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Gumbo
Updated Jan. 23, 2024
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- Total Time
- 4 hours 15 minutes
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 4 hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1cup vegetable oil
- 1cup all-purpose flour
- 12ounces andouille sausage, thinly sliced
- 1tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1½pounds chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
- Kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) and black pepper
- 4large celery ribs, finely diced
- 1large yellow onion, finely diced
- 1large green bell pepper, finely diced
- 6garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 to 2tablespoons Cajun seasoning, to taste
- 2bay leaves, fresh or dried
- 1tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 6cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus more as needed
- Cayenne pepper, to taste
- 12ounces frozen cut okra, or fresh okra, trimmed and sliced into ½-inch rounds
- 1pound large peeled and deveined shrimp, tails on or off
- Filè powder (optional), as needed
- White rice and sliced scallions, for serving
For the Roux
For the Gumbo
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the roux: In a large pan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium. Add the flour, ¼ cup at a time, whisking, so there are no lumps. Continue to whisking (or stir with a wooden spoon) as the roux first foams, then gradually turns from white to a milk chocolate hue. (It will be blond, tan and a peanut butter hue in between.) This process can take 35 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the heat source and vessel. It’s important to continue stirring and scraping down the edges of the pan so the flour doesn't burn. Reduce the heat, if necessary.
- Step 2
Once the roux reaches the milk chocolate stage, remove it from the heat and let it cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. The residual heat from the pot will get the roux to an even darker shade of brown. If not immediately using the roux, transfer it to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- Step 3
Prepare the gumbo: Heat a large (5½-quart) Dutch oven over medium-high. Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the sausage with a slotted spoon to a plate. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the Dutch oven, then add the chicken, seasoning it with salt (about 2 teaspoons) and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until it’s golden, about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat if necessary. Transfer the chicken to the plate with the sausage.
- Step 4
Add the celery, onion and bell pepper. Season with salt (about 1 teaspoon) and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the roux, stirring until well combined. Reduce the heat to medium-low, being mindful not to burn the roux, and cook, stirring continuously, until the vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the Cajun seasoning (start with 1 tablespoon), bay leaves and thyme.
- Step 5
Add the broth and increase the heat to high. Bring to a boil, stirring often to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Reduce to medium-low and gently simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Skim any excess oils that rise to the top.
- Step 6
Return the sausage and chicken to the Dutch oven. Simmer, occasionally stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot, for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust salt, Cajun spice and cayenne, if desired. (The gumbo should have just enough heat to make you take notice, but not so much as to overwhelm all the other flavors.) If preparing the gumbo ahead, remove from the heat now (see Tip). Stir in the okra and cook for 15 minutes. If the gumbo is too thick, add a little more broth, if needed. (Be mindful that the shrimp, added next, will also release liquid).
- Step 7
Stir in the shrimp and simmer until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Taste, adjust seasoning, if needed, and remove from the heat. If using filè, stir 2 to 3 teaspoons directly into the pot to reach desired thickness and seasoning; or have everyone sprinkle it on their own bowls. (Be mindful that a little goes a long way.) Serve gumbo in bowls with a side of white rice and top with scallions.
- If making the gumbo ahead, cool to room temperature, cover the pot and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. To reheat, bring the gumbo to a simmer, then proceed with the recipe, starting with adding the okra in Step 6.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Save time by browning meats first, then make your roux in the same vessel then add the trinity. Deglaze with wine or beer after garlic step. Oh, and this is VERY IMPORTANT: for proper use of okra in Gumbo, take the entire amount and feed it to the neighbor's hogs. This can be done anytime during the process. If you or your neighbor have no hogs, a garbage disposal might accept it.
Very funny, Emmesssy, but this Louisiana girl begs to differ. A proper (oops, gumbos are never proper) gumbo DEFINITELY needs okra for flavor, texture, and thickening. See Linda's suggestion for searing if you're a okraphobe. And you haven't lived if you haven't had fried fresh okra pieces battered with cornmeal. Along with some stewed greens, sliced tomatoes, and cornbread (no sugar). Um um uh!
Browning the sausage and chicken in the pot before making the roux adds complexity of flavor. If you're the kind to save bacon fat in the fridge, gumbo is the perfect dish to utilize it -- I like to use half bacon fat, half vegetable oil for my roux. If you want a true New Orleans style gumbo, patiently stir until it's a deep, dark brown. I've recently been stirring in dark leafy greens at step 6 (mustard greens, collard greens, chard) similar to Leah Chase's famous "Gumbo Z'Herbes" - wonderful.
Regarding okra. A couple of years ago at lunch we talked to the chef at Criollo Restaurant in New Orleans to find out his secret for the great bowl of seafood gumbo we ordered, he roasts sliced okra in the oven and adds to the gumbo just before serving. Easy breezy and now my routine. Fresh okra is best of course, but have done it with frozen.
You have to fry or sauté all of the saliva like liquid out of the okra BEFORE you add it to the pot. Otherwise you make your gumbo with a saliva like texture. Some people may eat that. But A LOT won’t. I used to be that way; I would never eat gumbo with okra in it because it messes up a good gumbo, but my cousin from Lafayette actually showed me how to do it. And okra can make your gumbo taste so much better. And also who cuts the chicken into bite sized pieces?? Use a fork to get it off.
Consider, somewhere along the line, searing the okra before adding it to the pot. (I stir-fry it in a really hot wok) it keeps it nice and crunchy, definitely a plus if you need to convince anybody they like okra after all. And how about giving the microwave a shot at your roux? Lots of info on that on the internet.
I agree with others that a true New Orleans roux is a dark brown. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to get it dark enough without burning it. I gauge the color by comparing it with the color of a Hershey's chocolate bar. When they match, it's dark enough. Just don't drop the chocolate in the roux!
Brown the proteins first, then make the roux in the same pot. Before making the roux, try baking the flour on a cookie sheet first to both cook and darken it, then add it to the oil -- or the 50 bacon fat/50 oil recommended by Abby. The baked flour will take the roux color past peanut butter to a light chocolate. When the roux is completed, add the trinity in the same pot. Cooking shrimp for 8-10 minutes -- that's just crazy. More like 4-5 minutes.
Dry roux; spread flour in a cast iron skillet. 425F oven for 45 min, stirring every 10 min or so. Dissolve in oil before adding to gumbo. Saves standing over the pot for an hour stirring!
One of the better versions of this recipe I’ve seen online: close to what I think is one of the definitive recipes from an early Paul Prudhomme book. He suggests adding the chopped trinity plus okra to the hot roux—once it’s at the color you want—to both sauté them and cool the roux. This also eliminates the okra “slime” factor. He also describes how to make a roux in 10 minutes with hot oil, cast iron, whisk. Keep kids away and take care: hot roux is kitchen napalm!
A gumbo from the Lafayette region generally has no okra. It's flavored by the deeply browed roux and is not so much thickened as it is dark and delicious. A gumbo from the New Orleans area has okra -and sometimes even tomatoes. But I see other Louisiana folks differ in opinion --gumbo style is argued endlessly, so c'est la vie.
Check out Paul Prudhomme’s flash roux technique. Gorgeous dark roux in about 4 minutes. I’ve used this for over 10 years - my gumbo is almost as good as my New Orleans native grandmother’s.
We call it faux gumbo. Skip the roux, double the okra and cook until it disappears. Plenty thick, more flavor, and way less calories.
While the roux does require near constant attention, I have found if you use a heavy skillet, say cast iron, it can be placed in a 350 oven in between stirrings every few minutes. It doesn't burn in the oven and gives your wrist a rest.
I like to substitute hot peppers for the okra—shishitos work well or jalapeños or serranos.
Did anyone else have the experience of skimming A LOT of oil off the top during the simmering phase? I took what looked like nearly 1.5 cups off the top. It seemed a very oily recipe…
We are a celiac household, and I found making a roux out of straight rice flour works brilliantly! I mean… we eatin’ our gumbo over rice anyways. But dear me… all this talk of okra and sausage in yer gumbo has me callin’ on my ancestors. Not from the corner of LA my family hails from! As grandpa always said, “I wonder what the poor people are eatin’ tonight?!” as he dipped his spoon into simmered perfection. Point was, we were poor, but our food tasted only of riches.
Made this today and happy with the result. I cooked K-Paul’s recipe 30 years ago after having it at his restaurant in New Orleans. Similar recipe except he fried the chicken before adding it to the pot. Also he did add the trinity to the roux when it reached the chocolate color to stop the browning to prevent burning the roux. Excellent tip, next time I’ll do that. By the way okra is a key ingredient in gumbo, in Angola “ngumbo” means okra.
Adding cold broth to warm roux is a formula for seized roux. The flour will gelatinize and the outcome is very bad gumbo.
I followed the directions carefully and ended up with a tasteless goop no one liked.
I use frozen whole baby okra. It makes the gumbo less mucilaginous.
I made this for ten and it was a huge hit. I had defrosted frozen okra and frozen raw peeled TJ’s shrimp the day before. I roasted the okra at 425 degrees, after tossing it with a tablespoon of olive oil and salt. I made the gumbo base with its chicken and sausage the day before and added the shrimp (2 lbs, not one), and the okra just when the gumbo base came back to a full boil. The only changes I made was to double the shrimp and add a half pint of fresh crabmeat. Superb!
I am born and raised in South Louisianan, currently living in the Greater New Orleans area. True that all gumbos are different depending on the cook and also region in the state. However, I have never eaten in my 40 plus years nor cooked a gumbo that mixes seafood with pork sausage and/or chicken. You either put seafood in a gumbo or chicken and sausage, you don’t mix them. If I see a recipe that has shrimp and sausage in a gumbo, I know it’s not for me.
Excellent recipe, flavors well balanced and result is reminiscent of many NO versions. I do think the roux is critical and appreciated the cautions about continuous, slow development. I felt the volume of oil and flour too great for the size of the meal so reduced to half, worked very well although still had a lot of oil to skim. Maybe the sausage contributed to this, used a smoked pork andouille which added depth and great flavors. Timing for okra and shrimp was perfect.
Made this recipe as written, except I added the okra before the hour-long simmer. Okra should dissolve into the gumbo, not be a star. We don’t love shrimp, so I increased the chicken and andouille to make up for leaving the shrimp out. This is delicious! Do not double - the recipe makes a TON of food!
I read everyone’s review. I googled and made the dry roux for the first time. 400 oven, a cup of flour, turned every 15 minutes for an hour. I also stir fried my okra. I initially used 1/2 the Cajun spice and add a little bit more. I added a Tbsp. fish sauce. I cooked the shrimp at the end very gently and not for long. Absolutely delicious and a house favorite. The cup of oil was NOT missed. My husband couldn’t believe it. Served over rice.
Only used 3 cans chicken broth, about 5.25 cups, omitted the okra.
I like use pickled okra ,try it you'll like it.
Shorthand the roux. First, as others say, brown the meats in the pan and set aside. Then stir the oil and flour together in your pot and pop in a 350°F oven for about 90 minutes stirring a couple of times. It’s so much easier.
What is Cajun seasoning? I have a spice blend I picked up from Emeril that is cayenne, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.
They’re all basically the same, except for adjustments in salt and cayenne pepper content.
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