Etouffee with dirty rice ? [Moved from New Orleans]

[3MTA3]

Would one serve dirty rice with shrimp and chicken Etouffee ? or what would be more appropriate .

[Perilagu Khan]

I make a chicken and andouille etouffee--for the simple reason that I do not eat shellfish--and serve it over white rice. It may not be an authentic Cajun etouffee but it tastes dam' good if I do say so myself.

[pattisue]

I take visitors (from all over the US) to eat at Poche's near Breaux Bridge on a regular basis. Invariably, someone chooses to have their crawfish etouffee over dirty rice (even when I purposely specify that natives eat it over white rice). It just made me cringe. One day I had a discussion with Mr. Poche about it and he said he had a number of local customers who will ONLY eat it over dirty rice. So I tried it one day. NOT BAD!

[sanglier]

Plain, fluffy, white Louisiana rice. Don't compete with the etouffee.

[mnags]

absolutely agree! and crawfish is ideal, with shrimp coming in second in an étouffée…..chicken is unheard of!

[hazelhurst]

In years and years of researching etouffee I have never seen chicken used although there is no real reason not to use it. A friend made one with crab and it was great but the key there was the richness of the crab and fat. If you want to do a Louisiana chicken dish, then a smothered chicken or bonne femme would be the way to go.

[montuori]

The Bywater Restaurant & BBQ (http://bywaterrestaurant.com/) has it on their menu. I haven't had it (nor am particularly tempted by it) but apparently it exists.

[hazelhurst]

How interesting..well, dey wuz always strange down dere anyways. What's next? Pork?

The urge to commit heresy runs strong in some. I wonder if they commit the offense of using a roux?

[hazelhurst]

As a follow-up, I had coffee with a Certified Cajun friend this morning (St Martin Parish) and we discussed this. I told him we were discussing an important issue of taxonomy here. He said that, for his money, a chicken etouffee would be what we already called smothered chicken and that it should, as a matter of taxonomy, be distinguished from etouffees by this general rule (or Law) that we formulated this morning: Beef/chicken/pork are smothered: seafood is etoufee.

The Legislature is in session. I'll run up there and look for a sponsor.

[Hungry Celeste]

Ah, but there are distinct regional variations in dialect. Southern Bayou Lafourche is home to etouffee de macaroni, a pasta-based dish containing sausage, shrimp, and green olives(!). And plenty of people in the same area routinely call any slightly thickened, smothered-style dish an "etouffee", as in etouffee de patate.

[hazelhurst]

We need Father Daigle back (although he was from Welsh so might not be conversant with your naitve littoral). I encountered that etouffe de macaroni years ago near Naopleonville and had forgotten about it. You also get the etouffees with cream of mushroom soup in them: my St Martin friend holds that these are not etoufees...he likes them, he insists, and will refer to them as etoufees but they are not "true" etouffees. Maybe we need a map, dividing Acadiana in zones, like oysters.

[Fydeaux]

Maybe it's just that it's Passover and I'm already craving pasta, but etoufee de macaroni sounds incredible! Next week, I'm checking this out first thing!

[texasredtop]

I agree. Let the shrimp shine through - Wild Gulf Shrimp!! No farm raised BS. Add a drop or two depending on the size of the etouffee you make, of crab boil for some zing. Not too much, it's potent. I always add it and also add it to my red beans.