How to Make Chicken Gumbo with Sausage

Gumbo is a dish that is all about layering flavors. There’s the roux, which helps to thicken and flavor. There’s “The Trinity,” the Cajun mire poix of onions, celery and green pepper. There are the meats, and there is the filé powder which imparts flavor and thickening.

One of the cooking techniques employed with this recipe is sweating the vegetables. Sweating vegetables is similar to saute but over lower heat and without the browning. You can learn all about this cooking technique on my web site at  How to Sweat Vegetables.

One of the great things about gumbo is that there are probably as many variations of the dish as there are people cooking it.  This can be intimidating or liberating, depending on how comfortable you are in the kitchen.  Here is a basic recipe that will yield a very good, flavorful gumbo.  For those of you who are comfortable with improvising in the kitchen, use this as a template.  Either way, if you’ve never tried gumbo, you really should.

Gumbo with Chicken and Sausage

• 2 oz. flour (scant ½ cup)
• 2 oz. neutral cooking oil
• 5 slices thick-cut bacon, diced
• ½ pound andouille sausage, diced
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 2 bell peppers, diced
• 3 ribs celery, diced
• ½ teaspoon pepper flake, or to taste
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 can light bodied beer
• 6 cups chicken broth, low sodium canned or homemade
• 2 cups cooked dark meat chicken, diced
• 1-28 oz. can whole tomatoes
• ½ pound fresh or frozen okra, cut into ½” slices
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 teaspoons filé powder*, divided

*Filé powder is made from from dried and ground sassafras leaves and was originally used as a substitute for okra when not in season.

How to Make Gumbo

Heat a small, cast iron skillet over medium heat.  Add the oil and then stir in the flour, a little at a time.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the roux is the color of a penny.  Do not rush, and do this over medium to medium-low heat.

In a Dutch oven, cook the bacon and sausage until the bacon is crisp and the fat has rendered out.  Spoon out all but about 1 tablespoon of the fat.

Add the onion, peppers and celery, and sweat over medium-low heat until the vegetables are softened but not browned.  Regulate the heat so you hear a gentle sizzle, not an angry sizzle or sputtering/popping.  Add a salt and pepper, to taste, the pepper flake, thyme and bay leaves.

Once the vegetables are translucent, add the roux, and stir until well combined.  Pour in the beer and bring to a boil.  Reduce by about half, turn down the heat and add 2 teaspoons filé powder, the tomatoes and chicken broth.

Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about an hour.  Taste, and adjust seasonings.

Add the chicken and okra and simmer for an additional thirty minutes.  Stir in the remaining 2 teaspoons of filé powder and serve over cooked rice.

Like most braises and stews, gumbo is even better the next day.  If not serving immediately, omit the last 2 teaspoons of filé powder and add it after you reheat the gumbo the next day.

Related Topics

How to Sweat Vegetables

Some Recipes That Use The Sweating Technique

Butternut Squash Soup

Pomodoro Sauce

Fresh Corn Risotto

Beans and Rice

Sauce for Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Pan Roasted Veal Chops

One of the dishes I had the privilege of sampling at The Great Chefs Event was this one from Chef Joseph Manzare, chef & owner of a slew of restaurants in San Francisco including Zuppa, Globe, Tres Agaves, and Joey & Eddies. If you have not read my posts about this incredible event to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, I recommend you check them out.

The Great Chefs Event

The Great Chefs Event - A Huge Success

Chef Manzare started in the restaurant business at age 14 and later trained under Chef Jean-Francois Mettigner and Chef Wolfgang Puck before going to Italy and working at San Domenico in Imola. He was nominated “Rising Star Chef of the United States” for the James Bear Awards while working as executive chef at the Royalton in New York.

Maryland Blue Crab Chipachole

Chipachole is a traditional Mexican spicy soup made with crab meat. Chef Manzare’s recipe calls for fresh Maryland Blue Crab meat but I’m sure you can substitute pasteurized crab meat from companies like Phillips when fresh crab isn’t available but you will have to come up with some shellfish stock as a substitute.

This recipe uses Guajillo   [gwah-HEE-yoh]  chilies that are thick, reddish brown chiles that can be mild to moderately hot.  The guajillo is popular in Mexico and one of the most commonly grown. The Guajillo chili requires a longer soaking period than most due to its leathery skin.

Chef Manzare’s recipe makes 6 portions

Ingredients

2 pounds Maryland Blue Crabs
1 large onion
3 cloves of minced garlic
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 pounds tomatoes
5 Guajillo chilies, lightly toasted
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 bunch of green onions, diced

How to Prepare

Bring 1 1/2 gallons of water plus 1 tablespoon of salt to boil in a large pot. Add the crabs and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the crabs (saving the cooking liquid) and give them an ice bath.

Clean the crabs of their meat, saving all the bones (I’m guessing he means shells because crabs are invertebrates and do not have bones) and innards but discard the lungs. Mix the crab meat with the green onions and set aside.

In a low, wide pot, add 3 tablespoons of canola oil and saute onion, Guajillo chiles, garlic, thyme, black pepper, salt, tomatoes, bones (I think he means shells) and innards from the crab, for ten minutes at high heat. Add the cooking liquid from the crab and bring to a low boil. Cook for 15 minutes.

Puree everything in a blender or food processor and strain through a medium strainer. (I’m not sure I would puree the shells but I will try to find out.)

To serve, pour the soup into bowls and add crab meat with the green onions. Top with cilantro (optional), and serve with Tequila.

Eric Jorgensen’s Hearty Fish Chowder

One of the very cool things about Facebook is finding old friends you haven’t spoken with in ages. This recipe comes to me from an old high school friend I recently found on Facebook.

When we first met in homeroom on our first day of high school, we discovered we were born just days apart in the same hospital and both had mothers from Denmark. Small world. Eric went off to sea his senior year but we keep in touch by letters and years later he visited me in New York City. And then we lost touch until our Facebook connection.

Eric is a stay-at-home dad like myself and takes on a lot of the cooking so I asked him to send me one of his favorite recipes. This fish chowder is one he used to make when he was working on commercial fishing boats. He has worked on crab boats and salmon boats in Alaska, fished lobster in Maine and on trawlers in New Zealand so I guess he should know something about fish chowder.

Fish Chowder

This recipe creates a hearty stock in which to poach fish. The amounts of liquid can be altered to create either a fish stew or chowder. Likewise, the vegetable amounts can be varied based on what you have on hand, the object is a flavorful stock.

Ingredients:

2 onions
3 carrots
3 medium sized potatoes
3 stalks celery with leaves
½ lb bacon
1 ½ lbs fresh chopped clams
2 - 3 lb fresh fish, white fleshed like cod or haddock
3 tablespoons flour
Fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cream or half & half (optional for New England style)

How to Make Fish Chowder at Home

Finely mince the onions, 2 carrots, 1 potato, 2 stalks celery. Chop remaining veggies into bite-sized chunks to add later.

In large pot, saute bacon, add minced veggies, & stir until cooked. Sprinkle in flour and stir a few minutes longer. Add some salt and pepper. If you don’t want to use bacon, substitute butter.

Add water to pot to cover veggies with a few inches of water, more for a soup, less for stew. You can always adjust.

Let veggies simmer for an hour or two to make a nice stock that will be used to make the chowder. I asked Eric if you should strain the vegetables when done simmering now that they have done their job and added their flavor to the stock but he told me “they just kind of disappear and create a thick stock, especially with the addition of flour.”

About an hour and half before serving, add remaining chopped veggies and clams. Let them simmer for approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. Check seasoning, this recipe can take a lot of fresh pepper and salt. Add fresh thyme if desired. If a thicker chowder is desired add some more flour-premixed with water to a slurry to avoid clumping. When potatoes and carrots are almost tender, add fish.

Allow fish to cook just below a boil, until tender, about 10 minutes. Don’t overcook fish, just until it can flake. Fish can be left in large pieces and served on rice, or broken up for a traditional fish stew.

If you want a New England Chowder add cream when fish is done—but do not allow to boil once added.

Eric also likes to add shrimp to this dish with the fish.

Eric told me, “I used to make this on fishing boats, making the stock when I had a chance and adding the fish when it was time to eat. I like clams now for flavor and consistency and they’re really quite economical at around $6 for fresh chopped, but any fish heads and bodies work to create a stock. Now, I prefer butter to bacon, and skip the cream, you can really taste the fish much better.”

Serve as a chowder with good bread, or ladle onto rice for a heartier meal.