Gumbo

[Okie Boarder]

Made a gumbo for the first time yesterday. How many of y'all have made gumbo? Tips or techniques you've found that have worked well?

[ohsix]

[Chattwake]

Chicken Andouille Gumbo

Step 1 - Ingredients
Whole raw chicken
4 LARGE Vidalia onions
1 bunch of celery
5 large garlic cloves
1 six inch long length of Andouille sausage (best to order from http://www.cajunsausage.com/)
salt and pepper
flour
vegetable oil
tabasco

Step 2 - Make your stock
In a large pot, get a good amount of water going at a rolling boil. Add 3 stalks of celery broken into thirds and one onion split into fourths. Add your whole chicken (giblets removed). The water needs to be enough to cover the chicken. Add about a tablespoon of salt and about a half tablespoon of black pepper. Let that cook, adding water of necessary. You know it is done when the meet of the chicken on the breast starts to spit and pull away from the bone. When the chicken is done, take it out and put it in another container to cool. Strain the liquid that is left into another container. That is your stock for the gumbo.

Pull the meat off of the chicken bones and discard the fat, skin and bones. Don't shred the chicken. Just try to keep it in clumps the size of like a golf ball or finger.

Step 3 - prepare your ingredients

Take 3 large onions and chop them into small pieces. Also take 4-5 stalks of celery and chop into small (and I mean thin like the thickness of two quarters) slices. Also chop up your Andouille into quarter sized pieces that are the thickness of a sweet tart or gummy worm). If you are using thicker sausage like I get from Jacobs Andouille, you have to quarter the pieces. Lastly, with a garlic press or paring knife, chop up your garlic cloves into small pieces. Set all of these ingredients aside, but do not mix.

Step 4 - Make a roux

In the same large pot that you used to cook your chicken, make sure it is clean and put it on medium heat. Add 1/3 cup of vegetable oil and 1/4 cup of flour. You may end up adding a little more oil if you need to in order to keep the flour from clumping. With a roux whisk or a wooden spoon or wooden spatula, stir the flour and oil while maintaining medium heat. You have to stir pretty much constantly. After a while, the roux will start to darken. You want to continue to stir until it turns the color of coffee with a little cream in it. I'm talking about darker than caramel, but in no way black. Like the color of a dark oak table. Be careful not to splash the oil on yourself. It's hot as hell and will blister your skin in a nanosecond.

Step 5 - cook the veggies.

As soon as your roux turns the right shade of brown, add your chopped onions. Stir constantly. After about 30 seconds, add your celery. Continue to stir. After about 30 seconds, add your sausage. Stir and then add your garlic after about another 30 seconds. Lastly, add your chicken. Stir and stir and stir until the onions are completely translucent.

Step 6 - add your broth.

Like the title says, after the onions are translucent, pour in your chicken stock. If you did not make enough stock, add a can of store bought chicken stock. Cover and cook at a low boil for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. You will need to salt and pepper to taste. It depends on how strong your Andouille is.

Step 7 - serve.

Serve your gumbo over white rice. I highly recommend serving with Ritz crackers and tabasco or Bull hotsauce.


Shortcut - if you do not have the time to make your own stock, you can skip a lot of steps by just buying a rotisserie chicken and about 6 cans of chicken stock from the store. It won't be as good, but it will save you a lot of time. To me, I love cooking gumbo. It's an all day thing, so I don't mind making my own stock. However, we don't always have as much time as we need.

[eeven73]

I am doing this^ sometime this week.

Makes me hungry reading it.

[Okie Boarder]

Seems like a pretty good recipe. Interesting that it doesn't have bell peppers. Almost everything I saw had the "holy trinity" (onion, celery, bell pepper).

The gumbo I made started with the roux, then I added the trinity, spices, some chicken stock, a dark ale, can of stewed tomatoes, okra, andouille sausage and chicken.

[Okie Boarder]

Some pics...

The roux...picture makes it look a little light, but still don't think I went dark enough.



Added in the "trinity"



Added spices



Added stock, beer, Worcestershire, tomatoes and okra



Added sausage and chicken



Done