Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
2 onions
8 shoots of celery
2 bell peppers
4 tablespoons of garlic
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of thyme
4 tablespoons of salt
2 teaspoons of black pepper
4 cups of chopped okra
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of all-purpose flour
2 bay leaves
2 pounds of Andouille sausage
1. Get a pot of chicken to boil, adding a small amount of celery, onions, and a bay leaf for flavoring. It really doesn't matter what kind of chicken, I just used two chicken breasts. Remove before they are done, you want some fat still on the chicken. Strain the water and collect about a gallon of it to use as stock.
2. Now for the vegetables that will actually go in the gumbo. Dice up two onions, 8 shoots of celery, and two bell peppers. (I used one green and one yellow.) Additionally, you can either chop up a few tomatoes, or I just used two cans of crushed tomatoes. Some people don't even like tomatoes in their gumbo. Also, about four cups of chopped okra (It'll cook down.)
3. Spice mix time! You'll want a four tablespoons of minced garlic, a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a tablespoon of thyme, four tablespoons of salt, and two teaspoons of black pepper.
4. Now that you have the prep work down, it's time to do some cookin'! The most important part of a gumbo is the roux. Some forgo this in favor a truckload of okra. I decided to use roux and, instead of the usual file powder used in creole gumbo, half a truckload of okra. Make the roux from a cup of vegetable oil in a cast-iron skillet, and heat until you can sort of see the surface bubble. Then slowly add a cup of all-purpose flour and stir. Don't stop stirring until all the flour is in it. Then keep stirring until it looks like delicious chocolate sauce. This video sums it up very nicely -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vchgEu5Ax-s5. Alright! Now transfer the roux to your big ol' pot. Pour it in slowly. Then add the onions, green peppers, and celery, but not the okra, and stir the sticky, chunky mixture until the onions are transparent. Then mix in the spices. Put a couple of bay leaves in there for good measure.
6. Slowly add the chicken stock from before to the mixture, stirring constantly. Once you have that done, you can start adding the meat!
7. Shred the chicken and add small chunks of it to the gumbo.
8. Slice two pounds of Andouille sausage fairly thickly, and half the slices. Butter a pan and fry until they are browned, then add them to the gumbo. Then add the okra and stir.
9. Cover the pot and cook for around an hour on medium heat.
10. Enjoy watching your friends eat all your gumbo before you get any.