Any of you folks from Cajun country will probably laugh at us non-Cajuns trying to make gumbo, but I’ll give this a go anyway. This is another of the recipes from the family cookbook and is a flavorful hodge podge of tasty meats, veggies, and rice. It’s quick, easy, and customizable.
Here are the ingredients we use:
- Smoked sausage
- Shrimp
- Chicken
- Rotel
- Okra
That’s it. Very simple. We don’t spice ours up due to the kids but you can certainly spice it up to your hearts content (I would be breathing fire if I could fix it to my spice level lol).
We start off by cutting up our chicken and sausage. We cube the chicken in 1/2″ squares (roughly). For the sausage we cut it into medallions. If you would like smaller bites of sausage you could then quarter the medallions for smaller, bite size pieces of sausage.
Cook the chicken with whatever seasoning you prefer and brown the sausage in the stock pot you plan to cook the gumbo in.
When the sausage is browned and the chicken is cooked, remove the meat.
Deglaze the pan using the Rotel and water. (If you don’t know what that means like I did the first time I tried to fix this then allow me to explain). Deglazing simply means to add cold water and scrape all the browned (caramelized) bits off the bottom of the pan. Reluctant Gourmet has a whole post over properly deglazing a pan.
After the pan is properly deglazed, add the chicken, sausage, shrimp, and okra. Season and allow to come to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until ready. This will depend on how long you want to allow it to simmer so that the flavors can mingle well. We usually simmer for about 20 minutes.
While the gumbo is simmering, cook your rice. Whether you use instant rice, brown rice, white rice, etc will simply depend upon your taste. We typically use instant white rice because it is simple and quick but I think a brown rice would really elevate this gumbo to a different level.
Serve over rice and enjoy! Have a great day and God bless!
Have you tried this recipe? Modified it in any way? I’d love to hear about it and give it a try. We might even edit the post to include your suggestions.
- 1 lb Smoked sausage (sliced)
- 1/2 lb Shrimp
- 2 Chicken breasts (cubed)
- 2 cans Rotel (mild or hot depending on your taste)
- 1 pkg frozen Okra
- We start off by cutting up our chicken and sausage. We cube the chicken in 1/2" squares (roughly). For the sausage we cut it into medallions. If you would like smaller bites of sausage you could then quarter the medallions for smaller, bite size pieces of sausage.
- Cook the chicken with whatever seasoning you prefer and brown the sausage in the stock pot you plan to cook the gumbo in.
- When the sausage is browned and the chicken is cooked, remove the meat.
- Deglaze the pan using the Rotel and water. (See the post for directions on deglazing).
- After the pan is properly deglazed, add the chicken, sausage, shrimp, and okra. Season and allow to come to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until ready. This will depend on how long you want to allow it to simmer so that the flavors can mingle well. We usually simmer for about 20 minutes.
- While the gumbo is simmering, cook your rice. Whether you use instant rice, brown rice, white rice, etc will simply depend upon your taste. We typically use instant white rice because it is simple and quick but I think a brown rice would really elevate this gumbo to a different level.
- Serve over rice and enjoy! Have a great day and God bless!
