• 1 lb. Andouille sausage, cut into slices
  • 4 bone-in chicken breasts, with skin removed
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 3 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 quarts of water
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons Better than Bouillon Chicken Base, check for taste
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Slap Ya Mama seasoning or your favorite creole spice
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme or throw a few sprigs of thyme in (makes it easy to fish out later)
  • Hot Cooked Long-Grain Rice for top of gumbo

Week 7: I’m excited! The Food Network’s Comfort Food Feast continues! This week food bloggers like me are sharing our favorite recipes for stews!

Opening the weekly emails from the Food Network containing everyone’s contribution is almost like Christmas morning! Which recipe has Gaby Dalkin from What’s Gaby Cooking or Liz Hughes from Virtually Homemade shared this week? 

With Mardi Gras upon us, what better dish to serve up than gumbo, a stew-like dish loaded with flavor and personality? Flavor and personality — the perfect description of New Orleans…

This recipe brings back so many wonderful memories of times spent with our good Louisiana friends, the Mullers.

I first enjoyed the Muller’s gumbo at their home one Christmas Eve, oh, many years ago.

Since then we also serve this gumbo up on Fat Tuesday or during the lenten season.

I love serving a fresh loaf of home-baked French bread with herb butter and Claude’s Cajun Coleslaw on the side.

I actually served up this recipe at the Cooks for Books Competition in 2011 and won!

You can read more about the contest and recipes and see the festive pictures here. We had so much fun.

I am equally excited to introduce to you the new ASK ELISE section of CookingwithElise.com! Get your questions and stories to me. Many of them will be featured on this site each Friday.

Here’s how I made this delicious gumbo!

Directions

1. In a large Dutch oven, cook your Andouille sausage over medium high heat until crispy. Stirring constantly. Remove and place on paper towels.

2. Reserve the drippings and place chicken breasts sin side down in the pan and brown both sides. You are not cooking your chicken all the way through. You are simply browning it. Set aside once golden browned.

3. Keeping all of the delicious drippings in the pan, add enough vegetable oil to equal about 1/2 cup. Add flour and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until it becomes golden brown. I don’t like it too dark. You are making a roux-see how easy that was?

4. Stir in the onion, bell pepper, and celery. Stirring often until the vegetables are almost tender-almost 8 minutes or so. Add the garlic and cook one minute.

5. Stir in the water, chicken base and thyme. Add the chicken and the sausage. Reduce eh heat and simmer for about one hour. The chicken should almost fall off of the bone! turn off the heat, remove the chicken onto a palate and let cool a bit. Discard the bay leaves. Remove the chicken from the bone and place back in the soup.

6. Make a pot of rice. 2 parts of water to one part of rice with a tablespoon of butter — perfection!

7. Watch as your guests place some rice in the bottom of the pan and become giddy as they ladle the Gumbo over it. You must serve this with warm crusty French Bread…trust me! Your guests will feel loved and I assure you will come back and perhaps even kiss you!

Just look at all of these wonderful stew recipes!

The Cultural Dish: Traditional Beef and Irish Stew
Taste With the Eyes: Spinach Mushroom Risotto With Pecans
Devour: Top 3 Chicken Stews
Cooking With Elise: Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
Virtually Homemade: Winter Vegetable Stew
The Sensitive Epicure: Gluten-Free Shepherd’s Pie With Lamb and Rosemary
FN Dish: Stand-Up Stews