The Best Cajun Gumbo and Creole Gumbo Recipes

Two Classic Louisiana Cuisines Display Subtle Differences

Nov 16, 2009 Larry Ervin

Gumbo has been described as Louisiana's bouillabaisse: French in inspiration, but adapted to local ingredients and borrowing from other cultures in Louisiana.

The base for gumbo is almost always a roux, a browned mixture of flour and fat. Creole gumbos generally use a lighter, medium-brown roux using butter as the fat. Cajun gumbos are made with a darker chocolate to black coffee colored roux that has been cooked longer and/or hotter using pork fat. More contemporary versions use vegetable oil.

Additional thickening may come from either filé powder (ground sassafras leaves: a Choctaw Indian contribution) or from okra which came with slaves from Africa. In fact the word “gumbo” means okra in some African languages. On occasions where recipes call for both okra and filé, in which case the latter would normally be served on the table for diners to sprinkle over as desired.

Tomatoes are often used in Creole gumbos, an influence of Italian immigrants to New Orleans. Traditional Cajun gumbos never included tomatoes, though modern adaptations blur that line.

Unlike bouillabaisse, the protein content may come, in addition or instead of fish and seafood, from “anything that flies, crawls, creeps, or lies still.”* Chicken and seafood are common and many versions also include smoky sausage. “Versions” is a key word, because there may be as many versions as there are families in Louisiana.

For either recipe you will need: a 4 quart Dutch oven, ideally cast iron or enameled cast iron

Cajun Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Ingredients:

2½ to 3 pounds cut up fryer chicken
¼ tsp coarse salt
½ tsp each: freshly ground black pepper and ground red pepper
½ cup vegetable oil (or substitute salt pork or bacon for part of the oil for a more authentic Cajun taste)
½ cup all purpose flour
The “Holy Trinity”: 1 large onion and 1 cup each: green pepper and celery, all chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz Andouille sausage (or other spicy, smoked sausage)
4 cups hot water
2 cups fresh okra, sliced (or 10-ounce package frozen cut okra, thawed)
4 green onions, sliced
¼ cup chopped parsley
Hot cooked rice for serving

Method:

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt, black pepper, and red pepper.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high flame. In batches, brown the chicken pieces on all sides and set aside. Pour off all but ¼ cup of drippings from Dutch oven.
Make the roux: Sprinkle flour over the pan drippings in Dutch oven. Scrape the bottom of pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits sticking to the pan. Cook the roux over medium-high flame for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Lower the flame to medium. Cook and stir until a dark reddish brown roux forms, about 15 minutes longer.
Add the “Holy Trinity” (onion, green pepper, and celery) and cook, stirring, over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes or till vegetables are tender.
Add the sausage and garlic; stir and cook for 1 minute more. Gradually stir the hot water into the vegetable mixture.
Add chicken to the Dutch oven. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 1 hour or till chicken is very tender, adding more water, if necessary.
Skim off the fat from the surface. Stir in okra, green onions, and parsley. Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes more.
Serve with cooked rice.

Seafood Creole Gumbo

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter, (or vegetable oil)
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups clam juice (or water)
2 cups fresh okra, sliced
2 cups tomato, peeled and cubed
1 large. onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp Tabasco (or other hot pepper sauce)
1/8 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups total, a combination of shrimp, lump crabmeat, oysters
Hot cooked rice for serving

Method:

Make a medium-brown roux: Melt butter in the Dutch oven over low flame. Sprinkle flour over the melted butter and cook, stirring constantly until the roux is medium-brown, about the color of peanut butter.
Add liquid and all the other ingredients except the seafood and rice. Raise the flame to high. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the flame to a simmer. Cook 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add seafood and cook, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove bay leaf.
To serve, mound hot rice in large soup bowls, and ladel the gumbo over the top.

*from Linda Stradley's “History and Lore of Gumbo”

Go here for more on the origins of and differences between Cajun and Creole cultures and cuisines.

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The copyright of the article The Best Cajun Gumbo and Creole Gumbo Recipes in French Cuisine is owned by Larry Ervin. Permission to republish The Best Cajun Gumbo and Creole Gumbo Recipes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Gumbo from Bozo's in Materie, Louisiana	Shrimp Gumbo with Sausage and Okra	Andouille a.k.a. Cajun Sausage
Bell Peppers - Essential Part of the	Tomato in Creole but not Cajun Gumbos