Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Ya Ya

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I was not born in Louisiana, but I have eaten there. This recipe is an amalgamation of several recipes that I use as the base from which to experiment. The amounts are not exact as this is not an exact science, more of an art and is to be cooked with passion and a nice cold beer. You can use red bell peppers for color. I try not to use prepared hot sauce because I want the chicken and sausage to be the star. And the choice of chicken seasonings and sausage is where you come in, its the personality of the Gumbo. The use of the pre-cooked chicken may be looked at sideways by those from the bayou, but this isn’t their blog.

• Whole chicken cut up 1 pound or better (I use the rotisserie baked ones (garlic flavor please) with great results, if so you can reduce the cooking time by de-boning and pulling apart into bite size chunks. Cubed raw chicken works fine just cook it longer and remove bones).
• Good Cajun sausage, amount equal to size of chicken (you can mix varieties for that extra hummm factor)
• Chicken broth to cover chicken, veggies and sausage
• Butter and flour for roux, and to thicken (you know what a roux is? right)
  
• 3 cups Trinity (diced full cup each of Onion, Bell pepper, Celery)
• Garlic cloves (number up to you)
• Handful finely chopped green onions and parsley or cilantro for garnish
• Salt, pepper, 3-4 bay leaves, filé powder and Cajun spice mix (there are as many out there as fish in the sea)

• Potluck Gumbo
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Stove Top Gumbo
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Cajun Gumbo
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Chicken Gumbo
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Low Sodium Gumbo
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

1. Melt some butter in your heavy bottomed pot, Dutch oven or soup pot with a lid.
2. Sprinkle your raw or cooked chicken with flour. If your chicken is cooked this step is completely silly so don't do it - you can go directly to step 4.
3. Brown about 5-7 minutes then remove.
4. In a skillet, make your roux. (If you need help here, consider making chili instead). Once the roux has reached the dark chocolate stage, add the Trinity.
5. Add the garlic and spices cook while stirring over medium low heat don't let it burn.
6. Transfer everything into the large pot.
7. Start adding your heated broth slowly, stirring the whole time.
You will know when you have enough by how thick or thin your gravy is. If you want thinner gravy, more stock, if you want thicker gravy, less stock. Tricky huh?
8. Season with more salt, more pepper and the Cajun seasoning blend.
9. Bring just to a boil and lower heat to a simmer.
10. Add sausage. Here folks differ, some cook the sausage before adding it in, and others don’t.
11. Cook until the chicken has given up all it has to give.
12. Add a tablespoon of filé power near the end to thicken and give that extra kick making sure it doesn’t lump.
13. Sample the sausage to assure doneness, remove bay leaves and serve over rice.

Now you can gracefully accept the praise of your friends and family, oh BTW please forward 10% of any cash awards won using this recipe to my attention.