After living in Louisiana for more than 15 years, the fabulous foods of Cajun country have embeded their flavors deep in the hearts of our family. Many delicious recipes made their way to the table and like any culture certain dishes come to mind when tempuratures take a slight dip and the leaves begin to fall.
Many restaurants have added Gumbo to their appetizer list, unfortunately, most miss the mark as to what a “real” gumbo tastes like. If you have been subjected to the tomato base gumbo at the local diner, you may have squinted your nose and lamented “What’s all the fuss about this dish called gumbo?”
Great tasting gumbo begins with the best roux, typically made from 1 cup flour to 1 cup oil, (one cup of oil can measure more than 1900 calories and more than 200 grams of fat). Most health conscious individuals will agree, that’s a lot of fat.
So do we simply give up gumbo? It won’t be necessary if you follow the simple steps that follow:
1 cup flour
1-2 cartons Organic Chicken Broth
3 large onion
2 bell pepper
3-4 stalks celery (tops included)
Minced Garlic
2-4 large boneless skinless chicken breast
Seasonings: Salt, black pepper, Tony Chachere’s seasoning, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, red pepper, hot sauce
Brown Rice
Green Onion
Use an iron skillet or a non-stick pan and place 1 cup flour on medium to medium high heat. Do not leave unattended. Like any good roux, it must be stirred constantly. You are basically browning the flour and this is where so much of your flavor will come from. Do not become impatient and burn the mix. Patiently stir until your flour has turned a lovely deep brown.
Move the pan off the heat and slowly add organic chicken broth, (buy low sodium in a box). If you add the liquid too quick the flour will splash out of the pan, if you add too slow your mixture will thicken too quickly and leave you with possible lumps. We are using chicken broth because we will be missing the flavor of cooking our chicken with bones and skin on.I usually transfer my mixture to a dutch oven at this point to make room for the goodies.
There are three essential ingredients that MUST go into the gumbo. Onion, celery and green bell pepper. I typically use 2-3 large onions, 2 small bell peppers and 3-4 stalks of celery chopped. Pour these into your roux and keep the heat on medium-low, while you cut your chicken breast. I like the breast cut into bite sized pieces. Add the meat and 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, or you can press your own.
I love seasoning, my gumbo has salt, black pepper, Tony Chacheres seasoning (www.tonychachere.com), a bay leaf, oregano, thyme, red pepper, hot sauce. Seasoning is personal, start with a teaspoon of each and add more to taste.
Allow the mixture to simmer an hour or two, or until the chicken is tender.
We now serve our gumbo over brown rice. To save time, I cook large amounts of brown rice at one time and freeze it in portioned one cup baggies. The small bags are frozen in a large Ziploc (www.ziploc.com) freezer bag. They are easily thawed in the microwave.
Ladel the gumbo over the rice, and add chopped green onion as a garnish. Sprinkle with File for added flavor, right before serving.
