Approximately 5-6 servings
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
- 1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves - cut into
- 1 pound smoked turkey& sausage sliced
- (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
- 3 tbsp dried minced onion flakes
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- white rice or instant rice (i used 2 packs of uncl
- Carbohydrate 19.199353345102 g
- Cholesterol 460 mg
- Fat 93.2601029193206 g
- Fiber 3.53142272763173 g
- Protein 116.735016437578 g
- Saturated Fat 26.666449631279 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (1549g)
- Sodium 439.665767600905 mg
- Sugar 15.6679306174703 g
- Trans Fat 8.00840880334646 g
- Calories 1403 calories
Step-by-step
- In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, garlic, celery, and broth. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme (I do this the night before and put it in the fridge. I put it in the slow cooker before I leave in the morning.)
- Cover, and cook 7 to 8 hours on Low, or 3 to 4 hours on High. Mix in cooked rice cook for about 15 minutes to warm through.
Canned diced tomatoes provide the essential acidity and moisture needed to break down the dense proteins during long hours of low-heat simmering. This liquid base interacts with the aromatics and renders just enough fat from the smoked turkey sausage to build a cohesive sauce without additional oil. Because slow cookers trap steam efficiently, measuring the chicken broth accurately prevents the tomatoes and meat from releasing excess liquid and turning the mixture into a soup.
Assessing doneness relies entirely on visual and textural cues rather than internal temperature probes, since the chicken pieces and sliced sausage are submerged together. The chicken breast halves are fully cooked when they shred easily under the tines of a fork with minimal resistance. Simmering the mixture for seven to eight hours on the low setting ensures the connective tissues relax fully while the meat absorbs the cayenne pepper and dried thyme.
Stirring in pre-cooked white rice during the final fifteen minutes prevents the grains from absorbing all the cooking liquid and becoming mushy. When scaling this preparation up or down, maintain the ratio of canned tomatoes to liquid strictly to avoid altering the moisture balance inside the ceramic insert. If substituting instant rice, reduce the warming window to five minutes because parboiled grains soften much faster than standard white rice varieties.
Leftovers should be cooled rapidly within two hours of cooking and stored in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for up to four days. Reheating individual portions requires a splash of water on the stove over medium heat to reconstitute the sauce without scorching the rice grains at the bottom of the pan.
