Chicken & Andouille Gumbo

Total Time: 2 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 1/2 quarts unsalted chicken stock (preferably homemade)
• 1 1/2 lbs poached chicken, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 6 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 1/2 lbs fresh okra, cut into 1/2 inch slices or frozen sliced okra,thawed completely
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 lb andouille sausage, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 (1 lb) can tomato, with their juice,cut up a bit
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon gumbo file powder
• fresh cooked rice
• cornbread

Recipe

• 1 heat 2 tbl.
• 2 of the peanut oil in a large dutch oven and fry the okra, stirring frequently, until it is no longer sticky (this usually takes about 10 minutes).
• 3 remove from the pan and set aside.
• 4 in the same pan, stir in the flour and remaining oil, and cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon pretty constantly, until the roux turns a rich mahogany color (probably another 10 minutes, maybe 15- keep stirring!).
• 5 add all the remaining ingredients (including the okra) except for the chicken and the file' powder, stir to combine everything, bring to a good simmer, turn the heat to maintain a low simmer, partially cover, and let cook for about 1 1/2 hours.
• 6 taste, adjust the seasonings if needed.
• 7 add the chicken and simmer another 15 minutes.
• 8 mound the rice into the bowls, ladle the gumbo over top, then sprinkle each serving with a little bit of the file' powder.
• 9 serve with generous portions of hot cornbread.
• 10 note- i say poached chicken in this recipe because i always make my own chicken stock for the gumbo, and so use the cooked chicken from that for the gumbo.
• 11 but if you are using chicken broth from a can, you can either (a) poach your chicken in the canned stock (making the stock richer), or (b) just add the raw chicken cubes to the gumbo and cook for 20-25 minutes before serving.
• 12 note 2- do not make the mistake of adding the gumbo file to the cooking gumbo!
• 13 first of all, it will taste odd.
• 14 second of all- you will end up with a solid, gelatinous, stringy mess!
• 15 a tiny bit of file powder goes a very long way, and it's intended to be used as a condiment, not cooked with.
• 16 it's thickening powers are tremendous.
• 17 if you don't have file' powder and can't get it, you can do without it, but it does add to the authentic"southern" taste.