Cajun Chicken Gumbo

In this post I will teach you to make a versatile chicken gumbo, a Louisiana staple. You will need the following ingredients:

1.) 1 Fresh Chicken, whole or pieces.
2.) Flour - I prefer organic whole wheat which you can get from www.bobsredmill.com but you can use white flour if thats all you have.
3.) Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I prefer Bariani brand which is available from Amazon.
4.) Onions or onion powder, garlic or garlic powder. Fresh is best but the powders do just fine.
5.) Spices: salt, ground black pepper, powdered Cayenne pepper.
6.) Rice (cooked separately)

Cut the chicken up into pieces. Put it in a very large pot filled 3-4 inches from the top with water. (Our gumbo pot holds about 3 gallons of water) Bring this to a boil. Chop onions and garlic and add to the pot. We always use 3-4 large yellow onions and a few bulbs of garlic. If using powders, use about 2 cups onion powder and a cup of garlic powder, you can adjust this to your families taste. Add 4 tablespoons salt and 2 tablespoons black pepper to the pot along with a couple tablespoons of the powdered cayenne pepper.

Making a roux: heat 2 cups of olive oil in a frying pan (we use cast iron skillet for this, or a stainless steel pan). Add enough flour to the hot oil to make a thick paste. Stir this constantly over a medium heat until the flour is a very dark brown color, when it is ready it will begin to smell like almost-burnt popcorn. The darker you make it without burning it the better the gumbo will taste. If you want a thicker gumbo use 3 cups olive oil and do the same thing as above, adding enough flour to make a very thick paste. The bigger your main pot is and the more water you use the more roux you will need. Our gumbo pot holds about 3 gallons of water and we use 3 cups olive oil and enough flour as described above to make a very thick paste.

Next add the finished roux to the pot with the chicken in it, stir it in well. Lower the flame so that the gumbo is on a gentle to medium boil. Stir the pot every 10 minutes making sure to get the roux mixed in good, make sure the roux doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. Cook the gumbo for about 2 hours. Serve over fresh rice.

For variety, you can add sausage cut into thin slices, a few cups of chopped okra, break some eggs into the pot, etc. The recipe above is just a basic chicken gumbo, and it can be modified in many ways to make each pot different and exciting. Enjoy!