Oh gumbo…a labor of love. As I wanted to write my own recipe for this, I scrolled through Instagram reels on the search “gumbo,” as one does. There were a few things that pissed me off about more than half of the videos. Lots of people putting seafood, chicken, and sausage in the same gumbo. Big no-no. Gumbo’s gotta be either chicken and sausage or seafood and sausage. One or the other, never both. Other videos claiming “My Cajun Mother’s Recipe” and then using roux from a jar. Or, making a roux from scratch but using clean oil instead of the wonderfully flavorful oil you cooked your meat in. Despite these, I found a general idea of what I needed to do. Over my dead body would I use a roux from a jar. Total time on this recipe is about 3 hours.
Ingredients:
- olive oil
- vegetable oil
- 4 links of andouille sausage
- 6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- all purpose flour
- 1 carton chicken broth
- 1 bottle of chicken bone broth (I like Butcher’s)
- green bell pepper (2 if they’re small)
- large yellow onion
- 4 stalks of celery
- 10-20 okra
- stalk of green onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- creole seasoning (Tony Chachere’s)
- gumbo filé
- salt
- Crystal hot sauce
- jasmine rice
Pro-tip! If you would like to make this recipe gluten-free, simply use Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour in place of regular flour.
For gumbo, you’ll want to do all of your prepping and chopping before you even turn the stove on. Once you start the roux, there’s no dropping the stirring spoon until it’s ready. Dice your bell pepper and onion, and mince your celery. I personally only mince the celery because I hate the texture of cooked celery. When it’s minced you can’t really tell it’s in there, but you get all the flavor benefits. For garlic, I use the frozen Trader Joe’s cubes. Chop and halve your sausage links, and wash your chicken. Dry chicken uncovered in refrigerator overnight and rub some creole seasoning onto both sides.
The okra is its own prep item. We want to remove some of the slime. Wash it, chop it into rounds. Preheat your oven to 300°. Lay the chopped okra out on a cookie sheet, do not oil or spray it. Bake for about 10 minutes. This should remove all of the slime. This part is optional, it’s a personal preference for me.
Now that all of the prep is done, we can start cooking. This is technically one pot. Take your big stock pot, and give it a little drizzle of olive oil. On medium-high, heat up the olive oil and throw in the sausage. Sprinkle a little creole seasoning. Pan fry until desired consistency, I like mine with a little char. Remove with a slotted spoon so as to leave as much oil in the pot as possible. Place your chicken thighs into that same oil. Pan fry until the skin is crisp and the inside reaches an internal temperature of 180°, and then remove from pot, making sure to leave as much oil as possible. Remove skin, pull and debone chicken, and set aside with the sausage. We will not be putting the chicken skin into the soup because it does not stay crispy that way, so have it as a little snack while you make the roux, and / or garnish your gumbo with it.
Now we are at the most lengthy part of this entire process. Making the roux. Add a bit of vegetable oil to the pot with the existing oil from cooking the meats. Add an equal part of flour to your oil, and make sure it is fully incorporated with no lumps (you can do this with a whisk). With the heat on just over medium, you’ll want to stir this mixture continuously until it is at least the color of milk chocolate. It should already be peanut butter color to begin with, take it to at least milk chocolate. I take mine to dark chocolate. It will probably take close to two hours. Do not stop stirring, you do not want it to burn. Once your roux is chocolate colored and thickened, add in your holy trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery). Add a generous shake of creole seasoning as well as gumbo filé. The roux should look like the photo below when you add in the trinity.
Once the roux is done, start your rice in the rice cooker. It should be done shortly before the gumbo.
Once you’ve added the holy trinity, turn the heat up to medium-high and let it cook for a few minutes before adding your garlic and okra and giving it another few minutes. Once your vegetables and aromatics are fragrant, add in your chicken broth and bone broth. Bring to a boil and give it a good mix. You can also add a bit of water to fill your pot depending on the size. The two cartons of broth and all the fixings fill my pot about 65%, I add water to 80%, and then it reduces down a bit as it simmers. Then add your sausage and chicken back in. Add more creole seasoning, gumbo filé, and the Crystal. Let it go on a low boil for several minutes while mixing occasionally. Salt to taste.
At this point, the gumbo should be ready to go. Place your rice in a bowl and pour the gumbo around it. Top with green onion and enjoy!
This recipe makes one gallon.
九生 