Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

 

First make a roux. Gumbo recipe. Another needed saving from Kinja. This one will have lots of extra pics and the Chicken Rocket because I did it several times.

1 whole chicken

1 lb. smoked sausage

1 cup each - chopped onion, bell pepper, celery

3-4 cloves garlic

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 beer (optional) - half in Chicken Rocket, half in gumbo

1 quart chicken stock (approx.)

Bay leaf, cayenne, pinch of thyme, salt, black pepper

File’ powder

Cook whole chicken, let cool, and take meat off the bones. Use chicken bones, onion, celery, garlic, and whole black peppercorns to make a stock.

Slice the sausage into thin round pieces and brown lightly in a heavy pot. Remove and set aside.

Make a roux with a half cup flour and half cup vegetable oil. A dark roux. Dark as you can stand it.

Add the chopped onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic to the hot roux (carefully) and cook until tender (3-4 minutes). Also add a little cayenne, black pepper, salt, and thyme.

Slowly stir in chicken stock and/or beer until incorporated. Add bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then drop to a simmer. I like to let it simmer a little while before adding the meat. Say 15-20 minutes. Then add broken up pieces of cooked chicken and simmer gently for about one hour. (Remove bay leaf after one hour of cooking, gets bitter.) Add sausage slices, simmer 30 minutes more. Be sure to skim any grease that rises to the top during cooking. At the last 5-10 minutes add 1/4 cup chopped parsley. Once off the heat you can add a couple of tablespoons of file’ powder but this is also optional. Some people like to add it directly to the bowl of gumbo. I like to put it in the whole pot. Serve over rice with fresh bread. Better the next day and it freezes well.