Even if you're not heading to Bourbon Street, why not bring a little New Orleans to your plate this Mari Gras?
We searched high and low for the best, authentic, Creole Gumbo recipes straight from New Orleans and added our own twist with one of our most popular hot sauces, Voodoo Prince Death Mamba ™. The recipes we fell in love with were handed down from generation to generation in New Orleans and are compliments of Allrecipes.com and Lil' Dizzy’s Café in New Orleans.
In true New Orleans style, we infused the best of both recipes into one and added Voodoo Prince Death Mamba Sauce for the ultimate blend of spice and flavors.
PuckerbuttPepper Company’s Voodoo Prince Death Mamba sauce is a fusion of flavors and is our nod to the infused history of New Orleans and what makes it such a magical place. This sauce is a cocktail of spices from black pepper, onion, garlic & cumin and ghost peppers.
Some say the good Voodoo magic of New Orleans can be felt in the air. While we can’t guarantee you’ll feel the full Voodoo magic with this recipe, you will feel a perfect amount of spice and feel like you’ve went to a café on Bourbon street to dine.
The Ultimate New Orleans Creole Gumbo
Ingredients
Makes - 20 servings
Cook Time - 3 h 40 m
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten free corn flour or rice flour)
- 3/4 cup bacon drippings (butter could be substituted but won’t be as savory as bacon)
- 1 cup coarsely chopped celery
- 1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
- 3 green onions chopped
- 1/2 large red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound andouille sausage, sliced (or hot /spicy sausage of your choice)
- 1¼ pounds of baked ham (chopped into quarter inch cubes)
- 2½ pounds of uncooked medium, peeled shrimp
- 1 ¼ pounds of chicken (chopped in quarter inch cubes)
- 1 pound lump crabmeat
- 11 cups of water
- 6 cubes beef bouillon
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons of Voodoo Prince Death Mamba hot sauce by Puckerbutt Pepper Company or to taste (start with one tablespoon and add more to your preferred heat level) d
- 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend (such as Tony Chachere's®), or to taste
- 4 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
- 11 (6 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
- 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen cut okra, thawed
- 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 1 ½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons gumbo file powder (file powder is ground sassafras leaves and a crucial ingredient for authentic Creole cooking)
- 1 bag of Hot cooked white rice for serving
Instructions
- Cube ham, chicken and slice sausages. Heat oil in an eight to 10-quart pot. Add ham to brown
- Add onions and cook until tender. Add chicken and sausages and brown. Add whole shrimp (shelled) and cook five minutes.
- Make a roux in a separate, heavy saucepan by whisking the flour and 3/4 cup bacon drippings together in a large, over medium-low heat to form a smooth mixture. Cook the roux, whisking constantly, until it turns a rich mahogany brown color. This can take 20 to 30 minutes; watch heat carefully and whisk constantly or roux will burn! Remove from heat; continue whisking until mixture stops cooking.
- Place the celery, green bell pepper and garlic into the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the vegetables are very finely chopped or just finely chop by hand. Stir the vegetables into the roux, and mix in the sausage. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside. .
- Bring the water and beef bouillon cubes to a boil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot. Stir until the bouillon cubes dissolve, and whisk the roux mixture into the boiling water. Reduce heat to a simmer, and mix in the sugar, salt, Voodoo Prince Death Mamba hot pepper sauce, file powder, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves, thyme, green onions stewed tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Simmer the soup over low heat for 1 hour; mix in 2 teaspoons of file gumbo powder at the 45-minute mark.
- Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings in a skillet, and cook the okra with vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes; remove okra with slotted spoon, and stir into the simmering gumbo. Mix in crabmeat, shrimp, and Worcestershire sauce, and simmer until flavors have blended, 45 more minutes. Just before serving, stir in 2 more teaspoons of file gumbo powder.
Serve over cooked white rice and sprinkle a few fresh green onions to garnish and file powder to serve.
Recipe Notes
This recipe is a combination of a recipe courtesy of Lil Dizzy's Café in New Orleans and Allrecipes.com
Make sure the sausage you choose isn't a variety that includes syrup or other sweeteners. Gumbo crabs are readily found in the freezer section of Louisiana supermarkets; they're the leftover crab after the jumbo lump meat has been removed from the body of the crab. If you do not have access to gumbo crabs, substitute 2 cups of boxed seafood stock for 2 cups of the water
Nutrition Facts
Per Serving: 296 calories; 17.9 g fat; 12.1 g carbohydrates; 20.9 g protein; 144 mg cholesterol; 855 mg sodium
