Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1.5 -2 lbs. boneless skinless, chicken thighs
- 12- ounces andouille sausage
- 2, bell peppers diced
- 2 medium or 1 large onion diced
- 2 celery ribs sliced
- 8- ounces fresh or frozen okra sliced
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 2, 14.5- ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 4 C low-sodium chicken stock or broth
- 1 T file powder
- ½ T dried thyme
- ½ T dried oregano
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. ground black pepper
- ½ C unsalted butter
- ½ C all-purpose flour
- *4 C cooked rice
Instructions
- Note: I like my ingredients chunky in this recipe. You can size your ingredients to your liking.
- I like to prep all my ingredients before I get started on my recipes. First, clean the chicken of excess fat and then cut into bite sized pieces. Slice the sausage into ½ inch circles. I like to dice my bell peppers and onions into bite sized chunks for this dish. You then want to slice your celery and okra into ½ inch pieces.
- I use a 10-quart slow cooker. The insert can go onto the stovetop. If your slow cooker doesn’t have this function, just cook your roux in a sauté pan.
- Begin by heating your pan over medium heat, add your butter. Once the butter has melted and begun to bubble, slowly add your flour to incorporate into the butter and reduce the heat to medium low. To make a proper peanut butter colored roux, this process will take approximately 20 minutes. This does require a bit of patience but it’s so worth it. Keep stirring the flour and butter mixture until you reach the desired rich color. You don’t want to walk away during this process.
- Once your roux is done, shut off your stove and put your pan into its base or pour your roux into the slow cooker.
- It’s now time to put it all together and let the slow cooker do its magic. Add your chicken stock, diced tomatoes, minced garlic, file powder, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, salt, and pepper to the slow cooker. Give this all a good stir to combine. Finally, add your chicken, sausage, bell peppers, onions, celery, and okra. Stir till it’s all combined. Cover and turn your slow cooker on low and cook for 3 ½ to 5 hours. We like our veggies a bit on the crunchy side, so ours was done at 3 ½ hours. If you like your veggies softer, cook for 4 ½ to 5 hours. Serve over rice.