For the gluten-free eater, gumbo is one of those foods we will likely never enjoy in a restaurant. At the heart of this dish is the classic New Orleans-style roux — a mix of flour and oil cooked until it is a rich, deep brown. Roux is synonymous with gumbo.
But I love gumbo, and knew I could make an excellent dish using gluten-free flour, specifically, in my case, Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose GF flour. I also borrowed a trick from Alton Brown, using my oven to build my roux. This allowed me to do all my prep work while the roux turned a gorgeous shade of chocolate brown.
You can make chicken gumbo, shrimp gumbo, vegetarian gumbo, gumbo with okra, without okra. It’s your gumbo. This recipe has everything but the okra (which I prefer served on the side, lightly fried rather than in the stew itself). As a bonus, gumbo served over steamed rice makes an impressive they’ll-never-guess-it’s-GF party dish!
Gluten-Free Gumbo
By Published: May 5, 2013
- Yield: 6 Servings
- Prep: 1 min
- Cook: 45 mins
- Ready In: 56 mins
While this gluten-free gumbo takes time to cook, the payoff is worth the wait! Customize the ingredients to suit your pantry and tastes. It also makes a great party dish...and fantastic leftovers.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 cup bell pepper diced
- 1 cup celery diced
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 pound chicken cut into bite-sized pieces (see Notes)
- 2 links andouille sausage cut into bite-sized pieces (see Notes)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme or parsley chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne or to taste
- file powder if necessary (see Notes)
- 1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- steamed rice for serving
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix the oil and flour together in a 6-quart Dutch oven and place in the center of the pre-heated oven. Bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so. At the one hour mark, start watching the color — you want a deep brown without burning the flour. I find the color continues to deepen when I move my dish to the stovetop.
- Remove the pot from the oven and place over medium-high heat on the stove. Add the onions, celery, and bell pepper (also known as the Holy Trinity) and cook until the vegetables begin to soften. Stir frequently and make sure your roux doesn’t burn.
- Slowly add the chicken stock and whisk thoroughly. Stir the chicken and sausage into the pot.
- Add your seasonings, thyme, and bay leaves — use a light touch now and adjust later.
- Cover the pot and simmer for approximately a half hour. Test the seasonings and add more what is needed.
- Add the file powder if you need to make your sauce thicker. If it’s fine, skip this step.
- Add the shrimp and continue cooking until the shrimp is opaque and cooked through.
- Let your gumbo sit off the heat for about ten minutes, then serve over steamed rice.
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