Chicken Creole

I haven't always been a big fan of chicken Creole. It's very tomato-y, and as I've talked about before, I didn't really like tomatoes much until fairly recently. When I was a kid, the tomato chunks in chicken Creole are what turned me off, but now that I'm over it, I really enjoy this dish. It's still not my favorite Cajun-style dish, but it's definitely worth making once in a while.

I like to cook the chicken in my crock pot for this recipe and then shred it, but you could just dice it and cook it in a pan if you prefer. The chicken will obviously have a different texture then, but it will still be good and will save you lots of time. You'll need four 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes, but which type you use is up to you. Justin and I love the fire-roasted ones, but any type will work really. For this particular batch, we used 2 cans of the tomatoes with green pepper, celery, and onion and 2 cans of the fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic.


Ingredients

1/4 c butter or margarine
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 c diced onion
1/2 c diced bell pepper
3 tbsp flour
3/4 c milk
58 oz canned, diced tomatoes
2 tsp Cajun seasoning (Tony Chachere's suggested)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
Pinc of white pepper
1 lb chicken, cooked and shredded/diced
4 c cooked rice


Directions

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, and bell pepper, and sauté about 5 minutes. Whisk in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Continuing to whisk the mixture, add the milk slowly. Cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Drain 2 of the cans of tomatoes and add them to the pot. Add the other 2 cans without draining them first. Stir in the Cajun seasoning, salt, sugar, and white pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 10-15 minutes. Add chicken, and heat through. Serve with rice.

Servings: 6