Louisiana Chicken File Gumbo Recipes

Steps:

• Melt some butter in your heavy bottomed pot.
• Sprinkle your chicken with a lil bit of flour.
• Brown in the butter (about 5 minutes?) Remove.
• In the same pot, using equal parts butter and flour, make your roux.
• (see my recipe list, if you don't know how to do this, it is posted under gumbo base, aka roux) Once the roux has reached the dark chocolate stage, add the onion, bell pepper and celery.
• In Louisiana, this is known as the Holy Trinity, almost every cajun/creole dish begins with this.
• Add some salt, some pepper and a lot of garlic and saute all the veggies for a little while.
• It doesn't matter how long of a little while as long as you don't let it burn.
• Add chicken back into the pot.
• Start adding your water or broth slowly, stirring the whole time.
• You will know when you have enough by how thick or thin your gravy is.
• If you want thinner gravy, more stock, if you want thicker gravy, less stock.
• Season with more salt, more pepper and the cajun seasoning blend.
• Bring just to a boil and lower heat to a simmer.
• Add sausage.
• Allow to cook long enough for the chicken to began to fall of off the bones or until people are hovering over you trying to snitch spoonfuls of it behind your back.
• (about an hour and a half?) Serve over rice.

Steps:

• Add the oil, chicken and sausage rounds to a stockpot on medium-high heat. Sear the chicken to get color and sausage to get color and render fat, but not to cook fully. As the parts finish searing, use a slotted spoon to remove them and place on a plate, leaving the fat in the pot, about 10 minutes total.
• Add the butter, flour and Cajun seasoning to the pot. Cook on medium heat, constantly stirring, until the roux becomes a rich, dark caramel color, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add the bell peppers, onions, celery, jalapenos and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, to coat, until everything gets tender, 5 to 8 minutes, then add the stock base and 8 cups water and stir to mix the base into the pot. Add the bay leaves and cover the pot to simmer until the gumbo is thickened, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Add the reserved chicken and sausage, then stir in the file powder. Simmer, uncovered, for another 30 minutes.
• Shred the chicken in the pot. Serve over rice with a shake of hot sauce and file powder.

Steps:

• To make chicken stock, place all ingredients into 8-quart stockpot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming impurities off the top. Remove chicken pieces. Allow chicken to cool, remove meat from bones, and then return bones to stock. Reserve chicken meat for the gumbo. Continue to simmer stock for additional 2 1/2 hours.
• To make gumbo, begin by heating oil in a large pot (preferably an enameled cast iron or other heavy-bottomed pot) and cooking garlic, onions, peppers, and celery until soft and translucent. Add sausage, tomatoes, tomato paste, and stock. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and add okra and reserved cooked chicken meat. Season with hot pepper sauce, cayenne, salt, pepper, and file. Simmer for 1 hour until flavors meld together. Stir in chopped parsley. Serve over hot rice and garnish with julienned scallions.

Steps:

• Season chicken with salt, thyme, pepper, and cayenne.
• In an iron soup pot, heat oil over medium high heat until hot, then fry chicken until golden brown.
• Pour excess oil out of pot, and reserve for roux.
• Add onions, celery, and garlic to the pot with the chicken, and cook, uncovered, over low heat until onions are wilted.
• Season flour with Creole seasoning.
• In a heavy iron pot, heat the reserved oil over medium heat to make roux.
• When oil is hot, stir flour in gradually.
• Lower heat to very low, and cook to desired darkness - golden brown to chocolate brown, stirring constantly (It is VERY important that you continue stirring constantly).
• Pour excess oil off the top to prevent the gumbo from being too rich.
• Slowly stir in water, dissolving roux.
• Add the water to the chicken mixture.
• Allow to boil over medium low heat until meat is tender.
• Serve in soup bowls with rice.
• Just before serving sprinkle parsley and a dash of file on each serving.

Steps:

• Make a roux by whisking the flour and 3/4 cup bacon drippings together in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat to form a smooth mixture. Cook the roux, whisking constantly, until it turns a rich mahogany brown color. This can take 20 to 30 minutes; watch heat carefully and whisk constantly or roux will burn. Remove from heat; continue whisking until mixture stops cooking.
• Place the celery, onion, green bell pepper, and garlic into the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the vegetables are very finely chopped. Stir the vegetables into the roux, and mix in the sausage. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
• Bring the water and beef bouillon cubes to a boil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot. Stir until the bouillon cubes dissolve, and whisk the roux mixture into the boiling water. Reduce heat to a simmer, and mix in the sugar, salt, hot pepper sauce, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves, thyme, stewed tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Simmer the soup over low heat for 1 hour; mix in 2 teaspoons of file gumbo powder at the 45-minute mark.
• Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings in a skillet, and cook the okra with vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes; remove okra with slotted spoon, and stir into the simmering gumbo. Mix in crabmeat, shrimp, and Worcestershire sauce, and simmer until flavors have blended, 45 more minutes. Just before serving, stir in 2 more teaspoons of file gumbo powder.

Steps:

• Put the chicken in a pot and add enough water just to cover. Boil just until done.
• Remove the chicken from the pot, reserving the liquid. When the chicken cools enough to handle, remove the skin, take the meat off the bones and cut into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
• Melt the butter and oil in a large pot over medium high heat, then add the flour. Cook, stirring constantly, until it is a medium brown, lowering the heat to avoid burning, if necessary.
• Add the sausage, ham, onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
• Add about 2 cups of the reserved chicken broth, the chicken, and all seasonings except the file powder. Stir in the rest of the reserved chicken broth.
• Bring to a boil, then simmer for one hour, uncovered.
• Remove from the heat, stir in the file powder, then let stand for 5 minutes.
• Serve over steamed rice.

Steps:

• Place the chicken and water in a Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Skim fat. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 30-45 minutes or until chicken is tender. , Remove chicken; cool. Reserve 6 cups broth. Remove chicken from bones; cut into bite-size pieces. , In a Dutch oven or soup kettle, mix flour and oil until smooth; cook and stir over medium-low heat until browned, 2-3 minutes. Stir in the onions, peppers, celery and garlic; cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in the sausage, ham and reserved broth and chicken; cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. , Add the shrimp, okra, beans, salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce; cover and simmer 10 minutes longer or until shrimp turn pink.