Azith Evertoon
02-28-2007, 12:08 PM
Thought i would toss this in from the south. btw, Andouille is pronounced (On-doo-ee).
1 chickens worth of breasts, legs, thighs, wings. (can be adjusted of course).
1 stick of Andouille.
flour
vegtable oil
1 white onion (medium, diced up..have this ready before the reux is made)
parsley
salt/pepper/cayenne pepper/celery salt
The hardest part of making a Gumbo is the reux. Reux is a mixture of oil and flour, cooked slowly in a skillet. I really suggest buying a pre-made reux in a jar instead of making it yourself as if this is done wrong, your whole gumbo will taste bland or burnt.
reux:
If you insist on trying to make it yourself, lightly fry your chicken in the skillet, just salt and pepper the chicken for cooking, no flour. when done, put the chicken aside and drain most of the oil from the skillet so you are left with the chicken bits and pieces left over (stuck to the bottom of the pan usually), and a layer of oil, scrape the pan bottom to loosen up the bits of chicken, then take a standard cooking spoon (long handled spoon, wide but shallow with no holes in it), and get about a level spoonfull of flour, and add that to the oil, cooking on a low fire.
Get a wooden flat-ended spatula, and with this you will spend the next 30-45 minutes or so moving the flour and oil mixture around as it cooks. this is to prevent it from burning or sticking. if you leave it alone for long, it will burn and your gumbo will suck. keep turning the mixture over, scraping the entire surface of the pan with the flat end so no point cooks for too long. your mixture of flour and oil is typically going to be fluid, but with a little stiffness to it. as a test, scrape your spoon across the middle of the skillet and if the liquid recovers itself immediately, its probably got a little too much oil, so add some flour, if the clean part you just scraped is left uncovered for more then 2 seconds or so, your too dry, and need to add some oil. your looking for the spoon to leave a clean spot thats recovered by the liquid a second or two after its cleared. Once you have the correct consistancy, cook this while stirring until it reaches the color of medium caramel.
when done, remove about half of the reux from the skillet, put it aside as you may need it later. The half left in the skillet, you add your onions in, and mix them in with the reux. let the onions cook with the reux (still stirring) a little more till they get soft/translucent, then remove from the heat.
Alternative reux:
Alternatively, if you dont want to make your own reux, buy a jar of reux (not the powdered stuff...the jar will look like a jar full of brown peanut butter with a bunch of oil in it). cook your onions in a skillet on a low fire, then add about 2 heaping teapsoons of the ruex to the onions, let it heat up, keep stirring and mix it with the onions, then remove from the heat when its a brown mess with onions mixed in.
Gumbo:
Take a dutch oven or medium soup pot with 3/4th full of water, heat this up to boiling, and add in your reux, chicken, The diced up andoullie, a good handfull of minced or dry parsley and a good bit of pepper, salt, and some cayenne pepper. Let this mixture get to a rolling boil, then lower heat to a simmering boil, stirring occasionally until the liquid thickens down some to a fluid gravy. taste it and see if its a little on the bland side...add some reux if this is the case, a teaspoon at a time.
eat in a bowl over rice, with toasted french bread to clean your bowl of anything left over.
1 chickens worth of breasts, legs, thighs, wings. (can be adjusted of course).
1 stick of Andouille.
flour
vegtable oil
1 white onion (medium, diced up..have this ready before the reux is made)
parsley
salt/pepper/cayenne pepper/celery salt
The hardest part of making a Gumbo is the reux. Reux is a mixture of oil and flour, cooked slowly in a skillet. I really suggest buying a pre-made reux in a jar instead of making it yourself as if this is done wrong, your whole gumbo will taste bland or burnt.
reux:
If you insist on trying to make it yourself, lightly fry your chicken in the skillet, just salt and pepper the chicken for cooking, no flour. when done, put the chicken aside and drain most of the oil from the skillet so you are left with the chicken bits and pieces left over (stuck to the bottom of the pan usually), and a layer of oil, scrape the pan bottom to loosen up the bits of chicken, then take a standard cooking spoon (long handled spoon, wide but shallow with no holes in it), and get about a level spoonfull of flour, and add that to the oil, cooking on a low fire.
Get a wooden flat-ended spatula, and with this you will spend the next 30-45 minutes or so moving the flour and oil mixture around as it cooks. this is to prevent it from burning or sticking. if you leave it alone for long, it will burn and your gumbo will suck. keep turning the mixture over, scraping the entire surface of the pan with the flat end so no point cooks for too long. your mixture of flour and oil is typically going to be fluid, but with a little stiffness to it. as a test, scrape your spoon across the middle of the skillet and if the liquid recovers itself immediately, its probably got a little too much oil, so add some flour, if the clean part you just scraped is left uncovered for more then 2 seconds or so, your too dry, and need to add some oil. your looking for the spoon to leave a clean spot thats recovered by the liquid a second or two after its cleared. Once you have the correct consistancy, cook this while stirring until it reaches the color of medium caramel.
when done, remove about half of the reux from the skillet, put it aside as you may need it later. The half left in the skillet, you add your onions in, and mix them in with the reux. let the onions cook with the reux (still stirring) a little more till they get soft/translucent, then remove from the heat.
Alternative reux:
Alternatively, if you dont want to make your own reux, buy a jar of reux (not the powdered stuff...the jar will look like a jar full of brown peanut butter with a bunch of oil in it). cook your onions in a skillet on a low fire, then add about 2 heaping teapsoons of the ruex to the onions, let it heat up, keep stirring and mix it with the onions, then remove from the heat when its a brown mess with onions mixed in.
Gumbo:
Take a dutch oven or medium soup pot with 3/4th full of water, heat this up to boiling, and add in your reux, chicken, The diced up andoullie, a good handfull of minced or dry parsley and a good bit of pepper, salt, and some cayenne pepper. Let this mixture get to a rolling boil, then lower heat to a simmering boil, stirring occasionally until the liquid thickens down some to a fluid gravy. taste it and see if its a little on the bland side...add some reux if this is the case, a teaspoon at a time.
eat in a bowl over rice, with toasted french bread to clean your bowl of anything left over.