Chicken and sausage gumbo made easy, with authentic Cajun taste. Make a pot for your next party and serve it in cups!
Dark roux and gumbo is the smell of my grandmother’s house in New Iberia after a long drive from Houston in the winter and the warmth of family greetings and big
hugs. My grandmother is gone
now, but gumbo simmering on the stove brings me back to her big round kitchen
table where she always sat, chopping and dicing and preparing vegetables or
stuffing a roast for the next meal.
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My maternal grandmother, Wanda Fleming Gautreaux, sitting in her usual chair in her yellow kitchen.
Being in that yellow kitchen with her made me happy! |
And
some of my fondest college memories are of visits from my College Station/Houston/Beaumont
friends who would come to Austin for the weekend. Sometimes we went out to enjoy the nightlife
of Sixth Street but more often than not, we would stay in, have a number of
drinks and make chicken and sausage gumbo.
Truly, I am never happier than when I am in the kitchen, surrounded by
friends and family, perhaps sipping some red wine, and stirring a roux.
In most gumbo recipes, you are supposed to cut the chicken
in pieces and brown it first.
Unfortunately, I usually find myself starting with the bird still
frozen, (Who can remember to take anything out of the freezer in the morning!)
so I have developed this method.
Yesterday, I didn’t have a frozen bird, but I stuck to my usual program
anyway.
Ingredients
3 1/2 pound or 1 1/2 kilo chicken (If you can find a hen, use her instead.
More flavor.)
Additional chicken breasts (optional)
1 lb or about 500g smoked sausage, sliced in rounds, about ½ inch thick
2 medium onions
1 green bell pepper (capsicum)
4 celery sticks, de-stringed
1 1/2 cups or 190g plain flour
1 cup or 240ml oil (I prefer canola.)
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
Chicken bouillon or stock cubes
For serving: Light sprinkling of gumbo filé.
Method
Put whole (frozen or not) chicken to boil in pot with about a
gallon of water, about 2 teaspoons of salt and good couple of grinds of fresh
black pepper. (If it is frozen and you can’t get the bag of giblets out, don’t worry. Keep checking back and get it out when the
chicken thaws enough.)
Chop onions, bell pepper and celery and put aside in one
bowl for later.
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| My bell pepper looks a little frozen because it was. I chopped it over the weekend when I thought I was going to make gumbo but, then, couldn't find celery. As long you are not using it for salad, bell pepper keeps great in the freezer. So do onions and celery, for that matter. |
In separate pot, preferably a black iron skillet or some
other heavy gauge vessel, mix flour and oil.
This is called the roux. Cook over medium to medium high heat, stirring
frequently with a wooden spoon, until roux begins to turn brown.
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| 0 minutes |
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| 7 minutes |
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| 12 minutes |
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| 14 minutes |
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| 18 minutes |
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| 20 minutes |
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| 22 minutes |
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| 24 minutes |
Depending on temperature and the thickness of your pot, you may have to stir constantly because roux has a tendency to burn. A medium heat is safer; it just takes longer. Continue cooking until the roux turns a very dark, chocolate brown. Should the roux burn (Everyone does it at least once, so don’t feel too bad.) toss it out and start again, otherwise the entire gumbo will have that burnt taste.
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27 minutes - it looks delicious but do NOT try to taste it. It's hotter than the hinges of hell
and will burn your mouth off. Also it doesn't actually taste good. |
The roux will be VERY hot so be careful when handling it and
try to stir without splashing on yourself or nearby “helpers.”
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| In fact, it's best if you make the helpers go sit on their beds. |
Add the chopped vegetables and stir. This cools your roux
down without too much spitting.
By this time your chicken (or hen) should be falling off its
bones. (If not, turn the roux off,
giving it a couple of more stirs, and let the chicken boil for a little
longer.) A good sized hen may take up to two hours to fall off her bones.
Take the chicken out of the pot, leaving behind the stock, and allow it to cool until you can handle it. Discard bones and skin, leaving meat in fairly large chunks.
Add stock from the chicken pot gradually to the roux. Never add roux to stock, always stock to
roux. It may bubble up considerably,
depending on how hot your roux is, so when I say gradually, I do mean ladle by
ladle. Stir between ladles.
When the roux has thinned considerably, then you can add the whole mixture back into the stockpot.
Add the sliced sausage.
And the additional chicken breasts if desired.
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| I cut these into fairly large chunks so they don't disintegrate into shredded chicken. |
Let simmer until the sausage and breasts, if using, are
cooked and you are ready to eat. Depending upon how fatty your sausage is, you
might need to use a serving spoon to skim the oil off of the top of the gumbo
before serving.
Add the deboned chicken meat and make sure it is warmed
through. Add chicken cubes, as
necessary, instead of salt, for more flavor.
Add freshly ground black pepper and cayenne to taste.
Serve in bowls over a large spoonful of cooked white rice
with a couple of drops of hot sauce and a sprinkle of gumbo filé (ground
sassafras leaves), if you have it. We
also often serve with fresh baguette slices to dip.
Enjoy!
