Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
December 08, 2020
(our variation of Lucy Buffett’s recipe; recipe feeds 8)
1 rotisserie chicken, deboned
3-4 quarts of chicken broth
1 pound of andouille sausage or any good quality smoked sausage, cut into bite size pieces
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
2 green peppers or use the colorful mini sweets, coarsely chopped
1 medium head celery, coarsely chopped
¾ cup bacon grease (you may use oil, but bacon grease definitely has more flavor)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1 TS salt
1 TS black pepper
1 TB dried thyme
4 bay leaves
1 TS dried oregano
1 TS dried basil
1 TB Creole seasoning
1TB Worcestershire sauce
1 package frozen okra
1 cup finely chopped green onions
½ cup fresh parsley, washed well and finely chopped
Pepper sauce to taste
Zatarains rice
STEPS:
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Preparing the chicken: In a stockpot, bring broth to a soft boil. Add de-boned chicken and cook for 20-30 minutes. Turn heat down to simmer.
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Preparing the sausage: In a separate cast iron pan, cook sausage. Transfer to pan and pat with paper towel to remove any excess grease.
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Preparing the okra: After the sausage is done, use the same pan to saute the frozen okra. Cook until they are mostly dry and there aren’t visible signs of lots of slime. (We always do this to eliminate the slimy texture from our recipes. Most recipes leave out this little secret.)
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Preparing the rice: Cook according to package directions for 8 people. In our opinion, Zatarains is the best rice to pair with gumbo or any of our cajun style recipes.
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Preparing the roux: In a separate stockpot, melt bacon grease on medium heat. Don’t allow the heat to get too high as it will burn. Slowly add the all purpose flour to the grease continually stirring with a wooden spoon. Maintain heat and continually stir for up to 45 minutes. I can’t over emphasize how important it is to stay with the pot and keep stirring. Be very careful to not allow it to burn. Roux is ready when it has a chocolate or black bean appearance. It takes a while, but it’s worth it!
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Here comes the gumbo: Once the roux is dark, add the chopped onions. They will sizzle so be careful of spattering. Cook 2-3 minutes.
- Add the celery and peppers. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Mixture will be thick and look like black beans.
- Dip or strain the chicken out of the separate stock pot and add to roux mixture. Add cooked sausage. Save the broth!!! Keep stirring.
- Once all ingredients are fully folded in, pour the reserved broth over the roux mixture. We poured it through a strainer into the roux pot. This keeps all the “floaties” out (excess skin, etc.) so that you have nice “clean” broth added in.
- Add the tomatoes, all the spices/seasonings and Worcestershire sauce. Let it cook at a rolling boil for 15-20 minutes.
- Add sautéed okra and allow to cook another 5 minutes.
- Taste test to see if you need any additional creole seasoning, etc. We like to make our gumbo mild so people can add hot sauce or additional heat level to it themselves.
- Last, add chopped green onions and fresh parsley. Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes at a rolling boil.
- If it gets too thick, you can always add more broth.
- Turn heat down to simmer and serve over prepared rice. We allow ours to keep simmering even during the meal because the longer it simmers, the better it is. Enjoy!
