Not Tomorrow, Today.

Meat: Shrimp (most important to me personally, I've never had gumbo without shrimp but my household is probably biased), precooked sausage (Andouille is traditional), and precooked chicken (optional). My family never put chicken in their gumbos, only seafood and sausage, but seeing as I was using a rotisserie chicken for stock, I chopped the breast up for meat as well.

Thickener: Either Okra or Gumbo Filé Powder (ground sassafras). We'll get to the roux in a bit, but if you want a really FLAVORFUL gumbo, the roux should be dark and thin, letting the okra or filé do the work of thickening the stew. If you have a really white (less-cooked) roux, it will thicken the gumbo but does nothing for the flavor.

Vegetables: The Holy Trinity of cajun cuisine- bell peppers, celery, and onions. The carrots in my picture are for the chicken stock, which brings me to

Stock: Shrimp stock! Shrimp stock is made from the shells and heads of the fresh shrimp you're using, simmered for an hour on low heat. If you don't want to/don't feel like making shrimp stock, chicken stock works just fine, but I encourage you to make shrimp stock! I'm making chicken stock in the instant pot, which is an onion, some carrots, some celery, and a costco rotisserie chicken torn apart and pressure cooked for 50 minutes, then strained. This recipe used 8 cups of stock.

The first step is to make a roux. Traditionally, this meant standing in front of the stove stirring for hours to make sure it didn't burn, but my family has always used the oven-baked roux method. Equal parts flour and oil (4 ounces of each, or 115g) whisked together in a dutch oven until the lumps are gone, and then baked at 350 degrees for 90 minutes, stirring every 20-30 minutes. It goes from looking white, to blonde, to almost chocolate colored the more you leave it in.

A general rule is that the lighter the roux, the more it thickens and the less flavor there is, while the darker roux is super flavorful and thickens less effectively. We want ours as brown as possible without burning anything, so 90 minutes is good but anything more needs closer attention.

Once your roux is done, put it on the stove on low and add the onions, garlic, okra, pepper, celery, and spices. Stir it every once and a while until the onions have finished cooking (gone translucent).

Then add your stock, 8 cups of it, along with all your herbs. Simmer on a low heat for 1-2 hours.

Then, add your shrimp, chicken, sausage, and cook for ten minutes or so, until the shrimp have turned white.