Chicken Gumbo

Gumbo is an original creation and is a staple in South Louisiana cooking. The word "gumbo" comes from the Congo "quin-gombo" which means okra which is a thickening agent. While classified as a soup it really is more like a stew in taste and texture. Additionally, gumbo is served over rice, whereas, soup is not.

There are many different types of gumbo from chicken to wild game to seafood and the recipes vary somewhat. The gumbo we make most often in our house, simply for ease, economics and availability, is Chicken Gumbo. I have to admit, my favorite is Seafood gumbo but it gets really expensive to make if you don't live in South Louisiana! Here is a basic Chicken Gumbo recipe that you can start with and add other types of meat such as sausage, venison, duck or seafood. Have fun experimenting!

3 tbl Oil
3 tbl Flour
1 pkg Boneless Chicken breasts
1 pkg boneless chicken thighs
1 med onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 10 oz pkg frozen sliced okra
Tony’s, salt and pepper
Parboiled rice

In large pot, brown chicken in oil. Remove from pot when thoroughly browned on both sides. Add oil and flour and make a dark brown roux. Add onion and stir well; then add okra and blend well. Add all other vegetables except tomato and allow to cook down, cover if necessary to retain moisture. Cut up chicken into large bite size pieces. Add about 4 cups of water, tomato, and seasonings; blend well. Add chicken and stir. Cook down for about an hour adding more water if necessary. Recheck seasonings. Serve over rice.

***Note: If you will be making Giblet Gravy for the holidays, now would be the time to cook it as you need pan drippings and a little meat, not to mention that it can be frozen ahead of time. Add some extra chicken when making your gumbo then set aside some of it and all of the pan drippings from when you brown the chicken as stated above, then make your gravy while your gumbo cooks! This way, you can make the gravy ahead of time without having to do any extra work to obtain the two aforementioned ingredients.

Giblet Gravy

One Christmas, I must have been about 6 or 7, my great uncle gave me a HUGE candy cane as his present to me. Everything seems so much bigger when you are little but I swear, that thing must have been about 18 inches long and 3 inches in diameter! It was gigantic!

After Christmas dinner, one of my cousins kept teasing and tormenting me relentlessly and we started squabbling. My mother made me come inside and I was furious. My uncle took me aside and privately whispered to me that if my cousin bothered me again, I was to take that candy cane he gave me and whack my cousin with it! He wasn’t serious, but being a little kid, I took what he said seriously.

So, when my cousin started tormenting me again, I grabbed my candy cane weapon, swung it like a bat and {{{{CRACK}}}}, whacked him in the head with it! He let out a blood curdling scream. All the parents came running outside and there I was standing over him, holding my broken, shattered candy cane with a very satisfied smile on my face!

This is the Giblet gravy recipe that goes with my South Louisiana Cornbread Dressing. These are dishes that we serve at both Thanksgiving and Christmas unless we do a Cajun Christmas meal. I used to make Giblet gravy exactly the way my grandmother made it…with the actual Turkey Giblets. But after she passed away and in response to several requests, I stopped doing that and have since been using either breast or thigh meat.

Since this can be made ahead of time and frozen, I usually bake some chicken or make some Chicken Gumbo the week or two before. Then I use a little of the meat and the all of the pan drippings from it and make the gravy then, freezing it for later. Additionally, I usually double the recipe, then when it's cool, divide it in half and freeze both separately: one batch for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas!

3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can chicken broth
Garlic powder, Onion powder, Celery salt and Tonys, to taste
1 to 1-1/2 cups Chicken breast or thigh meat, chopped fine***
Pan drippings

Over medium-low heat, combine the oil and flour in a large saucepan and make a dark roux. Slowly stir in the chicken broth, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the gravy is smooth and thickened. Add pan drippings and allow to thicken again.

Reduce heat to low, add seasonings and the giblets. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Recheck seasonings, adding more if necessary. This gravy can be made ahead of time and frozen or refrigerated until needed.

My grandmother's way of making it is as follows:

In a medium sauce pot, boil 1 stalk of celery and 1/2 a medium onion along with the turkey neck and giblets. Season water with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder. Cook until done. Discard celery and onion. Remove neck and giblets and allow to cool. Make a dark brown roux and add the pan drippings and the seasoned broth you just made (refer to recipe above for instructions). When neck and giblets are cool, remove meat from neck bone, finely chop it and the giblets. Stir that into your gravy. Recheck seasonings and serve.

***Note: I usually bake some chicken for dinner or make a pot of Gumbo the week before, separate enough chicken and the pan drippings and make my gravy at the same time. Then I freeze the gravy and later thaw it out in the refrigerator the day before I need it.

*** When I make chicken salad, I freeze my broth and use that when I make my gravy instead of using canned broth. See Gourmet Chicken Salad recipe.

***See Tips and Information for making a roux and for Tony's.

South Louisiana Cornbread Dressing

My grandparents used to own a cemetery in Louisiana. I was six and my sister was three when late one Thanksgiving afternoon, after we had all eaten, my oldest cousin snuck away to set up a prank on all of us younger cousins, 6 of us to be exact with the 4 oldest being boys (Seven with the oldest prankster). He then came inside, got us and took us up to the only above ground mausoleum in the cemetery, telling us we just "HAD" to come and see.

Once we got close, he told us the ghosts were trying to get out and were coming to get us and kill us! He had wedged a turkey thigh bone into the crack around the perimeter of the door and poured ketchup all over it to make it look like blood! When we got really close to look, he shoved us towards the door and screamed, "THEY'RE GETTING OUT" and ran down the hill and left us all there!

We were screaming and crying and trying to run away, bumping into each other and grabbing onto each other while still trying to escape (envision The Keystone Kops). All of my cousins older than myself and my sister were able to run but we, being the youngest, were so terrified and crying, we couldn't see and we stumbled around, running and falling until we made it down the hill and back home. My sister and I were traumatized about that for years to come!

Needless to say, our "old prankster" got the stick and we got the laugh! We sought revenge later in the weekend by luring him into the basement and later into the cemetery barn and scaring the bejeezus outta him both times by making ghost sounds and bumping around! Revenge is a dish best served COLD!

At any rate, my grandmother made the best cornbread dressing and it has been our family tradition to have it with Giblet gravy since long before I was born. She passed her recipes on to me and I took over some of the holiday cooking duties in my mid 20’s. Later I introduced Spinach Madeline (see recipe in another post) and that has now become our other traditional favorite dish along with Sweet Potato Casserole.

The Cornbread:
3 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450°F. Put the bacon drippings/butter in a 9x13-inch baking dish and put it in the oven while it is preheating. It will melt while you're mixing up the batter.

Beat the eggs in a medium bowl until frothy. Add the corn meal, salt, baking soda and baking powder, and stir to combine. Add the buttermilk and stir well. Remove the hot dish from the oven. Swirl the dish to coat it with melted bacon drippings/butter then pour it into the batter and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the pan, and bake 20 to 25 minutes. The cornbread will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Make the cornbread a day before you intend to make your dressing. Leave it out, uncovered, overnight.

The Dressing:
1 9x13-inch pan of cornbread, crumbled
10 pieces white or whole wheat bread, heels are good (left out overnight)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large stalks celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped (2-1/2 to 3 cups)
1 large green pepper, chopped
3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks)
4 cups chicken broth, canned or homemade
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp rubbed sage

Preheat oven to 375°F. Crumble the cornbread and white bread into a very large baking dish or pan (This is the pan you will cook your dressing in, and you need room to stir it while it's cooking). Combine the vegetables with the bread crumbs and mix well. Melt the butter and add it and the beaten eggs, chicken broth and stir. (You may need a little more chicken broth – its better if it's too moist than too dry; the uncooked dressing should be a little on the slushy side.) Add poultry seasoning, rubbed sage, black pepper, and mix thoroughly.

Bake 15 minutes then stir dressing from the sides of the pan into the rest so that it cooks uniformly. Recheck the seasonings, adding more if necessary. Bake until browning on sides and top and center has set.