Louisiana Gumbo Recipe

Being new to Louisiana, residing in New Orleans. I've come to learn that their food is creatively delicious. Their Creole & Cajun styled food is full of flavor and completely different than the traditional American foods that I am used to.

Gumbo is one of the traditional New Orleans food. True soul food at its best. It consists of a pot full of meats. A very heavy meal to keep the family stuffed. Normally there are a variety of meats in the one big pot. The meats for the gumbo vary depending on which types of meats you prefer. Normally there is seafood, chicken and sausage for the best gumbo's. This is served alongside rice.

After trying Gumbo a few times, I decided to give it a try. So I made a Crawfish (Very common in Louisiana, similar to lobster and shrimp, in my opinion much tastier than both), Crab, Turkey neck, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.

Now this recipe would be more for the advanced cooks, as it takes a LONG TIME to make. Though it isn't complicated to do at all. It requires lots of patience with slow cooking over a medium fire. But no doubt, well worth the wait.

Louisiana Gumbo
Servings: 8 - 10
Prep time: 45 min
Total time: 7 hours
Source: Elise Jackson

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb crawfish
1 lb fresh crabmeat
1 lb chicken breast diced into big chunks
1 lb turkey neck
1 long sausage link cut into thick slices
seasonings: (Tony Cacheres creole seasoning, Tony Cacheres gumbo base, lawrys, salt, black pepper, garlic powder)

Roux
1 cup butter
1 cup flour

Directions

In a big pot put in your olive oil and add in all of your turkey neck, sausage and chicken, on medium high heat cook well for a few minutes until nicely browned. Once completely cooked and browned, add in your seasonings to the meat sprinkle in salt, lawrys, black pepper, garlic powder. Mix in until all well incorporated into the meats. Now fill your pot with water all the way till the top.

Leave on fire on medium high heat until the water starts to boil rapidly. Add in your creole seasoning and your gumbo base to the water and mix in with a wooden spoon. return to boil. Once it returns to a boil, lower your heat to medium low and leave it simmering for 3 hours mixing every once in a while.

While it simmers make your roux. A roux is an even amount of fat and flour. It can be done with lard, butter or oil. Whatever amount of fat you use, you would need to use that same measurement of flour. Roux is made to thicken any type of sauce. Excellent form of making anything thicker. Whether it be a white sauce, wine sauce, tomato sauce or soups and gumbo. Here I used 1 cup of butter so I also had to use 1 cup of flour.

There are different stages when it comes to making the perfect roux. You simply put in your butter into the pot, let it melt and immediately add in your flour and continue mixing every few seconds to not allow to burn on medium low heat. For this specific gumbo recipe you will let it cook for about 45 minutes, mixing every few seconds, until it becomes this dark brown color and consistency. This will allow our sauce for the gumbo to not lighten and change colors but to remain dark and gumbo like.

The different stages to making Roux.

~ White stage -( excellent for white and white wine sauces) cook for about 10 minutes
~ Peanut butter stage -( excellent for your average soups and red sauces, will become light brown and resemble the color of peanut butter.) cook for about 20 - 25 minutes
~ Dark brown stage -( excellent for dark sauces and things such as the gumbo we are making, helps keep the sauce a dark color, as adding white roux to an already dark sauce will lighten the color. To keep that rich dark color you need a dark brown roux) cook for about 45 min.
~ stone hard stage - (stays dark brown in color but no longer becomes smooth and sauce like but instead very hard. This will thicken any sauce almost immediately.)  cook a little longer than 45 min and you will notice a change in texture

After making your roux, set it aside


After your 3 hours of cooking the gumbo, add in your seafood, in my case the crawfish and crabmeat, mix in well and continue cooking for 1 more hour on medium low heat. Now add in your roux which will allow your sauce to noticeably thicken, be careful not to burn, leave on stove for another 1 hour 30 min to 2 hours mixing every once in a while. But as your sauce is thickening be carful for it not to burn.

Once your gumbo is a slightly thick texture and your meats are soft and falling apart, your gumbo is full of flavor and good enough to eat.

Serve with white rice, here is a good recipe

Print Recipe
From my kitchen to yours
God Bless