Chicken and Sausage Gumbo…

I use a large stock pot and completely cover the hen with water. I add salt, onions, celery and carrots. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a hard simmer and let cook until done.

If using a hen (recommended), it can take an 1-2 hours before it is tender enough to debone. You do not want to overcook it until falling off the bone. Doing so will turn the hen into mush in the gumbo.

After deboning, return the carcass to the water and continue cooking for another hour or two. Let cool, then strain your stock. It is now ready to add to your roux.

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roast the bones in the oven for 20 -30 minutes

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Heard of this, but never done it. What oven temp? May have to try this next time.

Well, i'm picking up my new 32 quart stockpot on friday. Wanna guess what i'm doing after that???

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don't add the chicken too early or it will get stringy

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I think this was the problem with the last gumbo I cooked. I used the meat from the chicken that I made the stock with in the gumbo. But it basically turned to mush and the chicken soaked up all of the liquid.When is the right time to add the chicken?

This will feed 20 or 30 people. Just cut the recipe in half and freeze what you don't eat.

- 3 baking hens
- 2 lbs of smoked pork sausage (Chop's in Broussard)
- 2 lbs of fresh pork sausage
(Chop's in Broussard)
- 1 lb smoked turkey necks (Billeaud's in Broussard)
- 3 large yellow onions
- 4 green bell peppers
- 1 bunch of celery
- 10 - 12 cloves of raw garlic
- (optional) 16 oz container of raw oysters w/juice
- 1 or 2 handfulls of chopped curley parsley
- 2 bunches of green onion
- 2.5 jars of dark roux (sometimes I make it from scratch, but I really do not see a big difference)
- 3 boxes (24oz?) chicken stock
- water
- 35 qt pot

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- Cut chicken into sections
- Season individual chicken pieces with McCormick's season all and Louisiana Hot sauce
- Slice smoked sausage into bite sizes pieces
- Melt down roux on low heat
- Add chopped onion, bell pepper, celery, half of green onions, and garlic to pot.
- Stir until roux is mixed in with vegatables
- Add sliced smoked sausage, seasoned chicken, turkey necks and chicken stock to pot.
- Add water until about 8 inches to top of pot
- Bring to boil (lid halfway covering. Watch out for boilover)
- After 1.5 hours, add fresh sausage
- Boil 1 hour (lid halfway)
- Turn off heat
- Add rest of green onions and parsley.
- Let cool or eat
- Reheat next day. It will be better the next day. I promise.

Lot's of good contributions, but someone on here advised me not to boil the whole chicken. Fried three whole chickens in my fryer after the turkey until done. Picked them out the next day, then boiled the carcasses along with the turkey carcass to make my stock. Kept the chicken in whole pieces instead of cooking to nothing, and the stock was awesome. Only one I ever made better used both a fried carcass and a smoked carcass. Definitely lightly fry the sausage, and I have been loving some smoked chicken sausage from Best Stop 50/50 with my smoked venison sausage from Benoits.

If you go the jar route (and no one should hate on you for that), I like Kary's.

it is whole lot cheaper to make too. good recession comfort food.