Chicken & Linguica Gumbo
Submitted by boo7168
Rich chicken and linguica gumbo built on a nut-brown roux with the holy trinity, fried chicken, and smoky sausage simmered in chicken stock. Ladle over rice for a Cajun feast.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
1 hrsREADY
2 hrsThis gumbo doesn’t cut corners. The chicken gets dredged and fried golden before it ever touches the broth. The linguica sausage renders its own fat to start the roux. And that roux gets stirred patiently until it turns a deep nut brown, filling the kitchen with a toasty, almost caramel-like aroma.
Green onions, celery, green pepper, parsley, and garlic soften in the roux before nine cups of chicken stock go in. The sausage simmers first, then the shredded fried chicken joins for the final stretch.
Hit it with Tabasco or cayenne to taste and serve it over steaming rice. This feeds eight hungry people and tastes like a weekend well spent.
Kitchen Tips
- Don’t rush the roux. Stir constantly over medium heat until it reaches a nut-brown color. If it burns, even slightly, dump it and start over. There’s no saving a scorched roux.
- Fry the chicken fully before adding it to the gumbo. This builds flavor through that golden crust. The gumbo is a braising liquid, not a cooking liquid for raw chicken.
- Shred the chicken by hand, not with a knife. Fingers create ragged, uneven pieces that catch more sauce and give you better texture in every spoonful.
- Reserve exactly 6 tablespoons of pan drippings for the roux. This is the flavor foundation. Too much makes it greasy; too little and the roux won’t develop properly.
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the sausage in a large, heavy ungreased skillet over low heat, turning the slices frequently with a spatula until there is a film of fat over the bottom of the pan.
Increase the heat to medium and, turning the slices occasionally, continue to fry the sausage until the slices are browned, about 6 minutes.
Remove the sausage to paper towels to drain.
Add vegetable oil to the fat in the skillet to a depth of ½ inch.
Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Place ½ cup of the flour on a plate.
Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour and shake of the excess.
Heat the oil in the skillet over medium-high heat.
fry the chicken pieces in the hot fat until they are golden brown on both sides and the eat is cooked through, about 12 to 15 minutes per side.
Remove the chicken from the skillet and drain on paper towels.
Reserve 6 tablespoons of fat from the skillet an discard the rest.
Whisk the reserved 6 tablespoons fat with the remaining 6 tablespoons of flour in a large, heavy pot until smooth.
Cook, stirring frequently, over medium heat until the fat-flour mixture (called a roux) is nut brown.
This will take several minutes.
Do not allow the roux to burn. Add the green onions, celery, green pepper, parsley and garlic to the roux.
Cook the mixture, stirring over medium-low heat until the vegetables have softened.
Then, stirring constantly, slowly add the chicken stock.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat.
Add the sausage to the gumbo.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, cayenne and/or Tabasco sauce.
Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While gumbo is simmering, bone the cooked chicken and, using your fingers, shred the meat into pieces.
Add to the gumbo and simmer for 15 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.
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