I made gumbo following this recipe from Paula Deen:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/gumbo-recipe.html

And here is how it turned out:


It was way too tomato-y and did not have enough of that cajun/gumbo flavor. Is the recipe bad or did I not get the roux dark enough? Any of you foodies out there care to chime in? I love gumbo but this was just not very good.

Thanks

My (Cajun) opinion: that recipe isn't good. I might suggest Paula Deen if you're making something like biscuits and gravy or some kind of casserole (I have no idea - I'm not a Paula Deen fan), but for gumbo? She'd never cross my mind.

1. don't make it with chicken breasts... use the whole thing.
2. vegetable oil and flour. equal parts. no margarine. medium heat. keep stirring. get it brown. when you think it's ready, turn heat to low and go a little longer. keep stirring.
3. you don't need bouillon cubes or tomatoes. or Worcestershire sauce.
4. use stock instead of water.

To start, I'd use a whole chicken instead of boneless/skinless breasts.

Rinse the bird, put in a stock pot with a few diced carrots, celery, & onion. Toss in a couple bay leaves. Simmer until the chicken is very tender close to falling off the bone. Remove chicken, debone.

Skim fat off of the remaining stock. Strain out and discard the veggies that will now be mush.

Use the above broth/stock instead of water & bouillon cubes. Jarred roux from the grocery is a fine substitution for scratch roux- and you never screw it up.

I'd skip the tomatoes, and I'm not a fan of okra in gumbo so I leave it out as well. If you like it, keep it.

Secondly, there is no spice at all in her recipe. You definitely need to add some cayenne to it, or Tony's at least (especially if you're needing some additional salt).

Try this one: http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/fried-chicken-and-andouille-gumbo

this is a great resource

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Gumbo-Book-Twenty-seven-Experience/dp/0937552178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418662950&sr=8-1&keywords=little+gumbo+book

Thanks for the help.

I went with hers because it sounded easiest for a first try and now I know why.

I'll report back when I try again. Thanks!

I make my roux an almost chocolate brown
No tomatoes
Okra is fine
Always use a good Andouille suasage
Always use good chicken stock
The "holy trinity" prep of the onion, celery, and peppers as the last part of that roux is essential
A little bacon fat or Manteca in that rough is fine

Agree with Grammercy. That recipe is a mess. Margarine has no place in Cajun roux. Butter should be used in Creole roux.

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I went with hers because it sounded easiest for a first try and now I know why.

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The most important part is the roux. And in terms of difficulty, keep this in mind: it's only flour and oil. Just keep going with each attempt, darker and darker. Eventually you'll burn one, and that's ok. You'll be out about 50 cents and less than an hour of your time, so just start over and don't worry about it.

Some of the best advice I ever got from an old gumbo cook who's made thousands of pots was this: "If you've never burned a roux, you ain't trying hard enough." After that, my roux started to get darker and darker, and I eventually found the sweet spot (and burned one).

It's a fine line, but you'll find it. And once you know the color to look for, you'll never miss. I don't do it, but you can even make roux in the microwave (shhh... don't tell my grandmother).

My stepmom swears her cajun grandma took four hours to make her roux. Does that seem a little excessive to anyone else?

Not really excessive if she was using a very low temperature.

I'd opt for a crockpot (or oven) rather than stirring that whole time, but I'm lazy.

Besides the roux, the other thing which makes a huge difference is your stock---I make mine with bones from smoked turkey, but any rich homemade stock is going to be better than water & bouillon cubes

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My stepmom swears her cajun grandma took four hours to make her roux. Does that seem a little excessive to anyone else?

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Not necessarily. If she were making a big batch on very low heat, it could have taken quite a while. My cousins have told me about being miserable with "stirring duty" as kids because their arms got tired. I think this sort of thing is what resulted in the birth of the microwave version.

Pan fry the okra some first in butter or oil and you will lose the slime ball effect on the gumbo.

The word 'gumbo' means okra.

Gumbo without okra is like chili without pepper. Nachos without jalapenos.

Add a couple turkey necks. I won't eat them myself, but the flavor they add to the gumbo is amazing.

Use dark meat chicken only. It can handle the long cooking time without becoming dry and chalky like white meat. If you want to use white meat, add it at the end so it doesn't overcook.
Use a homemade stock if at all possible. Even if you just boil the skin and bones from the dark meat for two hours, that will be better than canned stock.

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The word 'gumbo' means okra.

Gumbo without okra is like chili without pepper. Nachos without jalapenos.

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Have never had a cajun chicken & sausage gumbo with okra. Creole cooking uses okra.

Wow! I have spent some time stirring the sugar to make the caramel sauce for flan, but I don't think I have ever exceeded 30 - 45 min making roux. You can turn the heat up as long as you stir continually. I use a wooden spatula so I can cover large areas of the pot bottom quickly.

Not to mention I would be drunk by the time the roux was done if it took 4 hours.

Roux is definitely not dark enough. No tomatoes. Don't need okra for a Southwest Louisiana Cajun gumbo. Use file powder at the end if you like. Chicken (or duck) and sausage gumbo should be more thin/soupy than thick/stew-like. Reference John Folse for all you need to know about gumbos - or anything else about authentic Louisiana cuisine.

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The word 'gumbo' means okra.

Gumbo without okra is like chili without pepper. Nachos without jalapenos.

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And no matter how many threads you post that on, okra still isn't a requirement. I bet I've had okra in about 5% of the bowls I've been served (and less than that in the pots I've made).

And file powder should be served at the table rather than added to the pot.

Gumbo in the prairie parishes around Lafayette uses a very dark roux with meats (chicken and sausage most common), with bell pepper onion, celery, all cooked down. Simple but rich. Closer to the coast mostly seafood, a bit lighter rouxs, more veggies less wilted and tomatoes here and there. Maybe a bit of okra in the coastal parish gumbos but rarely if never in the prairie parish gumbos.

Bottom line is that okra as a component of gumbo is not a base ingredient of real S Louisiana gumbo.

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Use dark meat chicken only. It can handle the long cooking time without becoming dry and chalky like white meat. If you want to use white meat, add it at the end so it doesn't overcook.
Use a homemade stock if at all possible. Even if you just boil the skin and bones from the dark meat for two hours, that will be better than canned stock.

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This x 1000

Would you eat boiled chicken? Hell no, so don't put it in your gumbo. I make my stock from carcasses of roasted birds, necks, backbones, wings etc.

When I make chicken and sausage Gumbo, I sear seasoned boneless thighs (DIY and toss bones in the stock pot) then deglaze the pan with stock and add it all to the Gumbo.

One of these days I'm gonna do a step by step Gumbo thread and show you hacks how it's done

Pan fry the okra first (no breading, just sear it in the pan). This will help get rid of the sliminess.

Sear the sausage first - gives it a better texture.

You can put your oil/flour mixture in a cast iron skillet and cook it low in the oven. Makes a great roux and no need to stir until your arm falls off.

Never had gumbo without okra - my grandmother would scoff at such an idea - but it's more of a family versus regional thing to me. Most of my mom's side of the family hails from the Lafayette-White Castle-Thibodaux triangle. Okra was, and is, a staple part of gumbo.

No tomatoes - but then again, I also don't put much (if any) celery either. Onions and bell peppers are the mainstay of vegetables, and they are cooked down. Okra is seared and put in about halfway through the cook so it keeps some of the firmness and doesn't get the slime that most folks don't like.

I like gumbo roux dark - much darker than I make an etoufee roux, and gumbo roux is flour and oil versus flour and butter that I use for etoufee. 30-45 mins is all I've ever put into making one, though I've heard of much longer cook times.

Stock, to me, is a huge factor. I make stock out of my fried turkey every year and it is worlds better than anything you'll find at the store. I can honestly say I've never used bullion cubes. Seafood stock is also an option, though I never seem to have as much of it as I do other types.

Meats are subjective - I like all kinds of stuff in my gumbo, sometimes just seafood (I consider crawfish seafood in this respect), sometimes just fowl of some sort, always sausage (doesn't have to be andoullie either - a good jalapeno sausage is fugskin awesome in gumbo) - sometimes a hodge podge of all of them.

Spices and seasonings are completely random - and pretty much non repeatable. All depends on what I have handy, what I'm in the mood for, and what I grab at the time.

That's the great thing about gumbo - it's pretty unique to almost everybody.

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Never had gumbo without okra - my grandmother would scoff at such an idea - but it's more of a family versus regional thing to me. Most of my mom's side of the family hails from the Lafayette-White Castle-Thibodaux triangle. Okra was, and is, a staple part of gumbo.

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I think it being a group/family thing is probably accurate. in Lafayette, no one we ran around with put okra in their gumbo. probably just a function of the same group of people growing up and learning from the same group of people...

I detest okra in gumbo.

I agree with dark meat chicken. It stands up to boiling and long heat much better.

Roux should be equal parts oil and flour by weight, not volume. I cook it to a bit darker than milk chocolate.

I like chopped tomatoes but I can see why some wouldn't like it. Definitely a believer in the holy trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) as the core vegetables.

I've never made gumbo, but if there is okra in it, I'm going to pick it out.

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I like gumbo roux dark - much darker than I make an etoufee roux, and gumbo roux is flour and oil versus flour and butter that I use for etoufee. 30-45 mins is all I've ever put into making one, though I've heard of much longer cook times.

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Never had gumbo without okra - my grandmother would scoff at such an idea - but it's more of a family versus regional thing to me. Most of my mom's side of the family hails from the Lafayette-White Castle-Thibodaux triangle. Okra was, and is, a staple part of gumbo.

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I think it being a group/family thing is probably accurate. in Lafayette, no one we ran around with put okra in their gumbo. probably just a function of the same group of people growing up and learning from the same group of people...

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I honestly think a lot of it just depends on what was available at the time when the recipe was created. Okra is an easy crop to grow, and I know grandma's family had a lot of it on their farm - so it makes sense that okra was a staple of their gumbo recipe. Other areas used different things based on what was available.

And if you want a truly authentic gumbo - you need to learn to cook things like squirrel, possum, rabbit, etc. - basically anything that was in range of momma and her shotgun from the front porch. Or so I've been told anyway.

I do put dove breasts, duck and occasionally something different in gumbo if I have just a little bit of it left. Makes for interesting combinations of flavors at times.

Emeril's Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

I have cooked this before when I was away from home and didn't have our family gumbo recipe and it was pretty dang good.

secret ingredient: cornish game hen or two instead of chicken.

Roast bird(s) until tender, add drippings to stock pot along with carcass, boil for better part of a day to make the stock.

oooo Mommie!! Umami!!

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Emeril's Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

I have cooked this before when I was away from home and didn't have our family gumbo recipe and it was pretty dang good.

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+1 for this recipe

+2 for the emeril recipe. Have used it many times.