re: Help me improve my gumbo

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Focus on the roux

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You cannot tell the difference between homemade stock or box stock.

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Couldn't disagree more. A quality, well made stock takes the gumbo to another level. Smoke a chicken (or ducks or turkey or whatever), debone, roast the bones on a bed of onions, bell peppers and some garlic for an hour or so. Put that in a pot with all of your trinity discards, including the onion skins, which add another level of darkness, and let that rock for a couple hours. Will beat any store bought stock by a mile, and will add much more flavor than whatever fat you are using for a roux.

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sometimes butcher shops carry duck fat in containers if that's easier.

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Thanks. I'll give that a try too.

Make Paul Prudhomme's Chicken and Andouille/Smoked Sausaage Gumbo. That will take your gumbo up more than a notch. See recipe below.

It will have a good body to it because it has roux and the chicken is fried with flour, so those good fried flour bits also dissolve into the gumbo. I don't like gumbo as thick as you describe. The roux takes over too much for me and I don't like the texture, but make it as you like. As thick as you like yours, I would be nice and eat what I was served, but I would not have seconds or ask that you make it again. Not trying to be rude, but honest.

For me, a dark roux is key.

What I also do when I make this is after I remove the bones from the fried chicken, I simmer them in my stock for a while to add more flavor. You can use Better Than Bouillon (watch the salt) or boxed stock and shore them up with the bones if you don't have homemade. You can roast the bones first if you like. For this, I do not.

I do not simmer for hours and hours. It's not necessary. The chicken is cooked. The trinity is cooked. The sausage and chicken only need while to dissolve the fried parts and get the sausage flavor into the gumbo.


Gumbo is always better the next day. Period. That's when the flavors set and marry. It's not from cooking the hell out of it.

Top the gumbo with chopped green onions before serving.

I'm not a fan of your other suggestions like adding jalapeno, beer etc... Gumbo doesn't need any of those things. It isn't chili.

Many times, I fry the chicken the night before and debone and chop. The next day, I simmer the stock and bones while finishing the rest of the chopping, making the roux etc...

Here's the recipe. It's not difficult. Break it down into parts.



Makes 6 main-dish or 10 appetizer servings

One 2- to 3-pound chicken, cut up
Salt
Garlic powder
Ground red pepper (preferably cayenne)
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped green bell peppers
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
(preferably cayenne)
Vegetable oil for deep frying
About 7 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound andouille smoked sausage
(preferred) or any other good
pure smoked pork sausage such as
Polish sausage (kielbasa), cut
into 1/4-inch cubes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Hot cooked rice

Remove excess fat from the chicken pieces. Rub a generous amount of
salt, garlic powder and red pepper on both sides of each pieces, making
sure each is evenly covered. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium-size bowl combine the onions, bell peppers and celery; set aside.
Combine the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper in a paper or plastic bag. Add the chicken pieces and shake until chicken is well coated. Reserve 1/2 cup of the flour.
In a large heavy skillet heat 1 1/2 inches of oil until very hot (375 to 400 degrees F). Fry the chicken until crust is brown on both sides and meat is cooked, about 5 to 8 minutes per side; drain on paper towels. Carefully
pour the hot oil into a glass measuring cup, leaving as many of the browned particles in the pan as possible. Scrape the bottom with a metal whisk to loosen any stuck particles, then return 1/2 cup of the hot oil to the pan.
Place pan over high heat. Using a long-handled metal whisk, gradually stir
in the reserved 1/2 cup flour. Cook, whisking constantly, until roux is dark
red-brown to black, about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes, being careful not to let it
scorch or splash on your skin. Remove from heat and immediately add the
reserved vegetable mixture, stirring constantly until the roux stops getting
darker. Return pan to low heat and cook until vegetables are soft, about
5 minutes, stirring constantly and scraping the pan bottom well.
Meanwhile, place the stock in a 5 1/2-quart saucepan or large Dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Add roux mixture by spoonfuls to the boiling stock, stirring until dissolved between each addition. Return to a boil, stirring and scraping pan bottom often. Reduce heat to a simmer and stir in the andouille and minced garlic. Simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes, stirring often
toward the end of the cooking time.
While the gumbo is simmering, bone the cooked chicken and cut the
meat into 1/2-inch dice. When the gumbo is cooked, stir in the chicken
and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
To serve as a main course, mound 1/3 cup cooked rice in the center of a
soup bowl; ladle about 1 1/4 cups gumbo around the rice. For an appetizer,
place 1 heaping teaspoon cooked rice in a cup and ladle about 3/4 cup
gumbo on top.

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If I'm doing a Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, why would I add Seafood? at that point it becomes a seafood gumbo. I hate when people do this!

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Chicken and sausage gumbo with few oysters added to the pot is a damn fine thing. Why create artificial categories and avoid mixing certain ingredients? I like chix/sausage much better with the funky bass note of oysters in it.

But to the OP: I'm in the thinner, soupier homestyle gumbo camp. So I can't help you get pasty thick.

To build flavor in a gumbo, I like to:
1)actually brown the onions in the hot roux; have your onions chopped and ready, and when your roux reaches the desired color, drop in the onions. They will sizzle and cook. Be patient, pay attention to the onions, and don't add the celery & bell pepper until the onions have taken on color & appear a bit "fried" by the roux. You don't want them to be too browned, as you're gonna keep cooking them with the other veg.
2)then add the chopped celery & green pepper; cook until softened. By this point, the onions should be nicely colored.

Then proceed as usual with the gumbo. Cooking down the aromatics in the roux helps to build the caramelized "backbone" of the gumbo.

I do agree that made ahead, reheated gumbo is usually the best tasting gumbo!

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If I'm doing a Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, why would I add Seafood? at that point it becomes a seafood gumbo. I hate when people do this!

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As any good man should. Jokes fly over some of you guy’s heads pretty quickly.

If the tomato lead in didn’t tip them off then there’s no helping.

Add a couple of smoked turkey necks.

Hell yeah. I make a stock and drink it out of a coffee mug liquid gold

I would definitely suggest browning the sausage, but just very lightly and not on high heat. This will get some of the fat out of it and then you use it in your roux.

If you want more smoke flavor, either use a stronger smoked sausage OR use smoked chicken. It's really not that hard to do. If you have access to an outdoor grill or preferably a kettle type BBQ. You can do this a day or so ahead of time and then refrigerate them.

Thickening can be done with a LITTLE more roux and more cook time.

For those of y’all saying use the chicken grease for the oil in your roux, how to you ensure a proper 1:1 ratio and keep the bits of chicken stuck to the pan from burning?

Last time I made a roux I burned it.