An Exquisite Bowl Of Seafood Gumbo Doesn’t Require A Flight To New Orleans

If you feel the consistency of your gumbo is too thick, which is often not the case. You can adjust the consistency with a little more chicken stock. Try to avoid using water because water will cause to gumbo to loose flavor making it taste a bit bland.

Water should only be used at the beginning of the recipe as a stock substitute because the water has ample time to cook with the veggies and crab legs to create an ad hoc seafood stock.

Instructions

1. Lightly season chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Working in small batches to prevent overcrowding the pot/dutch oven. Brown the chicken on both sides then set aside. Carefully dump out the oil then place pot back on the stove on medium heat. Add the andouille sausage making sure to brown the sausage on all sides if possible. Remove the sausage and set aside for now.
2. Add butter to the pot along with flour, constantly stirring until butter and flour combine to form a roux. Keep stirring allowing the roux to brown reaching a dark mahogany color. Once roux reaches the desired color, add the onions, bell peppers, and celery. Cook until the onions and celery start to become translucent (about 6-8 minutes).
3. Add the chicken, sausage, crab legs, thyme, paprika, bay leaves, creole seasoning, tomatoes and chicken stock. Stir the ingredients making sure the roux dissolves into chicken stock. Turn up the heat to medium-high heat until the stock begins to gently boil, then immediately reduce heat to low so that it gently simmers.
4. Simmer for 30 minutes then remove the crab legs. While the gumbo simmers remove meat from crab legs, toss the shells and reserve the meat. Add the frozen okra and allow gumbo to simmer for 15 more minutes.
5. After gumbo has simmered for 45 minutes, add the shrimp and lump crab meat. Simmer for 5-6 minutes allowing shrimp to cook and crab to heat through.
6. Prior to serving stir in file powder, parsley, and crabmeat removed from crab legs. Serve in a bowl and enjoy.

Recipe source: Immaculate Bites

Photo source: @louisandsteens