I found myself at the market - not knowing what to make for dinner - when I spotted some shrimp in the fridge section. Shelled and deveined. Now that's appealing... but I'm in the middle of NY state, and this is a tiny market so I'm a bit hesitant, but once it occurs to me I could potentially make a big pot of gumbo, I throw caution to the wind and go for it. Now I just have to remember what is in gumbo. Hmmm.
From a loose memory I'm thinking Okra, Red Bell Pepper, Chicken, Sausage, stock, onion, and rice. But they don't have okra, so i figure there's gotta be a gumbo to make without it and pick up everything else. I get home and begin scouring my cookbooks. HTCE doesn't have it. Sara Foster doesn't have it. The 10 bbq books i have don't have it. But good 'ole Joy of Cooking does, and I'm reminded of how often i neglect JoC and how typically spot-on it is when I do use it. And to my surprise, it does not call for okra, or filé. This one uses a roux, which i've never done... but its worth a shot for sure. Oh, and JoC reports I forgot to pick up celery and scallion, and that it should be green bell pepper. Scallions are in the garden, but a quick trip to the market is needed for celery. As for the green pepper, who likes green bell pepper? I was sticking with the red. Now armed and ready, here was my approach:
First up is to lightly coat chicken parts in a flour/spice mixture of cayenne, black pepper, salt, and of course, flour. JoC calls for a whole chicken in parts, but knowing i'm adding shrimp (which JoC does not), I opt for simply four thighs:
I pan fried these for about 8 minutes, and then remove the chicken from the cast-iron pan:
After the chicken is removed (and i use every ounce of will power i have to not devour those thighs right then and there), I added some canola oil and flour to the now medium-hot pan to make a roux... first i added oil to scrape up all those tasty chicken drippings, and then whisked in the flour. I cooked this over a medium flame for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The goal is to get it to thicken up considerably, and turn a darker reddish brown color. Here's a few shots of that process:
Once the roux seemed right to me (and i have no idea if it was), i added about a cup each of chopped celery, onion, and red bell pepper, removed the pan from the heat and stirred it around as it cooked and the pan cooled a bit for 2-3 minutes:
I then transferred this mixture to a stock pot, added 8 cups of stock and returned the chicken (that I thankfully hadn't already consumed) to the pot. JoC calls for chicken stock, and we had some in the freezer, but we also had some clam broth from a winter's clam boil. So i ended up using 5 cups chicken stock and 3 cups clam broth.. which with the shrimp addition I think added a really nice flavor to the final gumbo. Here's it all in the pot after it came to a boil... I then simmered for 30 minutes, uncovered:
While that's going on I chopped up some local chorizo i found at the market. Though it was precisely at this moment I realized I meant to get andouille sausage, not chorizo. Whoops. So this is definitely going to be a bit different than your typical gumbo. But that chorizo does look damn tasty, even raw:
So i dropped that in with some garlic and cooked for 10 minutes:
Meanwhile I removed the chicken, and shredded the meat discarding the bones and skin:
Then dropped in those fully shelled and deveined shrimp:
and along with the shredded chicken and a half cup of chopped scallions cooked for another 5 minutes. Here we are cooking away:
When that was done, i took a slotted spoonful of the chunks and found this beautiful gathering of gumbo goodness:
I then served up some white rice in a bowl:
Topped with a couple heaping spoonful of the goods:
And spooned over some the liquid/broth:
I then dressed it with some scallions, and of course several healthy shakes of a Louisiana style hot sauce (we had Frank's on hand):
This gumbo was kicking'! I absolutely loved it. I think I'd like to make a version without the roux and use okra as a thickening agent... but man this was really, really tasty. The roux adds this very powerful chicken flavor... almost like a turkey gravy type thing, but it worked incredibly well with the other powerful flavors of chorizo, chicken thighs, and even the scallion. Plus I think the clam broth addition helped to create a rounder flavor. While everything was good, the shrimp was my favorite bite every time. It was a wonderfully tasty dish. One that was perfectly topped off with a homemade chocolate-chip cookie ice cream sandwich:
Mmmm, mm, m. Good dinner!
Here's a more consolidated recipe:
Note: This is based on the Joy of Cooking's "Chicken Gumbo" but I ended up making more ingredient modifications than I would have guessed. Maybe JoC's is better, but i loved this one!
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 2 Tablespoons canola oil PLUS 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour PLUS 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 skin-on, bone-on, chicken thighs
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 3 cups clam broth (you're really just looking for 8 cups stock total, so whatever you have will work)
- 12 ounces roughly chopped chorizo (raw)
- 1/2 cup chopped scallion (white and green parts)
- 1 lb cleaned and deveined large shrimp
- 1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tablespoons sliced scallion greens (for garnish)
- Louisiana style hot sauce (for garnish)
- White rice, cooked (1 cup dry rice should make enough to serve 4)
Process:
- Mix the cayenne, black pepper, and salt in a plastic bag, then toss the chicken in and shake it all up to coat.
- Add 2 Tablespoons flour to the bag, and mix again
- Heat 2 Tablespoons canola oil in a cast iron pan until hot
- Cook chicken in pan, 4 minutes per side, remove and reserve
- Add 1/2 cup canola oil to same pan, scrape up any chicken remnants, and reduce heat to medium
- Whisk in 1/2 cup flour
- Stir this mixture over medium heat vigilantly for about 10 minutes. It will thicken considerably, and start turning darker. You want to proceed when you have a darkish and redish color roux that is about twice as thick as it was when you started. JoC warns that if you see black specs forming you have burned it and need to start over in a fresh pan.... that didn't happen to me but watch out!
- Remove pan from heat, and add celery, onion, and red bell pepper to the roux. stir around for 2-3 minutes until the roux stops bubbling.
- Transfer mixture to soup pot and add 8 cups stock and the reserved chicken
- Bring to a boil, and then simmer uncovered for 30 minutes
- Remove the chicken, and reserve.
- Add in the chorizo and garlic, cook for 10 minutes or until chorizo is fully cooked
- While that is cooking, shred the meat discarding the skin and bones, and reserve shredded meat.
- Add shredded chicken, shrimp, and 1/2 cup scallions and cook for 5 minutes
- Taste, add salt and cracked pepper to your liking
To serve:
- Place 1/2 cup cooked rice in a bowl
- Place two heaping spoonfuls of gumbo on the rice (make sure to have plenty of broth in there as well)
- Garnish with fresh scallion, and plenty of hot sauce.
- Eat and repeat.
