I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for a couple months now and last night I fucking nailed it, so I’d like to share it with you comrades because it’s absolutely delicious.

Note: You could do this without animal products if you want to, just remove the chicken, sub beef broth for veg broth and use just oil for roux rather than butter. I cannot personally vouch for how it will taste though. Marked the post NSFW for the vegans. If you are white and find mayo too spicy you can also omit the hot peppers, but should feel ashamed for doing so.

I don’t know why the picture is upside down but there I am tempting fate by testing the limits of the the meniscus. Heads up, this entire process takes a good five or six hours if you include prep time so plan ahead!

Disclaimer: I don’t have a drop of Cajun blood in me and I live in Canada where gumbo is pretty much unheard of, someone from Louisiana would likely scoff at this recipe but 🤷it tastes good

What you’ll need for ingredients:

For roux:

• 1.5 cups flour
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup butter 🧈

Veg:

• Two red peppers 🫑 (green peppers are not ripe and should never be consumed)
• Three or so zucchini depending on size 🥒
• Five stalks of celery
• A small eggplant🍆
• Some carrots (roughly five or six smallish ones depending on size)🥕
• One tomato 🍅

You can really use whatever veg you want but this is what I’ve been using

Flavour and base:

• One onion 🧅
• One head of garlic 🧄
• Two shallots
• Roughly 250 grams of okra (this is a key ingredient, not always easy to find depending on where you live)
• Some hot peppers of your choosing 🌶 I like to use one ghost pepper and six Thai chillies
• Two litres of beef broth (can sub for veg broth but I cannot vouch for this personally)
• Three to four heaping tablespoons of Cajun spice mix
• Some bay leaves
• One cup of red wine
• One cup of soy sauce
• Some black pepper
• Eight chicken thighs or ten chicken drum sticks 🍗 (optional of course)

I used to work in kitchens so I like to have all my prep done ahead of time so I can just focus on cooking. I usually do my veg prep the night before and store in fridge. I also prefer to use a wooden spoon for this.

• Cut up all your veg. The shallots, garlic and okra in particular should be minced, use a food processor if you have one. More surface area equals more flavour. Wear gloves when cutting the hot peppers and do not touch your eyes or genital area afterwards if you don’t lmao
• Poach / boil the chicken for 30 min, set to cool. Remove the meat from the bones, skin is optional (I like to cook the skin in just for more fat and flavour and then take it out later) pro tip: keep the bones to make stock with another day 🍜
• Make the roux. This takes fucking forever and it’s very tedious but it is KEY; it is the backbone of the dish. Mix the flour, oil and butter in a pan, turn up to medium heat and whisk it CONSTANTLY for 30-40 min until it’s a cedar brown colour. DO NOT STOP FUCKING WHISKING it will burn easily and if you fuck this up the dish is ruined. The oil will start to smoke after about twenty five minutes, that’s ok, just make sure you do this is a somewhat well ventilated area. Note that it will continue to cook for a good five or ten minutes after you take it off the heat so k e e p w h i s k i n g 🤩set aside when done
• Start frying the onion and add in some black pepper, medium heat (you need a big fuck off pot for this)
• Once the onion is well on its way add shallots, garlic and hot peppers
• Add the okra and Cajun seasoning (this is my favourite part, smells delicious) okra is key because it is very slimy and will easily start to turn brown
• Stir a lot. The seasoning will start to brown on the bottom of the pot, this is precisely what we want
• Deglaze with the cup of wine (this is a French cooking technique, that brown stuff that gathered on the bottom of the pot is where all the flavour is when the sugars carmalise, by adding liquid and stirring we can gather it all up again)
• Let it cook until the wine reduces, thereby cooking out the alcohol. Keep cooking until it starts to brown on the bottom again
• Deglaze again with the soy sauce (this is where the salt in the dish comes from, you can easily add more later to taste if it’s not salty enough) yes motherfucker we just deglazed twice in a row fuck yeah hashtag double deglaze 🤩
• Add the veg, yes all of it, it should fill the entire pot. Don’t worry it will reduce plenty, keep stirring. You’ll notice the moisture from the veg start to come out and form on the bottom of the pot. Keep stirring. You’ll eventually get a substantial amount of liquid that forms. Turn up the heat to medium hot and let that shit boil off and reduce. The more you reduce at this point the more flavourful your dish will be in the end, because this liquid is essentially just vegetable sludge and not very tasty on its own
• Once enough liquid has reduced (there can still be a couple inches on the bottom) reduce heat to medium, throw in the chicken and the roux. The roux will have settled so whisk it well before you put it in. Stir motherfucker, stir!
• Add the broth and put in some bay leaves (three to five, but who’s counting)
• Let it simmer on a low to medium heat for a good three hours, stir occasionally
• Once it has been simmering for about an hour give it a taste with a tasting spoon. If it’s not flavourful or salty enough, add some soy sauce. Repeat this until you are satisfied with the salt level.

There you have it, there’s my gumbo recipe! Enjoy and feel free to ask any questions!

Edit: serve with rice

🍲