It's that time of year!! It's gumbo time, and I couldn't be happier! Rich broth paired with tender chicken and flavorful sausage; it really is the best. This is a classic cajun style gumbo, with a few additions thrown in for people that want to party. When the weather starts to change, you need to make this dish.
Ingredients
½ cup ap flour
½ cup vegetable oil
2 bell peppers
3 small celery stalks
1 yellow onion
7 cloves garlic
12oz sausage
1 lb chicken thigh
1 qt chicken stock + 1 cup water to add as needed
Cajun seasoning Garlic powder, herbs de provence (can be replaced by most any dried herbs), bay, cayenne pepper
Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce
This recipe starts with the vegetable prep. Dice your bell peppers, celery, onion and garlic. We need these diced and prepped so when we make our roux, we can add these as soon as it gets to the correct color. Keep the garlic separate for now.
Slice your sausage links into bite size pieces, either coins of half coins, totally up to you. Andouille is classic, but I know that isn't available to everyone. Use some sort of smoked sausage here to bring some good flavor to the pot.
Set a dutch oven to medium heat and add your vegetable oil and flour. To make our roux, we need to mix these constantly over the heat while the flour cooks to a deep brown color. We want a dark roux for this, which needs to be darker than a Hershey's chocolate bar. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 50, depending on your heat levels. Keep stirring and scraping up the bottom so nothing burns, but be super careful not to splash this on yourself. This is crazy hot oil.
Once the roux is deep dark brown, add in your bell pepper, celery, and onion. These are going to begin sweating immediately in the hot roux, which is great because it will cool off the temp in the pot. As those soften, add your garlic and cook for another minute.
To create a smooth gravy, we need to slowly add our chicken stock to the hot veggie/ roux mix. Do this little by little to make sure the flour doesn't clump up right away. Season this with pepper, garlic powder, herbs of your choosing, a bay leaf, cayenne and cajun seasoning. I sprinkle in a ton of each of these so the gumbo turns out really punchy in flavor. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce and bring this pot up to a simmer. Cover the pot and lower the heat to a low simmer (you want this just barely burbling with the lid on). Cook this for an hour while stirring every 15 minutes.
After the hour is up, brown your sausage and chicken in separate pan then add them to the gumbo pot. Deglaze any bits from the chicken pan with a splash of water then add that to the pot as well. Simmer the gumbo for another hour and half then check the chicken for tenderness. Once the chicken is tender, you can taste the gravy for seasoning and add a few pinches of salt. This can cook for a while longer if needed, but it can also be served just like this with a scoop of fresh white rice.
Spoon the gumbo into some bowls with rice either on top of on the bottom. This is always a debate, but it's great either way. I know potato salad is common in certain Louisiana households, but that's never been my thing. Serve it with some sliced green onion on top and splash on some more hot sauce if you like. Enjoy!
VARIATIONS TO MAKE NOTE OF:
Shrimp/ crab boil can be added in place of hot sauce to get a sharper spice with a seafood flavor. Crazy good and worth trying if you're a purist that wants to branch out a little bit.
Fish sauce adds a ton of depth and umami if you're willing to add some to the pot. Put in a tablespoon while the gumbo simmers and you get a lip smackingly good gumbo.
Soy sauce and miso is not a normal thing for gumbo, but it adds a completely new depth to a pot of gumbo. This is much more savory and salty combination for gumbo, but it is honestly insanely delicious. Add a tablespoon of soy and miso near the end of the cook and enjoy a trip to flavortown.
Gochujang can be used to replace the hot sauce in the gumbo. It's fermented and flavorful in a way that's much different than just average hot sauce. This brings a nice depth, similar to the miso, but it also brings some nice spice as well.
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