Chicken Sausage Gumbo is an old Traditional Cajun favorite and we often
cook big batches of Chicken Sausage Gumbo when the crowds get big. I'm estimating that this
Chicken Sausage Gumbo will feed 100 people considering the only side dish being potato salad.
This gumbo is cooked in an 80 quart (20 gallon) seafood boiling pot. It
is also started the day before serving because of preparation and
cooking time.
10 gallons of water.
6 hens cut up and seasoned (marinate over night) - see note below
6 - 8 tbs. sausage (your choice, fresh or smoked or both)
2 lbs. pork Tasso
3 lbs. Andouille
6 lbs. onions chopped
4 bunches celery chopped
6 bell peppers chopped
3 cups green onion tops chopped
2 cups parsley chopped
3 pints dark roux (Savoie's or other in jar)
Have the following seasonings handy
Louisiana Hot Sauce
Salt
Black pepper
Thyme or poultry seasoning
Paprika
Cooked Rice [1/3 cup raw rice minimum for each person]
Note: If you deal with a meat market
they'll usually cut the hens up for you for a slightly higher cost. Hens
are tough to cut. You can also use regular chickens, but, they are not
as flavorful.
Day 1 - Preparation
In a 375ºF oven bake chicken until slightly brown (about 1 to 1 1/2
hours). Turn as needed.
Let cool and refrigerate. See note below.
Note: if you want to minimize tiny pieces of bone in the gumbo; take all
the back sections out and boil them in a stock pot until tender enough
to debone. Throw the bones away, reserve the meat and refrigerate. It's
a good idea to do this anyway because it will tell you how long you're
going to have to boil the remaining pieces to get them tender.
Lower fire to 350ºF and bake all fresh sausages about 40 minutes. Let
cool, cut and refrigerate.
Cut smoked sausage in bite sized pieces, and, tasso in 1/4" pieces.
Chop all vegetables.
Refrigerate everything (an ice chest or two works well for this)
Note: You can skip the hen baking part
if you're time limited. This adds flavor from the browning.
Day 2 - Cooking
Bring 10 gallons of water to a boil. Dump roux in and boil hard (rolling
boil) about 1 hour. Be sure to stir so none of the undissolved roux
sticks to the bottom and burns. Add vegetables except green onions and
parsley, sausages and tasso and boil another 30 minutes.
Add whole pieces of chicken and boil until tender (that means you'll
have to check them to see when they are tender enough)
Note: The time till tender will depend
on the age of the birds. This could be as long as 3 hours. If you boil
the backs separately the day before you'll have a good indication of how
long it will take the chicken pieces to tenderize.
3/4 way through the tenderizing process add green onions.
Add parsley 15 minutes before the tenderizing is completed.
Lower to a simmer, taste and add seasonings as needed. Since sausages
and tasso have their own seasonings it's difficult to estimate the exact
amount of additional seasonings needed. Salt will almost surely be
needed.
Read more on Gumbo here...
Enjoy...