10/12/2019 – This turned out good and Mary liked it a lot. It was made the day before she returned from staying with Piper and Olivia when their parents went to Amsterdam. It was adapted from one here that is from a site that looks like there are a lot more good things. Her recipes provide the weights of all ingredients.

One of the easy aspects of this was that the broth from boiling the chicken was used later as the base for the gumbo. Plus, there will be broth leftover and by chopping more of the veggies than needed the extra broth and extra veggies make an easy chicken soup. Especially if you steal a bit of the chopped chicken to add to it.

Ingredients

• 10 chicken thighs boiled with onion and celery in about 3 quarts of water
• 1 pound fresh okra from the garden cut into 1-inch long pieces
• 1/2 cup water to cook the okra
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups yellow onion chopped in 1/2″-3/4″ pieces
• 1 1/2 cups bell pepper chopped in 1/2″-3/4″ pieces
• 1/3 cup celery chopped in 1/2″-3/4″ pieces
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 can tomatoes, cut or torn into pieces with the juice
• 12 ounces Conecuh Cajun sausage, about 18″, sliced 1/4″
• 1 bay leaf dried
• 1 teaspoon thyme dried
• 1 teaspoon basil dried
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon gumbo file (5g) Zatarain’s

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized pot, add chicken thighs, half a yellow onion, and some celery. Cover with about 3 quarts of water. Bring water to a boil, then simmer until fully cooked but not falling apart.
2. Remove cooked chicken from pot, allow to cool, then debone and chop into 1/2″-3/4″ pieces. Put into a refrigerator.
3. In a medium-sized saucepan, add okra and ½ cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer stirring occasionally until tender. Used some larger pods and they turned out fine.
4. In the large blue enameled cast iron dutch oven, melt the ½ cup unsalted butter until it is bubbling gently. Whisk in the ½ cup flour. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking almost continuously to make a dark brown roux, about 15 minutes. Watch as it starts to darken as it will flash and burn.
5. Add onion, bell peppers, celery, and garlic. Sauté in the roux until vegetables are tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Add cooked okra, tomatoes, and sausage. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Add bay leaf, thyme, basil, cayenne, pepper, and salt.
8. Add 4 cups of the broth from boiling the chicken.
9. Simmer over medium-low heat, for approximately 30 minutes with pot loosely covered, stirring occasionally.
10. Add chicken and simmer an additional 30 minutes.
11. Turn off the heat and let it sit to cool about an hour.
12. Put into Bain Marie’s to store in the refrigerator to eat tomorrow night.
13. Reheated two portions and stirred in the gumbo file in one. We liked the one with the file best. [Do not reboil after adding as this tends to make the gumbo stringy.]
14. Taste and season with more salt and pepper as desired.
15. Serve over steamed rice.

Original Recipe Source per Jessica Gavin: “Favorite Recipes from Famous New Orleans Restaurants”, by Express Publishing Co. (1981)