I am from Louisiana, and gumbo is one of my favorite dishes. We used to make it all the time when I grew up. I learned from the best, and my recipe is a blend between my mom's and dad's gumbos.
Its a great meal for chilly spring days. I also happened to make bread bowls the day before, so it seemed fitting to go ahead and serve the gumbo in bread bowls.
This is for a large 12qt pot batch of gumbo...so use a big pot, or cut back on ingredients
Ingredients:
1 heart celery
2 large yellow onions
2 bell peppers
1/2 stick of margarine or butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 qt Chicken broth
3 bay leafs
1/2 cup dry instant roux mix (or look up recipes for making roux from scratch. I want to try to learn how to make my own.) I use Tony Chachere's from http://www.tonychachere.com/
12 chicken thighs
4 lbs of assorted smoked sausage (andouille is good and spicy, kielbasa works too.)
4 Tbsp salt
lotsa fresh cracked pepper to taste
some other herbs if you want, not really necessary
Instructions:
So Ive been making my own gumbo for 6 years, and every single time I make it, it gets so much better than the last time.
1. The soup base is made up of the celery, bell pepper, and onions.
Dice all of them and sweat them over med heat with the oil and butter for 15 min. This gets them really soft and melded. Add salt here to pull out moisture from the vegetables to start the broth.
2. Once that smells amazing, add 1 qt chicken broth, and more water to fill your pot 3/4 of the way up.
3. Bring to a boil
4. Once boiling, start to mix in the roux powder. Use a whisk and get the soup swirling violently, and sprinkle in the powder slowly. You want everything to dissolve well, and try to avoid clumps forming. Try to reach a deep brown in color. The darker the more flavorful. I shoot for milk chocolate in color.
5. Add the bay leaves.
6. Add 12 chicken thighs. Careful not to splash. Maintain boiling for 15 min to cook chicken.
7. Remove chicken and shred with fingers or forks, its ok to let the cool a bit for handling.
8. Add chicken back to gumbo
9. Slice sausage into rings and add to gumbo.
10. Season with salt and pepper, add cajun spicy seasoning if desired.
11. Bring down to med heat and let simmer for 10min - 1 hour to develop flavors.
12. Its ready to eat!!!!
13. Store covered gumbo pot in fridge over night. It ALWAYS tastes better the next day!!!
Thats pretty much it. Super good, invite friends over to help cook it. Good food good times.
Hang free folks, hang free.
ENJOY!!!
Darin
