Chicken, Andouille and Shrimp Gumbo

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

A proper Gulf Coast gumbo built on a dark chocolate roux you stir by feel, then simmered in one pot with chicken thighs, smoky andouille and shrimp added at the very end. The roux is the whole game — this recipe coaches you through every color change so you know exactly when to pull it.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon fat
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 large yellow onion, diced small
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced small
• 3 ribs celery, diced small
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

• 1 lb andouille sausage, sliced 1/4-inch thick on a bias
• 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 8 cups low-sodium chicken stock, warm
• 1 lb large shrimp (26/30), peeled and deveined, shells reserved
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp hot sauce, plus more for serving

• 2 cups long-grain white rice
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp filé powder (optional, for the table)

Instructions

1. Prep everything before you touch the roux — once it starts, you cannot walk away. Dice the onion, bell pepper and celery and combine them in one bowl (this is your trinity, and dumping it in cold is what stops the roux from burning). Mince the garlic separately. Slice the sausage. Cut the chicken thighs into 1 1/2-inch chunks and season with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Combine the paprika, thyme, cayenne, black pepper and white pepper in a small dish.
2. If you have shrimp shells, simmer them in the 8 cups of chicken stock for 15 minutes, then strain and keep the stock warm on a back burner. Warm stock is important: cold liquid hitting a hot roux can seize it.
3. Set a 7- to 8-quart heavy Dutch oven over medium heat and brown the andouille slices in a single layer, about 5 minutes, turning once, until the edges caramelize and fat renders. Scoop the sausage out with a slotted spoon and reserve. Leave the rendered fat in the pot and add enough vegetable oil to reach 3/4 cup total.
4. Heat the fat over medium until it shimmers, about 2 minutes. Add the flour all at once and whisk hard until completely smooth — it will look like thin pancake batter. Switch to a flat-edged wooden spoon or heatproof spatula so you can scrape the corners of the pot.
5. Now the long part. Stir constantly, keeping the spoon moving across the entire bottom of the pot, over medium to medium-low heat. Read it by color and smell, not the clock: at 8-10 minutes it turns blond and smells like biscuits; at 18-20 minutes it is peanut-butter tan and smells nutty; at 30-35 minutes it is copper penny; at 40-50 minutes it is the color of dark chocolate or strong coffee and smells roasted and almost bitter-sweet. That is where you stop.
6. Roux triage: if you see black specks or smell anything acrid and burnt, throw it out, wash the pot and start over — burnt roux poisons the whole gumbo and cannot be rescued. If it is darkening faster than you can stir, pull the pot off the heat entirely and keep stirring for 60 seconds, then return it to lower heat. Nervous cooks should run the burner at medium-low and accept 55-60 minutes.
7. The instant the roux hits dark chocolate, dump in the entire bowl of trinity. It will hiss violently and the temperature will drop, which is exactly the point. Stir hard for 4-5 minutes until the vegetables soften and the mixture looks like a thick, glossy paste.
8. Add the garlic and the spice mix and stir for 1 minute until fragrant. Season with the remaining 2 teaspoons salt and drop in the bay leaves.
9. Add the warm stock about 1 cup at a time, stirring each addition until fully smooth before adding the next. The first 2 cups are the fussy ones — take your time and the gumbo will never break. Once all the stock is in, raise the heat and bring to a boil.
10. Reduce to a bare simmer, add the browned andouille, and cook uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. Orange-red fat will pool on the surface; skim most of it off with a ladle for a cleaner-tasting gumbo.
11. Add the chicken thigh pieces and simmer another 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender enough to shred against the side of the pot with a spoon. The gumbo should now coat a spoon like heavy cream — if it is thin, simmer 15 minutes longer uncovered; if it is sludgy, thin with a splash of stock.
12. While the gumbo finishes, cook the rice: rinse 2 cups long-grain white rice until the water runs clear, combine with 3 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt in a saucepan, bring to a boil, cover, reduce to low and cook 18 minutes. Rest off heat 10 minutes, then fluff.
13. Stir in the Worcestershire and hot sauce, then add the shrimp. Turn off the heat, cover, and let the residual heat cook them through — 4 to 5 minutes, until just pink and curled into a loose C. Overcooked shrimp curl into tight O's, so check early.
14. Fish out the bay leaves. Taste and adjust with salt, cayenne and hot sauce; a dark roux needs more salt than you expect. Mound rice in the center of wide bowls, ladle the gumbo around it, and top with scallions and parsley. Pass filé powder and hot sauce at the table — filé goes in the bowl, never in the pot, or it turns stringy.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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