Chicken and Sausage gumbo

[OLS]

I thought I had posted this before. Oh well, better to get this from an actual Cajun than
to get it from some regular person on the street.

OK, this is not so much a measured recipe as a throw together. As I go along I will add approx measurements. But I will list ingredients centrally now that I think about it.
It would be wrong to go through the effort without it.

1 whole chicken, cut up (deboned too for those that don't like to find bones)
(substitute 3-4 chicken breasts or equivalent in boneless
fresh chicken meat)
1/3 cup of flour
1/4 cup of oil (OR rendered out skin of chicken if you have all day)
1 pack of GOOD smoked sausage or andouille sausage. (no keilbasa please)
2 Med onions chopped fine.
2 cups okra
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or use hot sausage above)
gallon or so of water on hand
3/5 toes minced garlic (you can use a tablespoon of preminced garlic in oil)

First make a roux. Duh. Take your oil and heat it in your cooking pot.
Always use a dutch oven or other heavy pot. Nonstick fagware is not really useful here.
Pardon my no PCness, lol, this is for your own good. This mixture will get REALLY hot
and that's not good for coatings. Think carcinogenic.

There are two ways to do this. My mother's way or my way. My mother takes an hour
to make a roux cause she is fearful of burning it. YOU WILL HAVE TO THROW AWAY A
BURNT ROUX. Clean and start over. There is no sense in putting good ingredients into
bad roux. Simply lowering the heat will not save you. Only chopped onion added at
the point of no return can successfully finish a roux made FAST.

What you are doing here is browning a little flour in a little oil. You can stir constantly
over a low-med heat for an hour, or over high heat for 5 minutes. You
get the same roux. BUT YOU BETTER CHOP YOUR ONIONS FIRST for a
FAST ROUX. They will immediately stop the cooking of the roux and save your ass.
If your onions are at hand, there is no reason to wait an hour for a freaking roux.

Anyway, heat about a third cup of flour in a 1/4 cup of oil (or chicken fat rendered
to oil), stir it into a paste with a flat spatula or wooden spoon. Stir constantly
until it is the color of a dark caramel. Immediately stop the cooking by adding
onion and garlic. Some people add celery, I do not. For that matter I do not add
bell pepper. You can do either. It is fine. But cook whatever you add down to
wilted veggies over medium heat. Once you are wilted down, add about half your
salt and pepper and maybe some rubbed sage. Add your chicken pieces and fill
most of pot with water and set to boil. You want to cook down the mixture and
lose about half the water.

While you are doing this add your OKRA to a pan and a spray of PAM or oil and
start to cook this down a bit. It will get so disgustingly stringy you will never
want to eat Okra. This is normal. From time to time put a splash of water into
the pan to de-glaze the bottom and even steam the okra a little. When the
stringy mess starts to be a lot less stringy and more soft and gooey, add this
okra to the pot and again cover with water and cook down to about half a pot
of gumbo.

Cut sausage into bite-size pieces, I like to go diagonally which makes nice ovoid
pieces that look bigger. Add to pot for the last 15 mins of cooking.
Once your gumbo is one notch less thick than stew, I reckon you are ready to go.
Use remaining salt and pepper to taste.

You can eat it right then or preferably wait til the next day. You cigar people
understand the concept of marrying flavors. There you go. If you
took your time and followed the method, you will be in for a treat. I always make
a pot of rice, but rarely eat my gumbo over rice. It is a good extender to feed a
family, and IS THE TRADITION, but your late night 'quick bowl-a-gumbo' will likely
not have rice added.

Please note, okra is not an ingredient for an authentic cajun chicken and sausage
gumbo. It is used in seafood gumbo. But the first time I cooked mine with okra,
I never went back to the old way.