Gumbo

6
Points®
Total Time
1 hr 15 min
Prep
20 min
Cook
55 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Moderate
This iconic Louisiana meal-in-a-bowl stew is packed with okra, tomatoes, and green peppers as well as sausage, chicken, shrimp, and crabmeat. This version is streamlined, skipping the traditional and sometimes intimidating roux. It also adds the rice right in the pot (instead of serving the gumbo over it) to thicken it, making it a true one-pot meal. This gumbo does take almost an hour to cook, so make it on the weekend and refrigerate it up to three days or freeze it for up to three months. It’s often even better the next day once all the flavors have had time to mingle and meld together.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil

4 tsp

Green bell pepper

1 medium, chopped

Scallions

8 medium, sliced

Celery

1 rib(s), medium, chopped

Garlic

1 clove(s), minced

Canned diced tomatoes

14 oz, with their juice

Reduced sodium chicken broth

1¾ cup(s)

Frozen okra

10 oz, thawed

Fresh thyme

1½ tsp, fresh, chopped or 1 teaspoon dried

Bay leaf

1 leaf/leaves

Crushed red pepper flakes

¼ tsp

Uncooked white rice

½ cup(s), long-grain

Uncooked shrimp

12 medium, peeled and deveined

Uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast

2 oz, cut into 1⁄2-inch chunks

Kielbasa

2 oz, sliced, or other brand

Cooked crabmeat

1 cup(s), flaked, picked over

Instructions

  1. Heat a large nonstick saucepan. Swirl in the oil, then add the bell pepper, scallions, celery, and garlic. Sauté until slightly wilted, 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, okra, thyme, bay leaf, and red pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes.
  2. Stir in the rice and continue cooking until the rice is soft on the outside but still hard in the center, 15–20 minutes. Add the shrimp, chicken, and kielbasa; simmer, covered, until the shrimp is pink and opaque, the chicken is cooked through, and the rice is completely tender, 5–10 minutes more. Add the crabmeat; cook until just heated through. Remove the bay leaf before serving. Yields 2 1/4 cups per serving.