Shrimp, crab, chicken, sausage, veggies, and Cajun seasonings make up this ultimate gumbo dish. Serve it with garlic bread, chilled beer, and rice. Make sure to have additional filé powder, red pepper flakes, and salt available.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs |
| Servings: | 20 |
Ingredients
- 4 pounds medium shrimp
- 2 quarts water
- ½ cup corn oil
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 (3 pound) whole chicken
- 5 large tomatoes, chopped
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 5 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay®)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 (6 ounce) cans crabmeat, drained
- 1 pound andouille sausage, diced
- 2 tablespoons filé powder
Instructions
- Peel and devein shrimp. Place shrimp into a bowl; cover and refrigerate until needed. Place shrimp heads and shells into a large pot.
- Pour 2 quarts water into the pot, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat until liquid is reduced by half. Strain out and discard shrimp heads and shells. Reserve shrimp broth.
- Heat oil in a very large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add flour; cook and stir with a long-handled spoon until dark brown and flour puffs and starts to absorb oil, 10 to 15 minutes. Slowly stir in chicken broth and 1 cup water. Place chicken into the pot; add tomatoes, onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, seafood seasoning, salt, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and cook until chicken is no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, about 1 1/2 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone, should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
- Remove chicken from the pot and set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove and discard bones; chop meat into 1-inch pieces.
- Return chopped chicken to the pot, along with reserved shrimp broth, crabmeat, sausage, shrimp, and filé powder; stir from the bottom of the pot to combine. Bring to a boil, then immediately remove from the heat.
- Stir gumbo from the bottom for 1 minute. Remove bay leaves and serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 333 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 7 g |
| Cholesterol | 204 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 33 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 999 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is my favorite gumbo recipe! I make my own adjustments here and there with spices, but all in all its the best!
This was great but the recipe seems to be missing steps and some of the measurements are way off. I don’t know how I could possibly boil a whole chicken in the amount of water and chicken broth they specify. We fixed it as we went along
I added some okra and crawfish tails. It is delicious, it comes out perfect every time.
JUST SIMPLY FABULOUS! I live in Virginia, where we don’t get authentic gumbo very easily. The first time I tried this recipe, a friend of mine who’s from New Orleans said that the gumbo was SO good that it reminded him of home. My family requests this dish from me more than any other I make! I’ve tweaked it over the years by adding Creole seasoning, scallops, bouillion seasoning, onion and garlic powder.
I made this recipe this weekend which came out very good. I was a little confused on the amount of chicken broth & amount of water? This must be a misprint because there is no way 1 cup of chicken broth & 1 cup of water is enough. I added 32oz of chicken broth & same amount of water, I also added put 2 bell peppers & a few more stalks of celery than it called for, I also added red pepper flakes & more cayenne pepper. At the end I added shrimp, this came out very rich & tasty, if you like it spicy! Will make again & adjust to my liking. Thanks:)
Delicious, I did not exactly follow the actual measurements for seasonings I based it off my taste. I also added okra and cod fish, clams and mussels to the final pot.
Best gumbo I’ve ever had! I did add fresh okra.
This recipe is great the way it is, I don’t eat seafood but when I made it for my husband who is a big seafood eater he loved it and all his friends..didn’t change a thing thank you for a wonderful recipe.
i loved it I however wanted more of a soup like so I just added more broth little extra seasonings and it turned out great.
Really good. My first time to make a homemade roux though. This recipe should tell you that your gonna be stirring way longer than several minutes !Also, I’m from east Tx. and I added Tony Chachere’s plus the Old Bay, talk about the perfect kick!!One thing that the recipe messed up on is 1 tbs. of cayenne was in the ingrediants and them red pepper flakes were in one of the steps. Needless to say I used both,lol !! Good and spicy !
this is my family’s favorite. my 7 year old requests this a lot.
Good, goood, good. Do over.
This has got to be the best gumbo recipe out there!
This is an excellent recipe! Used and modified it many times to suite the taste of many different people. For example, I substituted Zetairan’s Creole seasoning for Olds Bay, and used dice Jalapenos’ peppers with fresh chopped Okra. Likewise, I used fresh crab meat vice canned, and Oysters as well. Everything else remained the same minus the File’, and subtle tweaks and additions to the remaining seasoning mix… Good job Mr. Wilson….
So delicious my boyfriend proclaimed that he would eat it every day! I am making it again for this chilly summer night.
This is one of those meals you’ll burn your mouth to taste it because you’ve been looking forward to eating it for so long.
i made this gumbo and i was suprised when my little ones liked it. i tweaked it a bit (meats & seafoods) and it came out great!!!!
Id never made gumbo in my life and this turned out to be absolutely DELICIOUS! I had to hide two bowls for myself because it was going so fast. A+
It’s not a bad recipe, but not what I would call “ultimate”. Being from SE Texas and LA, this is not the kind of gumbo I grew up on. Tony Chachares would be my seasoning of choice instead of old bay, as it has a spicier kick to it. I would also add oysters as an additional protien, cut the tomato out entirely, substitute 2 tblspns of chicken base for chicken broth, add a 1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce, and set out the filet on the table as a garnish alongside chopped green onions…but that’s just me.
great that there are people out there other than in the south that are trying this, i live in cenla (central louisiana) and grew up in southeast texas, and this is a meal i grew up eating once a week and i cook on a regular basis for my own family now! for my own, i never use chicken broth, i boil chicken breasts and use that as the base broth, i do not add tomatoes, we dont use any seasoning other than tony chacheres seasoning and garlic powder instead of all of the seasonings and herbs in here, while the chicken is boiling i add seasoning and the onions celery bell pepper… ONLY ONLY use andouille sausage no other types of sausage! we prefer beef! and the file is not necessary unless you want to add thickness to your own bowl after youve made it! also i dont use corn oil i just use vegetable oil and im sure whatever you have on hand would be fine, its such a versatile dish and seafood version is sooo good as well! we also love okra added to ours, fresh, canned or frozen any is fine whatever is more convienent for you! im excited about my culture being embraced by others! most of all, i hope you all enjoy, dont stress over it being perfect on this dish!
Best gumbo I have found