home from making the groceries (buying the groceries) and "saved" 'em. (put 'em away...come ON...I gotta tole ya everything??)
   I seasoned up a family pack of chicken thighs in our own Cajun spice blend and put 'em in a black iron pot. No water no oil...no nothin', jes' chicken.
I put the lid on and let it go over medium heat while I whacked up a 3 lb. sack of onions.

The chicken pieces were fat and juicy so they made their own gravy. I cooked 'em for 15 minutes, then flipped 'em over to let 'em brown on the other side.
Once the chicken was cooked, I took it out of the pot...just the chicken and left the drippin's still in the pot. Store bought fryers are so tender that I have to remove them while I build the gravy or they'll fall apart. I dumped in the onions and seasoned them lightly with some more of our own spice. The salt in our spice blend helps break down the onions faster; pulls the moisture out of 'em, and such. (We're all on the same page now, right? I gotta watch some of these Yankees, callin' gravy, "sauce"...stuff like that.)
While the onions cooked, I cut up a big bell pepper and some garlic from our yard.
Once the onions cooked down, 
I added the chicken back to it, and the bell pepper and garlic, then turned it down to simmer for a half hour or so.
Tah-Dah!!
Once cooked (and no grease drained off, but a nice juicy, tasty gravy) and served with a side of veggies and some of Peg's homemade bread and butter pickles, I don't care what ya call this chicken dish, it became old-fashioned Cajun comfort food at its finest.
These days we try to eat healthy and remove as much fat as possible from our diet, but once in a great while we indulge in this heart warming meal (Cappy's guilty pleasure, ya got that? :-)

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