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Creole Gumbo Recipe

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Ingredients
  

  • ½ cup peanut oil
  • 1 cup white all-purpose flour
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 1 large yellow or white onion finely chopped (see notes)
  • 5 cloves fresh garlic crushed/minced (see notes)
  • 15 big pieces fresh okra sliced (see notes)
  • 1 green bell pepper, finely diced/chopped (see notes)
  • 2 ribs celery finely diced/chopped (see notes)
  • 12 – 14 ounces Carmelina or Cento brand canned Italian San Marzano tomatoes with liquid, crushed by hand
  • 12 ounces market-prepared smoked rotisserie chicken meat diced (see notes)
  • 12 ounces Usinger’s brand andouille sausage sliced (see notes)
  • 4 – 6 ounces Nueske’s ham steak diced (see notes)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped (see notes)
  • 1 tablespoon smoky Spanish paprika
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon dried ground thyme
  • 1½ teaspoons of ground cayenne pepper
  • 1½ teaspoons regular table salt
  • Tabasco pepper sauce to taste
  • ⅓ cup cooked white rice per serving

Instructions
 

  • Mix the oil and flour together really well in a 6 - quart pot on the stove. Turn heat to a medium-high setting (about a 7 on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest temperature and 10 being the highest). Cook about 15 – 20 minutes until it is practically the color of chocolate pudding, stirring constantly and removing from heat as needed to prevent over-smoking (which means it’s burning). It will start to get loose when it is too dark – that indicates that the roux is losing its thickening power, and you don’t want that!
  • Next, add the onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic and the okra to the roux; mix well. Cook the resulting mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally so as not to burn it, until the onions are soft and translucent and the mixture is reduced down a little. I cover the pot and "sweat" the vegetables in the roux so that their moisture is rendered in the pot.
  • Add the tomatoes and their liquid gradually with the chicken/ham broth. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the rice); cover and simmer on very low heat (just so it  “percolates” in the pot  - you might have to cock the lid a little) at least 1 hour, but preferably up to 2½ hours, stirring occasionally.
  • Don't forget to take out the bay leaves before serving!
  • Serve in wide-rimmed bowls topped with about a third-cup of cooked, white rice ladled in the center of it. We also traditionally sprinkle a little filé powder over the gumbo at the table.