Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

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This Chicken and Sausage Gumbo 🥘 includes tender chicken, smoky Andouille sausage, and a richly spiced broth. This gumbo uses some traditional ingredients like bell peppers, onions, and celery while adding twists like fire-roasted tomatoes and jalapeños and for a kick! Served with rice, this gumbo is comfort food that sticks to your ribs and keeps you cozy from the inside-out!

About the Recipe

Gumbo is one of those recipes like jambalaya that everyone's grandmother, friend or relative has "the best" gumbo recipe. Rather than compete with your family's classic gumbo recipe, I'm shaking things up. If you like the sounds of that, keep reading. If not, go dust off your mama's recipe box and grab her recipe for gumbo – I won't be offended.

Gumbo "debates" come down to one main thing, or so it seems: tomatoes, or lack of. It's said that including tomatoes creates a Creole style gumbo and the lack of tomatoes means it's a Cajun gumbo. I used fire-roasted tomatoes so not sure where exactly that leaves this version, but more in the Creole cooking camp I'd say.

I also added jalapeños for a bit of extra heat, as well as some cayenne pepper. It's said that spicier gumbos are Cajun and from Southern Louisiana whereas Creole gumbos are more characteristic of New Orleans. So again, I'm shaking things all up and not playing by granny's rules.

The final characteristic about gumbo that most people agree on is that it needs a dark roux for earthy flavor. Meaning, flour + fat has been cooked to a dark color, not just a golden brown colored roux like you'd create when making gravy. I've seen all kinds of ways to make a dark roux and some are very long and feel unnecessarily complicated (like baking roux). I make the dark roux for gumbo on the stove, while watching the heat so it doesn't burn, and it doesn't take long.

The real magic happens when everything simmers together for about an hour. The flavors develop and marry and your house will smell so good!

Ingredients in Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo

• Andouille Sausage – This is spicy Cajun pork sausage and I use sausage that's already been cooked. I sear it to develop the flavor. Use your favorite sausage with a heat level you enjoy, and that's available in your area.
• Chicken – I use boneless skinless chicken thighs (boneless skinless chicken breasts are fine) that I dice into small pieces and sear. Variations include roasting a whole chicken and shredding it, or use rotisserie chicken to save time.
• Roux – Traditionalists will say that you need to use a fat with a higher smoking point such as vegetable oil because they also simmer a roux for 30+ minutes. Personally, I use salted butter and all-purpose flour without any issue provided you keep the heat on low or medium-low and whisk, whisk, whisk. When you have a dark brown roux like the one we do, it loses the ability to thicken like a lighter roux, and this chocolate roux is really about flavor, rather than thickening. We've got okra for that, see below.
• Cajun Holy Trinity – Yellow onion (or sweet onions, white onions may be subbed), green bell peppers, and celery. This is based on a classic French mirepoix, but green bell peppers are used in place of carrots. You can also use half-and-half green bell peppers and red bell peppers.
• Cajun Seasonings + Heat – Smoked paprika, jalapeño pepper, garlic, canned fire-roasted tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce bay leaves, dried thyme, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper.
• Chicken broth – I use regular but reduced sodium is fine, noting you'll need to add more salt than indicated.
• Okra – The slimy vegetable! But in the case of gumbo, the slimy aspect acts as a thickening agent for the gumbo since our dark roux isn't too helpful for thickening. You can use fresh or frozen okra. In California, I use frozen since we're not really known as okra country. There's also gumbo filé powder which is made from ground sassafras leaves and it'll thicken things – almost too much thickening power – so if you're using it instead of okra, add it sparingly, at the end, and keep stirring.
• Garnishing and Serving – Fresh parsley is great and classic white rice is the way to go for gumbo and some skillet cornbread or honey cornbread muffins are a lovely touch.

Instructions:

1. Make the dark roux by melting butter in a large pot over medium-low heat, then adding flour and whisking constantly until it reaches a dark brown color.
2. Add the Cajun Holy Trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) and sauté until softened.
3. Add garlic, jalapeño, and Cajun seasonings, and sauté for a few more minutes.
4. Add chicken broth, fire-roasted tomatoes, and Worcestershire sauce, and bring to a simmer.
5. Add seared chicken and sausage, and simmer for about an hour.
6. Add okra and simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve over white rice.

Tips:

• If you're not a fan of spicy food, leave out jalapeno pepper and use regular canned diced tomatoes rather than fire-roasted. However, the spice level with the current proportions is nice; it has warmth and a bit of lingering heat.
• You can adjust the cayenne and add more jalapeños if you like really spicy gumbo.
• I would taste test it as you go and as the flavors develop depth and marry while cooking.
• You can always add hot sauce at the end to an individual bowl to customize things better.
• Wondering about adding shrimp to make seafood gumbo? You can. Add them (cleaned and deveined with tails on, or off based on preference) in the literal last 5 minutes before you serve the best gumbo. Shrimp will cook very quickly in the hot broth and that's all the time they'll need.