Great Gumbo Using Paul Prudhomme’s Delightful Recipe

Recipe First – Click Here – Non paywalled link – Click Here –

The recipe that is linked above is Paul Prudhomme’s recipe that was published in the New York Times in 1983. From looking around and asking my uncle, Mike, who does this a lot better than I do, I was turned onto this recipe and it seems to be the consensus best.

For me, gumbo is a great blend between a traditional stew and cajun cooking at its finest. I do not have a lot of experience cooking cajun, but love the spice palate and would love to explore that area more.

Starting off! Lets get the chicken ready –

Broke down the chicken and seasoned with the garlic, cayenne, mustard, salt, pepper, paprika.

Note — I did not use File powder, made from ground sassafras as I did not have it on hand and was not able to locate in time – Click Here – for some fun background on File powder.

The recipe mentions seasoning the flour mixture with the spice mix, but I have found this to be pretty ineffective when deep frying or dredging as you can’t control the concentration easily; plus it’s a bit of a waste. I season the chicken directly whether with salt or a spice blend.

Note — Meathead has a 10/10 article on shallow deep frying, seasoning, science of salt, best deep fried chicken, etc. – Click Here –

The recipe doesn’t give a temperature, but use a thermometer and bring the oil up to 375 F (it will cool down a bit when adding the meat so don’t worry if you are 10 degrees over).

Once the meat is cooked (internal 170 F) pull the chicken and it is time to make the roux.

What is a roux? Flour mixed with a fat and heated up — it helps to thicken sauces/gravy as well as gives flavour depth depending on how dark you take the colour; when really dark is has a nutty aroma.

Keep mixing and use a low heat so that it does not burn.

You can see it getting to a deep chocolate colour here and is ready for the next step.

Above is the ‘holy trinity’ – the cajun and Louisiana creole version of the french mirepoix. Add to the roux.

As the ‘holy trinity’ is added the veggies start to cook in the oil/four mix and release moisture which darkens the roux more — this causes the admittedly stressful situation of making sure it is okay that your roux has turned black (according to Chef Prudhomme this is the only way it should be). See below on how it should look.

I didn’t take any pictures of the sausage cooking as its not interesting, but I would suggest using a high quality sausage as it bring a surprising amount of clout to the dish. Now is the time to add the stock that has been heating up.

Note — I use home made bone broth, but you can use boxed too since you’ll add the bone in chicken back in at the end of this recipe which helps bring the gelatine and mouth feel you get from bone broth.

Add the chicken, bay leaf, sausage, garlic, and simmer for 45 min to 1 hr.

After simmering pull out the chicken, discard the bones, shred the meat, and add back in and ready to serve.

Once done it will have a very deep, yet subtle flavour. I find that it doesn’t punch you in the face with spice or flavour, but it has a long finish on your palette and is truly memorable.

Plate with white rice or potato.

Turned out great and was a crowd favourite earning Two Nicole Thumbs Up.

Tweaks: I would use about half of the oil as instructed in the recipe as it makes a ton of roux and my sausage was below average and could have taken a step up.

Would make again and again.

Cole Rating: 8/10