Chicken Gumbo

With or Without Sausage

I always get good compliments on my gumbo whenever I make it for company.  They say that they have eaten a lot of gumbo elsewhere before but mine was the best.  I even heard from a guest that she thought her mother from Louisiana made the best gumbo but mine was surprisingly better.

It makes my head swell but truly, I thought my gumbo was good but I never expected to get compliments from so many people.

It is something that I should be proud of then. So, I will try to reconstruct what I did to the best of my memory.

Ingredients:

About 2 cups shreded chicken (from leftovers is fine)

1 link beef sausage cut in disks, about 3 to 4 cups (Venison sausage is also good)

Or, you can omit the sausage and just use more shredded chicken.  If using chicken from scratch, boil the chicken until tender then remove to cool and shred with a couple of forks.  Use the broth for the gumbo and you can omit the chicken bouillon.

• 1 TBS oil
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 medium onion diced
• 3 stalks celery diced (you can include some leaves)
• 1 small bell pepper diced
• 2 Roma tomatoes or 1 large tomato diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Chicken bouillon cube
• 2 TBS Kitchen Bouquet
• 1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 TBS (or more) Gumbo Filé
• 3 cups frozen or fresh cut okra (more to your preference)
• 6 to 8 cups water or chicken broth
• Tabasco sauce

Salt and Black Pepper, White Pepper

 Rue or roux:

• 3/4 cup flour 
• ½ cup oil

Actually, I don’t measure anything but the above measurements are only a guide for 5 to 8 servings.  Use more or less of any ingredient and also according to how much you are making. 

Procedure:

Heat 1 TBS cooking oil in a skillet and sauté the garlic and the onion until the onions are transparent.  Add the celery, green bell pepper and tomatoes. Sauté for a couple of minutes then transfer to a suitable sized cooking pot.  Add the water or broth then add the bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce and chicken bouillon.  Heat to boiling and simmer while you make the rue.

In a heavy skillet, preferably cast iron, heat the ½ cup oil.  Add the flour when it gets very hot. With a wire whisk, stir the flour constantly and cook on medium-high heat.  Adjust and lower the heat if the flour burns too quickly.  Now using a cooking spoon, preferably a wooden spoon, keep stirring and pressing to avoid lumps and so that the flour doesn’t burn.  The mixture will seem to be dry in a big lump but continue stirring and pressing.  Do this until the flour gets dark like almost the color of coffee and will look oily as the oil starts to come out.  Making the rue is like making gravy except you cook the flour until very dark.

This procedure takes a while.  It might get hot and smoky so, if you have an outside stove, do it there or turn on the vent on max.   

Carefully transfer the hot mixture into the pot of the simmering broth.  Drop in the sausage then add the Kitchen Bouquet and Gumbo Filé.  Cook until the sausage is done.  Add the cooked chicken and simmer for another minute. Add a few drops of Tabasco sauce according to your taste.  Lastly, drop in the okra.  Let boil then simmer for a few minutes until the okra are soft (a couple minutes).  Taste and adjust the salt, add black pepper and white pepper (optional).

Serve it over a couple of tablespoons of white rice in a bowl.