the pragmatic chef™

The Pragmatic Chef's Chicken, Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo
(with a humble bow to Matt and Jerry)

1/2 to 3/4 C flour (depending on how dark of a roux you're planning to make, see above)
1/2 to 3/4 C oil (light olive, canola, corn, anything but extra virgin OO because of its low smoking point.)

1 whole chicken, roasted, meat pulled off the bone (you should make the stock with the carcass)
1 # Hot Smoked Sausage (I used Hillshire Farms this time) Smoked and cooked is important, spicy is good
1 # shrimp (raw 31 -40 count preferred, but use what you have)

1 Quart of good chicken stock* (homemade is of course, best)
2 bottles of beer, (one for you and one for the pot)
Water, as needed
Long grain rice, make seperately.

These veggies are for the finished gumbo only, if you're making stock, get more:

1 bell pepper, small dice, green is traditional, I like red myself.
1 large onion, medium dice
1 bunch of green onions, bias cut (keep about 1/3 of them for garnish)
3 or 4 ribs of celery, small dice
6 -8 cloves garlic, small dice
1 package of frozen okra, thawed (optional)

2 bay leaves
Dry thyme
Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce
Ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper, TT (optional)
Filé powder (optional)

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Prep is important in making gumbo. Once you start your roux, you MUST have your veggies and sausage chopped, because you'll add these to the roux to stop the cooking process and keep it from burning.

Chop your veggies and slice the sausage into rounds about 1/4" thick.

In a heavy-bottom pot, cast iron is great but it's a bit hard to see how dark your roux is, get your oil heating up. Once it's hot, add your flour. Cook over medium to low heat, and take your time with the first one. Caution- this stuff will burn you badly, don't get crazy with it! You need to pay attention to your roux, stir it constantly with a wooden spoon, high temperature spatula, or a whisk. It will smell like butter cookies, then popcorn. When it starts to smell like overdone popcorn and turns golden brown, it's a matter of taste from there. Dark rouxs are fantastic, but an acquired taste for most.

Once your roux is cooked, turn the heat off. CAREFULLY add the sausage and veggies. The water from the veggies will tend to spatter when it hits the oil, so back off a bit. Stir it all in until you've got it under control, then turn the heat back on and sweat the veggies and render a bit of the fat out of the sausage.

Once your veggies are getting tender, add the chicken stock and a bottle of beer. Bring it up to the simmer, make sure the roux is well incorporated, then add the okra if you're using it. As the okra cooks, it will thicken the gumbo and lose the gummy quality a lot of people don't like about it.

Simmer this for 45 minutes or so, then add your cooked chicken. This is also a good time to get your rice going. Season your gumbo with the Worcestershire sauce, plenty o' hot sauce, some dry thyme and plenty of black pepper. Simmer another 20 minutes or half an hour, then add your shrimp and give it another 15 minutes.

If you're using filé powder, now's the time to add a few teaspoons of it, noting my caution above. Serve over rice with extra hot sauce and crusty bread on the side, garnishing with the reserved chopped green onions.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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*I'll just briefly touch on how I make the chicken stock for this. After roasting a chicken, I take the meat off the bone and stick the bones on a sheet pan in the oven to brown them WELL. Don't skip this step. After your bones are well-browned. cover them with cold water in a stock pot and add a carrot, onion, some celery, garlic, dry thyme, black pepper, parsley, and a few bay leaves. Simmer gently for 4 or 5 hours, don't boil the heck out of it! Strain well once it's done. Good to do the night before, if you can.

I do not recommend just boiling a chicken to make stock, because the chicken meat generally will have no flavor at the end of the process.