Quick and Basic Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

I'll try and put into words how I go about making a quick and easy gumbo

You will need.

6-8 frozen chicken breasts (no need to thaw them, they can go into the boiling pot frozen and will be ready in 30-45 minutes)
3-4 TBS of a good all purpose seasoning mix like Tony Chachere's or Zatarain's
A few tbs. of salt never hurt anything either
1-2 lbs of your choice of sausage  chopped (the sausage needs to be processed and not a loose filling type sausage) (hillshire farms, Richard's, Manda, and many others fit the bill)
The Trinity:
1 Bell Pepper      (color of your choice) chopped with pith and seeds removed
1 whole Onion     (yellow is traditional, but white or red are even better IMO)
4-5 celery sticks      chopped up
(this completes what we call the trinity<bell pepper, onion, and celery> personally I leave out the celery most of the time) A neat tip for these items that we use soooo much in Cajun cooking is to buy them in bulk at a time of year when they are looking prime. Then take a few hours one weekend and run them all separately through a food processor. You can use muffin tins, ice cube trays or whatever floats your boat to freeze them into some shape. Then combine the frozen cubes in a ziploc and use them all year long as you need. I do this with jalapenos as well. I use the ice cube trays (never try and make ice with them again after freezing the veggies, yuck) and for a gumbo would use 4 cubes of onion, 3 cubes of bell pepper and 1-2 cubes of jalapeno depending on level of spice desired.

Keep in mind that there is A LOT of room for play when making gumbo. Traditional gumbo has (and is in fact named for) Okra. I love okra, but it no longer loves me, so I have to leave it out. If you want some okra in your gumbo, the frozen already chopped kind will work just fine. I used to be a stickler about fresh ingredients and separately roasted the chicken and deboned it and all that fluff. Frankly, you're going to be boiling a bunch of stuff together and those nuances will be lost anyway so you may as well make things easy on yourself.

You will need a stock type pot of at least 5 qts. To start, I fill this pot half full of water and put her on high till she boils. I do prefer to have the largest pot available, but it should fit in your frig. Often, I make two gumbos when I do this. My wife likes white meat only and can't take much spice, and I prefer dark meat and spicy gumbo. For mine, I'll use whole leg quarters, and hot/spicy sausage. I also will chop a few jalapenos up for mine and add them to the bell peppers.

You will need to make a roux as outlined in another thread. For simplicity, you can make the roux in the final stock pot and simply add hot tap water when it's done. I do it that way most often, but making the roux in a deep pot is a bit trickier. As outlined in the roux post, I like to have my veggies chopped and ready beforehand and add them to the roux to both stop the roux from further browning, and brown up my veggies at the same time. This works very well. You can then either add the roux to the stock pot, or add the water to the roux. The water/roux mixture will not combine at first. This is easily remedied by some stirring and heat. Once the roux and water are combined, you can add the seasonings and chicken. Okra would also be added at this time, as would green onions if you like them. If you are doing the green onions, we generally save 1/2 of the tops of so to add in the bowl as garnish. I usually wait and add the sausage in the last 20 minutes or so.

One thing to note, is that I'm leaving the various seasonings primarily up to ya'll own taste. We usually add some Sage, Thyme, and Marjoram when making gumbo, but they really don't add that much and I think gumbo should be a simple comfort food and not an exercise in guess what I did different this time?

File' is another traditional addition to gumbo. It is ground sassafras root  (which is also where root beer extract comes from) and adds a really nice, yet not at all spicy flavor to the gumbo. Most people use it as an ingredient, but I prefer to simply add to taste over my bowl, as many people aren't big fans like I am.

Once everything is combined let it go at a good rolling boil for at least a half hour. More time boiling is great, but this will do if you are in a hurry. I then let it simmer for a while longer, and skim the excess fat off the top at this time. You are now ready to taste it. Keep in mind that it should be spicier than what you want in the end, because you are going to poor it over rice,  which will have the effect of making it a lot blander. I plan on 1/4 cup of rice per person, and usually cook a large pot of rice to last a few more days. All of this is very flexible and there are as many variations as there are cooks. If more people show up than you thought, just add some more water and you'll be just fine. A good gumbo will stick to the ribs and keep you warm, so those of you who are snow bound should really give this a try. I eat it three meals a day till it is gone when I make a pot.

One thing to keep in mind is that after the initial eating, just put the whole pot into the frig (just gumbo, only combine the rice in the bowl). You can take the whole pot out again tomorrow and just heat it up on the stove. Gumbo also has a tendency to get better day after day, as the flavors have more time to release and combine. A third day gumbo is a beautiful thing. It will also freeze very well and keep forever. Feel free to substitute the chicken with crawfish, shrimp, crab, aligator, duck, goose, turkey. The combinations are truly limitless. Good luck and feel free to ask questions, as I have left out a bunch for time's sake.