Seafood Gumbo Recipe with Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage

I have been living on the Gulf Coast, USA for about 30 years. This is my version of Seafood Gumbo, a southern favorite.

Some people call it shrimp gumbo, chicken gumbo, sausage gumbo and even okra gumbo. Yes it has all those delicious ingredients in one great dish.

You can add more of each ingredient to make a larger portion, but this recipe serves about 6 people as is.

Ingredients:

1 stock celery (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1/4 c. butter
1 pkg. frozen cut okra
1 12 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 lb. cleaned shrimp (tail off)
1 small chicken or 4 large breast pieces
1 lb. sliced link sausage (turkey sausage lowers the fat content)
1 T. Lowry's seasoning salt
1 t. Crab boil
1 t. cayenne pepper (can use more if you like it spicy)

Instructions:

First boil the chicken in large gumbo pot along with salt and pepper, some of the onion and celery for about 30 minutes or until tender. Remove chicken from pot, reserving broth.

After cooling, de-bone the chicken (if using whole) and cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Return pieces to pot with chicken broth and let simmer, add water as needed.

Next, place 1/4 c. butter in skillet and add celery, onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat until tender (5 min. or so.)

Add the frozen okra to skillet and stir gently. Allow to cook just until okra is hot but don't stir too much as it will break the okra apart. Add the canned tomatoes and stir well.

Place the okra and tomato mixture into gumbo pot with chicken. Add remaining seasonings, crab boil and tomato sauce. Taste often to make sure you have good flavor. Add water as needed.

As this is simmering, add the shrimp and stir gently. Some people add whole crabs to their seafood gumbo, but to give it just a bit of crab flavor, you can add the imitation crab meat (chunk size) at the very end of the cooking process so they won't break apart too much. This adds a nice crab flavor to your seafood gumbo.

I like to heat the sausage in the microwave for about a minute before adding it to the gumbo, as you can drain off the extra grease first. Add sausage to gumbo and taste again.

Next you want to make a roux to thicken your gumbo and give it a nice rich flavor. Add 2 T flour and 2 T. bacon grease to a small skillet. Cook together until the flour browns.

Take a small amount of liquid from gumbo and stir into the roux to make a smooth paste. Pour the roux into the seafood gumbo and mix well. Let simmer for another 15 minutes or until thickened and serve over white rice.  It really is good.