Perlue

There are a lot of ways to prepare chicken and rice, but this traditional Southern way is one of the best. What we are aiming for here is not quite a soup, and certainly not a pilaf, but is more like a stew – rich and hearty. My recipe changes things up a little by adding sausage to the mix – not enough to be overpowering, but just enough to enhance the flavor. Of course, the prodigious amount of butter does not hurt either!

Ingredients

• 2 quarts + 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 pound pulled chicken
• 1 pound andouille sausage
• 3 cups short grain white rice
• 2 medium sweet onions
• 8 stalks celery
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 sticks of butter
• salt to taste

Assuming you do not have a pound of pulled chicken sitting around, you will first have to make it. The preferred way would be to boil the chicken, and if you are going to do that, why not make up a batch of fresh chicken stock, which will be needed anyway? Regardless of how you come about it, make sure you pull the chicken into shreds – do not cut or dice it! Reserve.

Cut the sausage into 1/4 inch cubes, and fry it until the sausage is brown, and most of the fat has been rendered from it. Drain and reserve.

Chop the onion and celery into a 1/4 inch dice. In a soup pot, add a couple of tablespoons of butter and over medium heat, saute the onion and celery until the onion is translucent. When this happens, add 2 quarts of the chicken stock, the uncooked rice, and the chicken. Simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, until the rice is tender.

Add the chopped parsley, the red and black pepper, the salt, the butter and the reserved sausage to the pot and continue cooking. Now comes the important part. The additional quart of chicken stock is used to ‘balance’ the consistency of the perlue. You do not want it to be too thin or too thick, trying to achieve a stew like consistency. This will be a matter of preference, so as you continue to let the perlue cook, add more stock, as necessary, to achieve this. After about 20 minutes, the flavors will be integrated, and the perlue is ready. Serve hot, in very large bowls, as befits a dish of this nature.