Recipe - Chicken-Okra Gumbo Plains-Style

One fourth pound Salt pork
1 Frying chicken,cut up
Flour
3 tablespoon Butter
1 Onion,lg,mild,peeled/chopped
20 Okra pods*
6 Tomatoes,large,fresh,chopped
1 Red pepper,hot**
3 Parsley sprigs,chopped
1 Bay leaf
3 qt Water,more if needed
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
2 tablespoon Flour (opt)
Cooked white rice

* okra can be fresh cut or sliced up or a 10ounce package
frozen okra sufficiently thawed to separate okra
slices can be substituted.

** seeds removed and finely chopped.

1. Wash salt pork under cold water to rinse off excess
salt. Blot dry and cut into small dice.

2. Place in a large, heavy soup pot and cook over low
heat until all fat has been rendered. Remove crisped
pork dice and drain on paper toweling. Set aside.

3. Blot chicken pieces dry with paper toweling and
dredge lightly with flour. Press flour into each
piece, then shake off all excess. Heat salt pork to
almost smoking. Brown the floured chicken pieces a few
at a time in the hot fat. Remove as browned and set
aside.

4. Pour off and discard fat. Add butter to soup pot
and place over low heat. When melted, add onion and
okra and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon,
until onion is soft. Be careful not to let okra scorch.

5. Return chicken to pot and add remaining ingredients
except salt and pepper and optional flour. Let simmer
for about 1One half hours, adding additional water if
needed. Remove from heat. Remove and discard bay leaf.
Remove skin and bone from chicken pieces and return
meat to pot. Reheat if necessary. If desired, thicken
mixture with 12 tablespoons flour mixed to a paste
with about One half cup cold water, and stir over low heat
an additional 1015 minutes.

6. Ladle into large soup bowls over mounds of
justcooked, fluffy white rice. Sprinkle crisped pork
dice over each serving.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini