Chili Gumbo Recipe on Food52 (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.

Recipe Notes

Filé powder – Filé powder, also known as gumbo filé, is an herbal powder made of ground-up sassafras leaves, a common herb found in Southern cooking. It has a tea-like, earthy smell that balances out the rich flavors of gumbo while also adding a natural thickener.

Proteins that cook fast and shouldn't be overcooked (shrimp or scallops, for example) should be added during the last 5 minutes of cooking. One final opportunity to taste for seasoning. At this point, I generally find that a bit of acid will brighten the gumbo. Stir in 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar and taste again.

Offense: Unlike chili, gumbo is served one way - in a bowl. But gumbo finds different ways to score from its lone formation. " Gumbo can be really colorful," Judice said. "Any kind of meat, you can make a gumbo with it."

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.

"The long cooking time adds time for flavors to develop and ensures a burst of flavor," says Biffar.

For the most flavor, use stock or broth in your gumbo instead of water. Whether you use chicken or vegetable stock, homemade or boxed, the stock will give your gumbo more depth and complexity.

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.

The "holy trinity" in Cajun cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine is the base for several dishes in the regional cuisines of Louisiana and consists of onions, bell peppers and celery. The preparation of Cajun/Creole dishes such as crawfish étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya all start from this base.

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.

Do you use red or white onions in gumbo? ›

Most often using yellow or white onions, this base is a staple in nearly every dish the world associates with Cajun and Creole cuisine such as gumbo, red beans and rice, and other soups and stews of the region. The proper ratio of onions to celery to green peppers seems to be up to the cook and the specific recipe.

Love it or hate it, there's no denying that okra can get slimy. The so-called slime is mucilage, which comes from sugar residue and is great for, say, thickening gumbo, but not great when you're biting into a piece of sautéed okra and averse to that viscous texture.

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).

Gumbo is really a soup or stew that's often served over a little rice, while jambalaya is made with the rice cooked into the dish, making the grain an integral part of it. In gumbo, there should be more liquid than rice, while jambalaya should not be liquid-y or mushy. "Jambalaya is a way to cook rice.

Lagasse points out “gumbo thickness is a matter of personal preference. Some folks enjoy a very thick gravy like sauce, and others prefer their gumbo to be more on the brothy side. Either is correct, make it how you like it!” I've adapted the recipe to include okra, which acts as a natural thickener.

Filé can provide thickening when okra is not in season, in types of gumbo that use okra or a roux as a thickener for gumbo instead of filé. Sprinkled sparingly over gumbo as a seasoning and a thickening agent, filé powder adds a distinctive, earthy flavor and texture.