Crock pot meal: Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo adapted from Whole Foods

Doesn't it look good? This isn't true gumbo, but it still makes a tasty supper. 

• 3/4 lb bone-in chicken legs (what we had in the freezer)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 potato, sliced into 1" pieces
• 1 package frozen spinach
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, with liquid
• 1-2 Tbsp hot sauce
• 3/4 lb andouille sausage, sliced into 1/2" slices
• Shrimp

Combine chicken legs, onion, bell pepper, celery, broth, potato, spinach, bay leaf, tomatoes, salt and pepper, and hot sauce in a 5 qt. crock pot (3.5 qt works too, but it's a tight fit). Cook on low for 8 hrs. 30 minutes before eating, add the sliced andouille sausage and shrimp. Serve over rice.

I had a slightly difficult time finding andouille sausage. I ended up using Johnsonville Andouille sausage. My mom used to buy this sausage occasionally for our family dinners. It is delicious! But I think if you ate it every day you would turn into a sausage :) Additionally, instead of fresh shrimp I used frozen shrimp (and they were very small ones). I did turn up the crockpot to high when I arrived home, as I thought the mixture had a little too much liquid so I wanted to boil some off. I would probably add only 1 cup of chicken broth next time, and maybe even drain some of the tomato liquid. If your rice is slightly dry however, the extra moisture helps and makes the rice taste very good. I would also suggest not freezing your potatoes. My potato turned a very unattractive brown/black color. Next time, chop your potato the morning you plan on making this (or maybe in the fridge overnight).

We ate this for dinner one night (my boyfriend had a double serving) and then dinner again the next night (and there are still some left overs), so about 7-9 servings. He really enjoyed this one, although he suggested that maybe meat without bones would be better since everything else is very soft. I really liked this meal, although if you are expecting this to be close to real gumbo it is not. To me it had enough flavor, and even with the 2 Tbsp hot sauce, I could taste it without being overwhelmed by it.

This meal is definitely going to stay on the crockpot rotation :)