Louisiana Chicken Gumbo Recipe

Gumbo is one of the all-time classic Cajun foods, right up there with jambalaya, crawfish, and boudin. While gumbo is somewhat similar to etouffee, the latter is typically only made with seafood while the former can include main ingredients like the more budget-friendly chicken that we're using here. According to recipe developer Feta Topalu, "This Louisiana chicken gumbo has heat, spice, and hearty, southern flavors." While there are numerous different gumbo recipes varying from region to region and cook to cook, she notes that the one thing they all have in common is "a rich, dark roux [made] out of equal parts oil and flour."

Gumbo is often eaten over a bed of rice, with Topalu observing that "white long-grain rice is the most common rice." She does say, though, that brown rice, jasmine rice, or dirty rice would all work, too. You could even opt out of the extra carbs and ditch the rice altogether since this gumbo can also be eaten as a thick, hearty soup.

You're going to need quite a few ingredients to make this gumbo: 18 in all. For starters, you'll need some chicken (Topalu favors using thigh meat, cut into strips), plus olive oil for cooking and salt and pepper for seasoning. You'll make a roux from canola oil and flour, while the gumbo vegetables consist of an onion, bell peppers, celery, and okra. These are cooked in chicken stock seasoned with garlic, thyme, oregano, cayenne, a bay leaf, and gumbo filé powder, then the finished dish is garnished with green onions.

Use 1 tablespoon of olive oil to coat the raw chicken strips, then sprinkle them with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Heat the rest of the olive oil over medium-high, then stir-fry the chicken for 6 to 8 minutes. You'll probably need to do this in two batches unless you have a really large pot since the chicken won't be adequately cooked if it's too crowded.

Once the chicken is cooked, take it out of the pan. At this point, Topalu even likes to wipe out the pan as she uses a different type of oil to make the roux, but you needn't follow suit if you don't mind a few drops of olive oil in your canola.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and pour the canola into the pan. Add the flour and cook it, stirring all the while, for 15 to 20 minutes. By the end of this time, the roux should be dark brown but not burnt.

Turn the heat back up again, this time to medium. Put the vegetables in the pan, along with the garlic, and stir-fry them for 10 to 12 minutes. Once the vegetables are tender, add the stock as well as the rest of the salt and pepper and all of the seasonings except for the gumbo filé powder. Bring the stock to a boil, then turn the heat down once more to medium-low. Let the soup simmer for half an hour.

Put the chicken in the gumbo along with the filé powder, then let it cook for 10 minutes. Once the gumbo is done, you can go ahead and garnish it with green onions, then dish it up with a side of rice (or not).

Leftover gumbo, Topalu says, can last for up to four days in the refrigerator if you keep it in an airtight container. You can also freeze it, but if you do, Topalu advises "leaving about 1 to 2 inches of room from the top [of the freezer container] for liquid to expand."