Snow. It frickin’ snowed here this past Thursday night. So what the hell do I do? Gumbo. What did everybody else do in Acadiana? Gumbo. I don’t know about everybody else, but when I cook gumbo, I cook a shitload of it–because it freezes well. Here’s my recipe/technique for cooking about 25 quarts of gumbo–enough to feed a small army (or my family) with enough left over to send home with everybody and enough to freeze for myself!
A few notes about MY gumbo before we get started…..I only use chicken breast filets. I’ve almost gotten into fisticuffs with people insisting that you need the bones for the “flavor” and that you can always take the bones out later. These people obviously have never seen a child or a dog choke on a chicken bone. I have a lot of people with small kids coming to eat at my house. If someone insists on dark meat, fine. I get boneless skinless chicken thighs. No sweat off of my tits. But I’m not going to have bones in my gumbo. If YOUR gumbo requires that you use boned chicken, I suggest that you review your recipe because mine has always tasted just fine with nary a bone in it. Ever.
Sausage. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a frickin’ civil war in Acadiana over sausage. I’ll tell you straight up that I use two types of sausage, and one of those has two brands I can depend on. For the smoked sausage, I use Richard’s or Savoie’s (although I do prefer Savoie’s.) The fresh sausage is always chourice from Joyce’s. Always. If I can’t get it at Joyce’s, it ain’t going in. Chourice is getting hard to find (and no, it’s not chorizo–don’t make me throat punch you) at grocery stores. I’m sure there are mom-and-pop grocery stores here and there that has it, but it ain’t Joyce’s. I don’t know if Lowell puts crack straight up in that shit or what, but with every gumbo I have ever cooked, the chourice is the first thing to disappear. Every. Single. Time. If you can’t get to Joyce’s to get chourice, maybe it’s time for a road trip. If not, you can substitute more smoked sausage. I ain’t gonna judge, but I probably ain’t gonna eat ya gumbo, either. Just kidding. Kinda.
Another point—don’t EVER feel bad or less of a Cajun for using jarred roux. Yes, I can make a roux. I can make all kinds of roux. Why stink up my house making roux when I can get it in a jar? My house smells like roux for almost a week after I make a roux in my kitchen and no amount of Scentsy, essential oil or Febreze shit will EVER take the smell out before it’s ready to leave. That’s like going through the pain in the ass of making mayonnaise from scratch when Blue Plate’s got it going on. So for folks who want to put on their fancy shoes and be purists by insisting on a roux from scratch, feel free to lace that bitch up and wear it–at YOUR house. Not judging as long as you don’t judge me, Judgy Judgerton.
Ingredients:
3 large Walmart packs of chicken breast filets (about 13 pounds or so if you’re not getting it at Walmart.)
4 lbs. chourice-plain
4 lb. box smoked sausage, pork, mild, Savoie’s or Richard’s
Six pounds onions, minus 1 or 2 medium onions
Small jar dark roux-Savoie’s (don’t let me see you using Kary’s, either)
Tony Chachere’s to taste
Kitchen Bouquet to adjust color
Trim, cut up and season chicken breasts the night before—very important. You need to give the seasoning a chance to proliferate throughout the meat.
Bring 12 quarts of water to a boil in a 40 quart pot (or maybe 35 quart pot if you don’t have a 40 quart). Add jar of roux (yes, the whole jar) and whisk into boiling water until the roux is dissolved and there are no more lumps of it sitting at the bottom of the pot. Add onions cut up in a food processor. You can also add 4 or 5 tablespoons of minced garlic. Cut chourice into two- or three-inch links. Add to water. Slice smoked sausage thinly and add to water. Boil for about 45 minutes. Add chicken breasts. Boil for about an hour or until chicken breasts are fork-tender. At this point, the gumbo may appear a tad too light in color. I use Kitchen Bouquet to darken the gumbo without changing the taste. Add Kitchen Bouquet to adjust the color and Tony Chachere’s to taste–but not too much! A lot of the seasoning comes from the chicken breasts.
Let it completely cool before trying to pack it away into Ziploc bags by the gallon for your freezer. Nobody likes cleaning up wasted gumbo on their kitchen floor at 10 PM because they were an impatient ninny and the hot gumbo melted the bag. Chill out for a little bit. Have a beer. Have a smoke. And if you can’t do any of that, then you’d better buy some VERY large Tupperware/Rubbermaid containers!