Gut Healing Chicken with Okra

Gut Healing Chicken with Okra Recipe

AIP Paleo recipe

Growing up this was a staple meal in my Brazilian household. In portuguease we call it “frango com quiabo”, and it is always served with rice. It wasnt until my adult years, living on my own, that I started to cook this for myself and my friends, none of my friends had eaten okra this way and they all LOVE it, including my pickiest friends!

As I was making this recipe I noticed how each ingredient is great for the gut. As someone who is now a nutritionist but suffered with chronic bloating, I take note on what are superfoods for the gut, and this meal is one of them!

Here is why this recipe is incredibly healthy and healing to the gut:

• Chicken ON THE BONE contains more vitamins and minerals than eating muscle meat. Cooking meat with the bone-in helps to release these nutrients into the meat during the cooking process, amplifying its nutrient density.

• It also contains high concentration of collagen, gelatin and glycine. These nutrients are important for gut health. Collagen helps maintain the integrity of the gut lining, and gelatin helps to maintain the layer of mucus that keeps gut microbes away from the intestinal barrier.

• Okra contains insoluble fiber but doesn't have ferment, which can be an irritant to people with IBS.

• Okra also has a “slimy” slippery texture that can actually help coat the lining of thr gut, protecting it from harmful pathogens that can make their way into the bloodstream.

• I cooked this in Ghee which is a lactose-free clarified butter. It contains butyrate which is a preferred source of energy for the cells of the intestinal lining.
  

I hope you enjoy this simple family recipe that has always been my favorite since a little girl. It is packed full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are beneficial not only for the gut but also immune system, eye health, skin health, liver health, etc!

Serves 2-3 people

Ingredients:

• 24 fl oz of organic bone broth, can be chicken, turkey, or beef

• 6 chicken drumsticks - or any bone-in chicken

• 10 - 15ish okra pieces

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 onion chopped

• 4-6 garlic cloves

• 1 tbsp of grass-fed Ghee or grass-fed butter or avocado oil

• 1-2 tbsp of grass-fed Ghee or grass-fed butter or avocado oil for the okra

• Fresh cilantro, measure with your heart

  Chicken Marinade:

• 1 lemon, juiced

• Paprika

• Salt

• Pepper

Directions:

• Marinate the chicken in lemon juice, salt, pepper, and paprika. Marinate in fridge for as long as possible.

• Chop up the onion and garlic.

• In a pot, add some ghee (or butter or avocado oil). Saute the onion until it starts to turn brown.

• Add the chopped garlic into the pot.

• Shortly after the garlic add in the chicken. Let the chicken brown, rotate it ocassionally to brown all sides.

• Once the chicken is browned add in the bone broth with 1-2 bay leaves.

• Deglaze the bottom of the pot with your spoon or spatula.

• Put the lid on and let simmer for 30 minutes. Occasionaly stir and taste the broth to see if it needs more seasoning, sometimes I add in more garlic powder and onion powder.

• Clean and dry the okra, then chop it up into small pieces (as shown in picture). You may want to hold the okra with a fork or napkin as you chop because okra has these “splinters”.

• heat up a pan with some Ghee (or avocado oil or butter) and pan fry the okra until you see some pieces turn brown. We do this because okra can get a little too “slimy” if its not pan fried first.

• Then add in the okra to the pot of chicken with some cilantro.

• Let is simmer for 5-10 minutes, then finished! You will know when you are done when the meat is coming off the chicken bone easily.

• Serve with rice or eat it as is! I like to remove the meat from the bone and eat it with rice and a spoon.