Ingredients:
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
14 cups of water
2 Tblsp chicken base (or 4 bullion cubes)
2 Tblsp Tony Chachere's seasoning (divided)
8 Tblsp bacon grease
4 Tblsp minced garlic
1 very large onion, diced
1 very large bell pepper, diced
6 stalks celery, diced
3 lbs smoked sausage, sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 1/2 cups medium grain rice
2 Tblsp dried parsley
2 Tblsp powdered garlic
Preparation:
1. Mix water with chicken base and 1 Tblsp Tony Chachere's in a large pressure cooker.
2. Add chicken breasts to pressure cooker, and cook for approximately 12 minutes (or according to pressure cooker directions), until chicken is done enough to be shredded.
3. While chicken is cooking, put bacon grease in a very large stock pot, preferably cast iron. Pot needs to be large enough to handle 24+ cups of ingredients. Heat bacon grease, and add garlic, onion, pepper and celery.
4. Sauté, stirring frequently, the vegetables until very tender. If needed, cook them with the lid on the stock pot for several minutes at a time between stirring. Vegetables should be tender, but not browned. Add more bacon grease, butter, vegetable oil or even water as necessary during cooking if they get dry.
5. Once the chicken is cool enough, remove it from the pressure cooker water/broth, but DO NOT DISCARD pressure cooker water/broth. Shred chicken and set aside.
6. When the vegetables are tender, add the sausage. Sauté the sausage with the vegetables until sausage begins to brown slightly.
7. Add the Rotel tomatoes, the shredded chicken and both of the cans of soup to the stock pot. Stir to combine everything, then add 8 cups of the pressure cooker water/broth. Keep the remaining broth set aside, in case it is needed later.
8. Bring the broth, soups, sausage and vegetable mixture to a slow boil, then stir in the rice.
9. Reduce the temperature to medium-high, and begin to cook the rice, stirring VERY frequently, to ensure the rice is evenly distributed throughout the vegetable/broth mixture as it cooks.
10. Continue to stir and let the rice cook for 15-20 minutes, until the rice is done. If rice is getting sticky and cooking too fast, turn the heat down to medium. Once the rice is done, most of the broth should be absorbed. If the rice isn't quite done but there is no broth left in the stock pot to be absorbed, add more broth, one cup at a time. Mix each cup thoroughly into the rice before adding the next cup of broth. Continue adding broth until there are 8-10 small tablespoon-sized pools of broth on the top of the rice, but the rest of the broth is absorbed.
11. Turn the heat down to low, and cover the pot. Let the rice absorb the rest of the liquid for about 5 minutes, then stir one last time before serving.
