In the mood for Irish food?

Here’s my healthier take on the Irish pub favorite, Dublin Coddle. It’s definitely different than your typical American fare. The flavors are very Irish—think bacon, sausage, and thyme. Oh, and black pepper. Lots and lots of black pepper. If you’ve ever been to Ireland, tasting this seventeenth century stew will really bring you back. It’s simply very typical of what you’d find there.

The idea is that the dish “coddles,” meaning it cooks slowly, leaving you with thick juices that you can soak up with whole grain bread.

Like most Irish foods, this is high in sodium, even with low sodium broth and no added salt. If you can find low sodium turkey bacon and/or sausage, awesome. I, however, could not. There is low sodium pork bacon out there, but it’s much higher in fat.

This recipe isn’t difficult, but it is fairly time consuming. However, if this beautiful spring month has left your family craving more Irish (as it should), give this a try. All it really involves is broiling the bacon, pan frying the sausages and onions, putting all the ingredients in a casserole or dutch, boiling it, then baking it. Like I said…time consuming, but not too hard.

Yields: 8 servings
Cook Time: about 1 ½ hours

Ingredients:

1 (12oz) package turkey bacon
nonstick cooking spray
1 (13.5oz) package precooked, smoked turkey sausage
2 large onions, sliced
black pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 medium bay leaves
3 sprigs thyme
1 tsp tarragon
1 leek (about 1¼ cup), sliced with some green tops included
2½ lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 or 3 large chunks
3 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth

Preheat the broiler to high and evenly spread bacon on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil. Broil the bacon on high until it begins to crisp, about 4 minutes. Place bacon on paper towels to drain, then tear into large pieces, about 3 per slice. Set aside.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Brown sausages, turning often, for about 8 minutes. Remove sausages from skillet and slice into thirds. Set aside. If necessary, spray skillet again with nonstick cooking spray and add onions. Cook on low, stirring often, until soft but not colored, about 15 minutes.

In a flameproof casserole dish or dutch oven, layer the onions, sausages, and bacon, seasoning each layer with a good deal of black pepper. Add the garlic, herbs, and sliced leek, then cover with a layer of potatoes. Season with more black pepper, then pour in the chicken broth.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Tightly cover the casserole dish or dutch, place on the stove, and bring to a boil. Transfer to preheated oven and cook for 45 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Nutrition Information:

Nutrition Disclaimer: I am not a certified nutritionist…these are just the calculations I’m pretty sure are close to correct. I use SparkRecipes to generate my information.

Calories: 323
Fat: 13.3g
Saturated Fat: 4g
Cholesterol: 76.3mg
Sodium: 1202mg
Carbohydrates: 32.8g
Dietary Fiber: 3.8g
Sugar: 7.4g
Protein: 18.2g

Dietary Exchange:  2 Starch, 2 ½ Meat, 1 Fat, ½ Vegetable serving
Jenny Craig:  As long as you don’t have more than one serving (so divide dish into 8 ahead of time), this works just fine for dinner.
Weight Watchers: 8 Points (using calculatorcat.com).