Easy Healthy Chicken Sausage and Vegetables - One Skillet Satisfying Meal
Healthy Chicken Sausage & Vegetable Skillet Meal
When you're looking for an easy mid-week meal that hits all the right notes, try this easy-peasy one skillet complete meal recipe. It's full of hearty pre-cooked chicken sausage and a bounty of fresh vegetables, making it a quick cook. This recipe will fulfill nearly anyone’s need to be fully satiated at the end of a meal and yet remains quite healthful. Plus, it has a myriad of satisfying textures and flavors that are appetite appealing such as crunchy almonds, mellow vegetables and sweet pineapple. I recommend taking a bite of the sausage and pineapple together – it’s like a little surprise treat. I made this for just my husband and myself and we had some left over. So if you are cooking for four, I recommend using four sausages and increase the vegetables and liquid a bit. Feel free to send me a note under the Contact page, found on the above menu, if you would like specific measurements for four people.
Serves: 2 to 3
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Suggested Tools:
· Cutting board
· Large skillet
· Sharp knife
· Medium bowl
. Colander
· Tongs
· Large stir spoon
Ingredients:
· 3 pre-cooked apple sausage links/brats, (such as Aidells, Johnsonville and Alfresco. You can also use Beyond Sausage but it is not pre-cooked; so this brand will need to be cooked through - not just heated) sliced to uniform bite sizes.
Note: Aidells, Alfresco and Beyond Sausage brands are gluten-free. Johnsonville's are mostly gluten-free, but they also have some sausage with gluten offerings.
· ½ fresh red pepper (or any other color you prefer), cut to bite sizes
· ½ yellow large onion, cut to bite sizes
· 2 cups fresh button mushrooms, cleaned, stems cut and mushrooms cut into quarters
· 1 cup pineapple, chopped to bite size pieces (I used a pre-cut cup full,
like a lunch pack size - you can see it in the ingredient image above)
· 2 handfuls baby spinach leaves (If you don’t have "baby" size,
you can rough chop the larger spinach leaves, ensuring they are washed and trimmed beforehand. You can also use kale).
· ½ cup marinated artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained in colandar,
then sliced length-wise to bite sizes
· 1 teaspoon fresh garlic, skin peeled and minced
· 1/3 cup chicken broth
. 2 teaspoons Gluten-Free Worcestershire sauce
Note: Most worcestershire sauce brands are gluten-free but don't label their packaging as such. It's my understanding, at this writing, that Frenchs, Lea & Perrins, Kroger, Bulldog, Heinz, The Spice Lab and Wan Ja Shan are all gluten-free. The Wizard's makes both, gluten-free and non-gluten-free. I recommend reading the labels as ingredients can change at any time.
· 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
· ½ teaspoon all-purpose flour or for GF, cornstarch
· Salt and pepper to taste (or about ½ teaspoon of each)
· Handful of blanched almonds (I used slivered but they can be sliced)
Instructions:
1. Heat the olive oil in the skillet on medium-low heat and once the oil is heated, add the sliced sausage [You should hear a slight sizzle when the sausage pieces are added - if not, the oil is not yet hot enough. [You may want to first add just one or two sausage pieces to the skillet to test the heat of the oil]. Slightly brown the sausage on both sides, about two minutes on each side. Remove the sausage from the skillet and place in a small bowl and set aside until Step 3 below.
2. Retain in the skillet the residual olive oil and any natural oils from the sausage. With the heat on medium-low, add to the oil the mushrooms, onions, red pepper and garlic. Then add the chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce. Cook down the vegetables in the skillet until softened, moving the vegetables around occasionally. This should take 5-7 minutes.
3. Add to the cooked vegetables the artichoke hearts and pineapple and stir to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes more. Then, add the spinach and stir to mix with all other ingredients. Continue cooking until the spinach wilts and cooks down into the other vegetables. Add the previously cooked sausage and stir to distribute evenly in the skillet.
4. Now is the time to slightly thicken the liquid in the skillet. To do this, push the vegetables to the sides of the skillet leaving a well of liquid in the center of the skillet. [Feel free to add a little more broth if you want additional sauce as stove tops heat differently and evaporation rates vary]. Sprinkle the flour into the liquid and while stirring to make a slurry, turn the heat up slightly to bring the liquid to a boil. [Bringing the liquid to a boil helps to thicken the sauce]. Once slightly thickened, turn the heat down to low and stir to distribute the sauce throughout the skillet ingredients.
5. Sprinkle the almonds on top of whatever dish you are using to serve your skillet sausage meal. In my home, when we have a skillet night, we just keep the skillet on the stove and serve ourselves right from the skillet...that's keeping it laidback.
I trust you will reap multiple benefits from this meal recipe.
The Crooked Ladle
Savor the taste
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