Chicken Gumbo

On Sunday night we decided to fix a large pot of gumbo. It was a last minute decision, so I was afraid it wouldn't work out (i've heard gumbo takes a while to cook), but it turned out really well! Nothing like some authentic gumbo, but it was still good. We used the recipe out of this month's Southern Living called "Easy Chicken Gumbo" or something. It was funny because there was some type of okra that was supposed to be added...well it was actually referencing another recipe that called for okra, rice, and some other stuff. Needless to say, we messed that up. We just bought frozen okra, but it turned out really good still. The problem was we forgot rice, so we tried to make up for it with grits...well, the grits were years old and tasted like the box. So, we ate it as soup. The next night we tried again. I went to the grocery  and I picked up some rice...so I thought. It was actually Rice a Roni's Chicken Rice with vermicelli. Oops, again! So, that tasted like pasta, and didn't work either. So, that night we ate it as soup, again, and the rice/noodle stuff by itself.
By the third night I had grown tired of it  so Matt and Larry finished it off. Luckily, I had made spinach dip for a baby shower at work, so I ate the rest of that--like half the bowl; plus a mini grilled cheese. This was the night Matt worked until about 8pm, and I had this crazy amount of energy and cleaned the whole house---cleaned out closets, took the trash out, did dishes, clothes, the whole works, AND I had Matt's dinner hot and set out when he got home. His comment was, "is there something you need to tell me?" ha! I think he was dreading that dinner conversation, but really I just had all this energy. Work had been stressful, and I needed to get it all out, so I took it out on the house--in a good way, I guess! Okay, so back to the recipe:
The moral of the story is, buy some rice. Plain ole brown rice. If you don't, then it's really just as good as soup, but the rice would have made it a little more gumbo-ey.

Here's the recipe!
EASY CHICKEN GUMBO
1/2 c oil (we used vegetable)
1/2 c all purpose flour
1 chopped sweet onion
1 chopped green pepper (we didn't use this)
1 cup chopped celery (we didn't use this)
cajun seasoning, to taste
2 tsp minced garlic (never enough of this!)
3 (14oz)cans chicken broth
1/2 lb andouille sausage, sliced
Okra Pilau (oops, it was a recipe, a bag of okra worked fine for us)
4 cups chopped cooked chicken (we used can - shortcut, but better w/ the real deal)

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven (or big pot), then gradually add in four, whisking constantly until it is chocolate colored (about 5 minutes)
2. Reduce heat to medium, and stir in onion and next 4 ingredients, stirring constantly (about 3 more minutes). Gradually stir in chicken broth and sausage, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile prepare okra pilau (since we didn't do this, we just cooked the okra). Stir chicken into gumbo and add cooked okra.

Very good! I will suggest, though, that you use real chicken, reduced sodium chicken broth, and get the rice! Very cajun-ey yumminess.

All three of us, patiently waiting on it to be ready.

Yuuummmmm...

Cleaned my bowl.

This was the next night. Eating the rice/pasta by itself. with chopsticks, of course (my favorite utensil).  I had been sick all day, and Matt thought this would be a nice photo op. awesome.