Low Fat Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 pound low fat sausage
olive oil
6 skinned chicken breast halves...bone in
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup chopped celery
2 quarts hot water...or chicken broth is even better
3 cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Tony Cachere's cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Place flour in a cake pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until a rich chocolatey brown...keep checking and stirring it or you'll burn it.

Brown sausage in the same pot you will make the gumbo in. Remove sausage and wipe out excess fat.

Drop in the chicken and brown it in the same pot. Remove it.

Add just a drizzle of olive oil and the onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook until tender.

Sprinkle the browned flour onto the cooked onion, bell pepper, and celery, stirring as you do. This will form a thick gooey brown roux.
Don't scorch it!

Gradually stir in the hot water (or broth) and bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the pot to finish cooking.
Also add the rest of the ingredients except the sausage.

Simmer until the chicken is tender, then take it out and let it cool. Once cool, debone it and hand shred it as you return the meat to the pot. It should be done enough to fall apart easily.

Return the sausage and simmer until it reduces and thickens a bit.

Serve it with rice.

Okay, here's what I really do...I follow that plan, but I don't measure anything anymore and I add a lot more of the hot stuff. There's plenty of leeway in this mix, you can add more or less of the spices as you see fit.

...and as my dad would say, "It always tastes better on the second day".