High Protein Gumbo

This was actually something I made in one of the research projects I had to do in culinary school... over ten years ago. Man, time really flies. We were each all randomly assigned to make a regional dish from a subsection of the USA, and I got Louisiana. Having always been into soups and stews, I ended up choosing gumbo as my dish of choice and man, did I fall in love with this. It’s just an incredibly savory, hearty, and rich stew that’s so amazingly unique to the region, almost like an American curry, but also not really.

The bell pepper/onion/celery combo is known in Cajun cooking as the “holy trinity,” and gives this dish a lot of the unique backbone that it has. I diced mine pretty fine, but you really don’t have to-- It’s very forgiving in that way. As always, I like to process all of my meats and vegetables separately so that care can be given to each one, but honestly if you don’t want to go through the hassle everything can be thrown in at once. There won’t be quite as much complexity and depth of flavor, but you can be sure it’ll be real good regardless.

A quick tip with the shrimp-- To get color on it without overcooking it, make sure it’s as dry as it can be before you put it in the pan on blisteringly hot heat with a touch of oil, then just spread it out and DON’T TOUCH IT. It’s going to get fully cooked in the soup anyway, so it’s just the sear we’re looking for.

A lot of recipes you’ll come across will tell you to take like an hour to make the roux, or put it in the oven and slowly cook it over four hours. This really, really isn’t necessary. The flavor comes through from the Maillard reaction, so going fast and hard on heat and just stirring a bunch works just fine. Blind taste tests show no difference, it’s just riskier because you gotta really stir to make sure nothing burns. Doing it this way should only take 10-15 minutes instead.

This is a super rich and hearty stew, and tabasco goes really well with it! Adding it at the end over the top of putting some in directly as it cooks are both great options. I’m personally not a fan of okra, and it’s a little harder to get around here, but okra is definitely something that’s traditionally added. Gumbo really doesn’t get the classic gumbo taste and texture if you don’t add okra or file powder, so really get one or the other in there. File powder is much easier to find online, and is both a flavoring agent and thickener, so add it in at the end so it doesn’t thicken too much. File powder is ground up sassafras leaves so it really gives it  a unique taste-- It’s one of my favorite parts.

Hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, let us know what you think and what you’d like to see next!

— Tim

Sear chicken, shrimp, and sausage until there’s color but it’s not fully cooked through.

Small dice onions, celery, and bell peppers and mince garlic.

Melt 1 cup of butter in pot and stir in flour to make roux

Keep stirring vigorously with heat on medium-high to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom and burns. The color will change over time and darken. Cook until the roux is a deep, almost burnt-looking brown.

Optional: Forget to get a good picture of how deeply brown the roux should be because of how much stirring you had to do.

Add your vegetable mix and the spices to the roux and sautee it, stirring frequently until softened and the vegetables are slightly translucent.

Add sausage, chicken thigh, broth, and bay leaves. Do NOT add the shrimp yet. Simmer uncovered for an hour and a half or more, the longer the better! Stir often to make sure nothing is sticking to or burning on the bottom.

Add your shrimp and file powder, season to taste, pour over some noodles or rice, and enjoy!