At the library last week, I snatched the entire stack of Cook’s Illustrated magazines and ever since I’ve been happily sifting through the recipes, making grocery lists, tracking down unique ingredients, and experimenting. For supper a couple nights back, I made chicken and sausage gumbo. It was delicious — spicy, rich, meaty, and flavorful — but the thing that I was most excited about was the sauce. Or rather, how I had thickened the sauce.
The recipe called for toasting the flour — a whole cup of it — in the oven until it was the color of cinnamon and then adding it to the broth to flavor, thicken, and darken the sauce. I’d never heard the likes, so of course I had to try it.
Not knowing what to expect, the process felt touch-and-go. While the flour toasted, I hovered, afraid it would scorch, but I needn’t have worried — the flour browned slowly and steadily. Then, adding the broth to the flour, the paste turned lumpy even though I had been steadily whisking the whole time. I ran my immersion blender through the paste — problem solved. And then, immediately after adding the flour to the liquid, the sauce tasted grainy, like a Nicaraguan corn drink, and I nearly threw in the towel. There was no way I’d get this by my family’s noses.
But then, after simmering the sauce for another 20-30 minutes, the weird texture completely disappeared, leaving the sauce smooth as silk. Dark, nutty brown, and lusciously rich, it reminded me of an adobo sauce (never mind that I’ve never made an adobo sauce) — it had depth.
I’m still scratching my head about the flour, though. Any other time, adding a cup of flour to four cups of liquid would yield a horribly gelatinous paste, so why not in this case? Does flour lose its thickening properties after it’s been toasted?
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
Adapted from the January and February 2017 issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine.
The recipe called for two pounds of chicken, but since there was plenty of sauce, next time I’ll use three pounds.
As for the sausage, andouille is expensive and sort of hard to find, and after eating it, I think any spicy sausage would work well here. Next time I’ll probably use kielbasa instead.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon each smoked paprika and dried thyme
2 bay leaves
¼ – ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used chile coban)
4 cups chicken broth, divided
2-3 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
8 ounces andouille sausage, sliced in half lengthwise and then in crosswise in quarter-inch pieces
salt and black pepper
6 scallions, sliced thin
1 teaspoon white vinegar
to toast the flour:
Put the flour in a sided baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, stirring every five minutes. When the flour is the color of ground cinnamon, remove it from the oven and transfer to a bowl to cool. The flour can be made ahead and stored in the freezer.
to make the gumbo:
Saute the pepper, onion, and celery in the oil until softened. Add the garlic, thyme, paprika, bay leave, cayenne, and a bit of salt and pepper and saute for another minute. Add 2 cups of chicken broth. Nestle the chicken into the broth in a single layer (don’t worry if it’s not completely submerged) and cook on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, until it’s cooked through. Remove the chicken to a plate to cool and then shred with a fork.
Slowly whisk the remaining 2 cups of broth into the browned flour. If the paste is lumpy, use an immersion blender to smooth it out. Increase the heat under the vegetables and slowly whisk in the flour-broth paste. Add the sausage. Simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the chicken and scallions to the gumbo and heat through. Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and black pepper. Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar.
Serve the gumbo over rice.
This same time, years previous: the quotidian (2.1.16), stuck buttons and frozen pipes, how we got our house, taco seasoning mix, advice, please.
12 Comments
Roy
Through a random Google search for a gumbo recipe , I came across your recipe. I tried it and it was absolutely delicious. As for the comment about vinegar being added, I’ve seen many people add hot sauce (which has vinegar). Gumbo with hot sauce on top of a bowl of rice is da bomb! I intrigued enough to look at your other recipes. The recipe by ingredient index is brilliant. Your trip to South Africa has also piqued my interested
A.S.U.
Flour does indeed lose its thickening power as it browns!
melodie davis
Do I detect you forgot to take a picture of the finished dish in a bigger quantity, and this is all you had left?? (which is what I've done numerous times). Your small plate (dessert plate?) and helping here made me think that. It looks SO good! The fact this calls for chicken thighs is beautiful because they're frequently cheaper.
Jennifer Jo
Ha! That's a full-sized plate: my lunch the next day. (We ran out of leftover rice, but I still have a little gumbo in the fridge.) With the dark evenings, I can't take photos at night, so you miss seeing the broccoli we ate it with, too….
Lauralli
Welcome to my world! Born & raised in Louisiana, gumbo is a staple. Yours seems a bit thick–may be exactly the way your recipe intended.? But, it's usually like a soup–more brothy than thick. And, the vinegar? Never heard of adding that but I might try it next time for comparison sake. Also, if you can find ground gumbo file' (sassafras) to sprinkle on top it's even better! If you ever find yourself in New Orleans please try seafood gumbo served with local french bread–doesn't get any better than that!
Jennifer Jo
That top photo is the slurry: 2 cups broth to one cup of flour. The final gumbo broth is stew-like, and we had to keep adding more rice to our plates to mop it up.
I never heard of adding sassafras on top! That's tart/acidic, right? So maybe the vinegar is in place of that?
Lauralli
My recipe calls for 2 quarts of broth to 3/4 cup of flour which would account for the difference. It's served in a bowl and we mop it up with french bread. 🙂 Yours seems more like the consistency of an etouffee (driving me crazy that I can't type the correct accents!). I think of the file' as more earthy than tart/acidic. I'm sure Amazon can deliver on the file' and while you're at it order some Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning too–good stuff! There are hundreds (if not thousands) of recipes for gumbo, though. As like everything you make, I'm sure it's delicious!
katie
hmm. my comment disappeared. Anyhow, sometimes they want you to stir your roux till it turns that same cinnamony color. It takes a long time if you do it as slowly as is recommended. I am impatient and do it over higher heat so it goes faster. And my family's naive tastebuds don't know to complain.
Jennifer Jo
Yes, and that was the complaint from the cookbook magazine people—they wanted a roux that didn't take so much time but had the same flavor. The reduced fat was just a side benefit (and not something I even thought of until a friend on Facebook pointed it out).
Lana
If you have Aldi they have andouille sausage or did last time I looked and it is around $2.
Jennifer Jo
Aldi is coming to our town, I hear! Thanks for the heads-up.
Lana
You are going to be pleasantly surprised at all the wonderful foods they carry and so cheap! Also no MSG, trans fats, artificial colors and a list of 8 pesticides in anything they sell.