Wife won't eat anything with bell peppers in it so I swap out for jalapenos, we do like spicy so it works for us.

Wolf what kinda tomatoes do you use ? LOL

if I have one I use one Poblano in the mix , can't get too many or it gets too hot for the bland pallet crew here.

Boy some of y'all really know how to push my buttons.. tomatoes in gumbo

Thats sounds as bad to me as chocolate chips in pancakes.They just don't belong togather.

Ended up trying so yeller ones

You ain't cooking for restaurant goers, just a bunch of starvin marvins, pretty sure they'll eat anything they don't have to cook...

And then got sweeter when red/ripe to my taste buds. That's when I like to pick them

Green ones will stay firm longer as they’re not as ripe, but I just use what I’ve got.

Them peppers all taste the same to me. Beans go in a good chili here, you just count 42 out and remove the "forty ones" dump the rest in.

which is why its sweeter.

Here is my gumbo recipe. Its easy to make, its originally poor mans food.

The orig cast iron recipe...
First I get my big Cast Iron pot on the gas stove.
The magnaware pot wolf had in his orig post is actually very desirable for gumbo.
This could be a whole thing but I used cast on gas and it hold heat and is easier to scorch.
The magnaware alum pot disapates heat so fast that its a favorite and is less likely to scorch.
(When i pull the cast off its still cooking for several minutes. When you pull the alum off it stops sooner.)

1 cup oil. (find a good avocado oil, higher flash point than olive, easier not to scorch.)
1 cup flour.
Get your pot, get your oil, get your flour and get a flat wooden spatula. Stand there get it ready, go to the bathroom, get a beer, and get ready to stir for 30 min straight.
Dump everything in and put that baby on high.
Early on its hard to burn... the more it cooks the darker it is and the easier it is to scorch.
This is where its important to be able to get the heat turned down... toward the end you see its getting too hot and pull it off the burner back and forth.
This is where that alum pan comes in handy. If your using cast when you pull it off just keep stirring.
So anyway do that for a solid 30 minutes. Using a wide wooden spatula is the easiest way to keep the bottom moving.
I say it that way b/c you have to stir the bottom up off the entire pot the entire time you are stirring, its not mindless stirring.
Anyway thats the Roux and the darker the roux the better but the darker it is the easier it is to scorch and once its scorched games over there's no saving it.
You are trying to get to coffee color. A coffee with cream is easier to make without burning but a dark looking coffee color has more flavor / body you just have to pick what you like.

Anyway thats the hard part but I explained it pretty short order so it must not be that hard. Just keep stirring on high min of 30 minutes but turn the heat down at the end when its bubbling too much getting too hot.

Like I said anyway,
Now is when you have your peppers already diced up and throw in, onions, celery, use the leaves.
(i forgot i finely dice up carrot too. fine cut carrot and celery go in just about everything for flavor.)
((If you use yellow peppers and keep the roux light colored its not as pretty as using red and dark colored)) (((Mine looked like cat puke once using yellow)))
Once that is in there and cooking down you are in business.
Now its a poor mans pot and anything goes in, its how the old timers used to clean out their fridge.
Now is when I throw in the sliced andoulie sausage, ideally I browned it to the point where its a little charred on both sides in another pot and im just adding it in at this point.
The trick to adding shrimp is to have it cleaned ready to go and to throw it in for the last ten minutes while the pots just sitting there barely boiling for ten minutes or so.
Cube some chicken up.
Put about three tablespoons of garlic in about now. (it'll scorch if you do it with the peppers.)
Add a punch of salt, that's literally a hand full.
Cover all of that in chicken broth and let it cook awhile (the shrimp aren't in yet.) ((I add fresh oysters with the shrimp, they cook down get firm and are tastey))
(I would add frozen okra after the shrimp get heated up if you want okra I don't like to cook it alot)
If you look up the seasoning file... this is when they add it at the end and is a thing they do down south but its good without too.

Oh so now you have a pot of food boiling, so you make rice, and then you serve the slop over rice.
I actually take a bowl put the rice to the side of the bowl and put the gumbo beside the rice. I use white rice. Uncle Bens Jasmine 90 second rice is a good easy one.

That about does it. If I forgot something I will add it. Hope that helps.
I didn't really say any spices I guess but I probably would throw in powdered / granulated onion and garlic.

Oh throw a stick of butter in the pot and let it melt in just before serving.

Once you get good at this Indian food and authentic mexican food are just like it just diff ingredients and spices b/c they were poor standing in other parts of the world.
I should clarify like if you put chile powder in this isn't chile. Thats a mexican spice. Cajun requires cayenne pepper. So don't go putting oreano in either thats italian.
FYI a good cayenne pepper (powder) from the fresh spice store is really strong and a thumbnail full is plenty and you should start with the pinky nail.
I would add a few whole bay leaves though and those are more important than people realize.
Jalapenos and Serrano peppers to taste.


OG Bennies Gumbo Recipe on here somewhere if one of the gurus could find it. I defer to him but use the above technique and you'll have it.

I seasoned and pre cooked chicken thighs to add to this one.

Anything vegetables other than the trinity in gumbo ain’t gumbo. It may be delicious but it isn’t gumbo. Just like the soup people call white chicken chili is delicious. It ain’t vhili.

Any vegetables other than the trinity in gumbo ain’t gumbo. It may be delicious but it isn’t gumbo. Just like the soup people call white chicken chili is delicious. It ain’t chili.

Like I said I am not cajon. So any stew thickened with roux and multiple meats is gumbo here in KS. Kinda like people who make bean soup and call it chili

Gumbo has to have okra or its not gumbo.

Mine always has okra in it

The people that say that aren't actually historically correct. It was literally poor people food and you put in it what you had. It was like great depression times scratching to get by food. Then it becomes a staple of the culture. Same as eating dogs in China. Its a delicacy now but the poor people started doing it for survival. So technically anything goes but I'm just pointing it out as interesting not trying to debate with a cajun. Like I said I defer to Bennie's recipe so for Tman politics I'm covered.

Yep. Forgot okra. Was still reeling from tomatoes, jalapenos, and poblanos

With some cornbread or sourdough or even homemade egg noodles to go with it I could eat it!

I don't mind bell peppers but the wife has a serious aversion to them , that's why we use jalapenos , some of which to me taste the same whit little to no heat.

Let's stir the pot a little more,

Rice or potato salad? Do you boil eggs in yours?