This Easy One Pot Gumbo Recipe Is Perfect For A Hearty & Healthy Meal (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good gumbo? ›

Great gumbo starts with roux, a flavorful thickening agent made from equal parts fat and flour. Once the roux is a deep golden color, add diced veggies and sausage to the mix. Then, incorporate beef bouillon, hot sauce, tomatoes, and seasonings to intensify the flavor.

Thou Shalt Always Use a Bowl. If you use a plate, it is not gumbo it is rice and gravy! Thou Shalt Only Use a Wooden Spoon. There is only one kind of spoon that can enter a gumbo pot and that is a wooden one.

For purposes of this discussion, we will limit our focus to plain old polished white rice. Even then, it comes in different sizes — short, long and medium grain. I prefer medium grain rice in a gumbo, because the grains puff up, the perfect medium for a gumbo. The thick gumbo juice sticks to the grains just right.

Two well-known types of gumbo are seafood gumbo, which often includes shrimp, oysters and crabs, and chicken-and-sausage gumbo, made with andouille sausage. Okra gumbo utilizes okra to thicken the stew; common varieties include shrimp-and-okra or chicken-and-okra gumbo.

Roux is flour that's browned in fat (like oil or butter) to thicken and flavor gumbo and other Cajun dishes. Although it's just two ingredients, the color of a roux is fiercely debated among gumbo aficionados.

2 tablespoons of plain flour and 1.5 - 2 tablespoons of fat cooked without browning will thicken a cup of milk or broth to a medium white sauce or gravy consistency. For a soup, less will be needed (1 to 1.5 tablespoons flour per cup). Other starches like potatoes will also thicken, so adjust for that.

I - Thou Shalt Never Use Tomatoes If we've learned anything from the Disney folks, it's this. Any cooyon with half a brain knows "Making Gumbo 101" contains this golden rule -- it's roux-based and not tomato-based! Tomatoes are for things like spaghetti sauce.

Turns out, your preference for tomatoes in gumbo comes down to whether you learned your skills from a Cajun cook or a Creole cook. (Learn about the difference here.) Cajun gumbo does not include tomatoes in the base, but Creole gumbo (typically shellfish or seafood gumbo) does call for tomatoes.

Gumbo is much denser than a simple soup; the broth has a thick, almost viscous consistency. And that characteristic is most commonly created by making a roux, cooking flour and oil together until they thicken and darken. Otherwise, gumbo can be thickened with file, which is just powdered dried sassafras leaves.

Add both chicken and sausage to gumbo and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Add uncooked rice, stir well, and simmer on low for another 15 minutes. If rice needs additional cooking, turn heat off, leave pot covered, and let stand until rice is ready.

Do carrots belong in gumbo? ›

Now, I prefer to grind up my own mix of seasoning (I use Emeril's ESSENCE recipe sometimes) because it keeps the flavour fresher, and I can ease up on the salt in favour of more pepper. Above all else, never add carrots (any recipe that tells you to do so is not an authentic New Orleans gumbo, even if it's delicious).

First mix a little of the gumbo liquid with the dry roux to make a paste, then whisk that slurry into the rest of the gumbo and bring to a simmer. There really is no place for water in gumbo. Instead, create a flavorful broth. Even common, store-bought chicken broth adds more flavor than water.

Cooking the gumbo for a good three to four hours on simmer is imperative. "The long cooking time adds time for flavors to develop and ensures a burst of flavor," says Biffar. Make sure to give it time to let everything mesh together, this is not a dish to be rushed!

Turns out, your preference for tomatoes in gumbo comes down to whether you learned your skills from a Cajun cook or a Creole cook. (Learn about the difference here.) Cajun gumbo does not include tomatoes in the base, but Creole gumbo (typically shellfish or seafood gumbo) does call for tomatoes.