Special equipment
Strong, long wooden spoon
4-5 qt cast iron dutch oven
Long handled wire whisk
Ingredients
1 chicken, cut up
Seasonings for chicken pieces: kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, & dried thyme
2 T vegetable oil
¾ c flour
¾ c vegetable oil (I use Canola)
1½ c chopped onion
1 c chopped celery
½ c chopped bell pepper
6-8 c (approximately) chicken stock
2 T minced fresh garlic (please don't use minced garlic from the jar)
1 bay leaf
1 t thyme
salt & pepper, to taste
2 pieces tasso ham, cut up into ½-inch cubes (about ½ c) [see notes]
1-1½ lb authentic andouille sausage, outer skin removed - cut half into chunks and half into ¼-inch thick coins [see notes]
¼ c chopped scallions, green tops only
Optional accompaniments
Cooked white converted rice (Uncle Ben's is good)
Tabasco hot sauce
Gumbo filé powder (ground sassafras leaves, available as a Paul Prudhomme spice item in the grocery store)
Directions
General overview of the process: First you are going to season & brown chicken pieces. Then you will make
a roux. You will add vegetables, seasonings, & some meats and simmer for a while. Finally, you add the final
meats & seasonings for a final simmer before serving.
Lay out chicken pieces on a tray or waxed paper. Sprinkle all pieces with each chicken seasoning in turn, first
on one side then the other (salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, & dried thyme). Place in a plastic freezer
bag and into the refrigerator to rest at least one hour and as long as overnight.
Heat a cast iron dutch oven (at least 4 quart capacity) and add 2 T oil. Brown the chicken pieces over medium heat
until somewhat golden, but not necessarily cooked all the way through. Be sure not to crowd the pieces, or they
will steam rather than brown. As each piece is browned, remove it to a plate and keep in the refrigerator to reduce
the likelhood of salmonella. When all pieces are browned, turn off heat and set aside cast iron pot (you will use
it again in a minute). Allow chicken pices to sit in the refrigerator to cool. (You will be deboning the chicken
later.)
While chicken pieces are cooling, you will make a roux (pronounced roo). Add ¾ c oil to cast iron pan and
heat over medium heat. Add the ¾ c flour and whisk together until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, until
the roux turns the color of a chocolate bar. If the roux should start to smoke, immediately take off the heat and
cook at a lower temperature. Depending on your experience with making a roux, this will take anywhere from 20-40
minutes. If you have little experience, simply take your time and get some help (because your arm will get tired
with all of the stirring). Just be careful not to burn the roux or you will have to start over.
Once the roux is chocolate color, add: onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, tasso ham, and chunked half of andouille.
Stir together using strong wooden spoon and continue cooking over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent,
about 10 minutes. Using the whisk again, add chicken stock a cup at a time until the gumbo reaches the desired
consistency.
Add bay leaf, & thyme, along with salt & black pepper. (Homemade unsalted stock will mean you will have
to add more salt; canned stock means you probably won't add any salt at all. Just salt to taste, but realize this
will get saltier as the gumbo cooks down for about an hour.) Simmer over low heat for 1 hour (or longer, if desired).
While gumbo is simmering, remove browned chicken pieces from the bones and cut into 1-inch pieces. Return to refrigerator
until ready to use.
At the end of 1-hour cooking time, add the remaining ingredients: chicken pieces, sliced half of andouille, and
chopped scallions. Stir and cook for another 15 minutes, or until chicken is done. Adjust seasonings. If you are
not using authentic tasso ham, you will probably need to add cayenne pepper, black pepper, & more salt.
Serve as follows: Ladle the gumbo into a shallow soup bowl. Splash a bit of Tabasco hot sauce in each serving.
Round a bit of rice right in the middle of each bowl and sprinkle with gumbo filé powder. All of these last
steps are optional, of course, but represent how gumbo is authentically served.
Notes
Frank makes his own tasso ham. This is made by taking fresh pork pieces and cutting them into about the size of your hand (¾ inch thick), then curing them with a rub of: salt, pepper, brown sugar, cumin, and cayenne pepper. The next day, the pieces are smoked over an extremely low wood fire for approximately 12 hours. The resulting meat pieces are very dry and used almost exclusively for seasoning. As for andouille sausage, nothing you get here in buffalo is the same. I get mine from LaPlace, LA (the andouille capital of the world). It is a very meaty, garlicky, peppery sausage that is then smoked over pecan wood for quite some time. The closest thing I can come up with is a very lean smoked Polish sausage that is smoked again in our smoker for a couple hours. We compensate for the garlicky and peppery flavor by adding more of these things to the dish. Andouille is never meant to be eaten as is (too strong), but rather used only as seasoning and in smaller pieces as part of a Cajun/Creole dish.