Step One. Get what you’ll need to go in the gumbo. This will include:

1. Going to LaPlace, LA for the good anduoille sausage. If you are in NOLA, this will take, round trip, one-and-a-half hours.
2. Going to the Honey Baked Ham store for a $5 ham bone for a 1/2 pound of the ham still left on the bone.
3. Buying or having on hand a fryer chicken, celery, onions, garlic, green peppers, green onions (what northerns call “scallions”), bay leaves, and fresh parsley. Plus spices–salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, Tony Chachere’s creole seasonings, thyme, maybe even a dash of oregano.

Step Two. Get a friend to assist. I get Pete. While I chop all the vegetables, he hacks the chicken. He browns the meat in a bit of vegetable oil and uses the rest of the chicken to make broth. He adds to this broth the discards of the onions, green onions, and garlic. Plus he adds a bit of salt and pepper. He lets the broth simmer for a good 40 minutes.

Step Three. This, for me, is the doozy. Add vegetable oil and flour to a scorching hot dutch oven and start stirring. Yes, you are making a roux. Do not use a plastic spatula; it may melt. As will your skin if it splatters. So don’t be too rough with your stirring. Let the color of the roux get to a rich chocolate color. Not this:

That’s more of a hazelnut. Not dark enough. Folks, this gets really scary here for me. I get all kinds of nervous just watching Pete stir the bubbling hot liquid. It even begins to smell a bit beyond roasted–just a suggestion of being on the cusp of burning. But as long as you diligently stir, IT WILL NOT BURN. Honestly, I wimp out here every time and move to Step Four. But not my friend Pete. He’s brave and that is why I solicit his aid. He keeps at it until he gets it here:

Thank God it’s done. We can move on.

Step Four. Add the onions, celery and bell pepper to the roux to stop it from cooking further. Turn the heat down to medium and keep stirring. After five minutes, add half of the green onions and all of the garlic. Cook five minutes more. Then add the ham and anduoille to the roux. Blend well and let cook about ten minutes. Then add your spices along with the chicken broth. Simmer for half an hour. Then add your chicken pieces and cook for another 40 minutes or so. Adjust seasonings as necessary.

Step Five. Wipe your brow, crack a beer and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Then go to bed. Gumbo tastes better the day after it is cooked.

Step Six. Wake up, smell the remnants of your cooking and work up an appetite. If you are fortunate, you will end up with a pot as good as this one:

You can garnish it with fresh parsley, the other half of the green onions, and file powder (to thicken it) and even add oysters just before serving. That’s the way I like it. Serve over rice and have some Tabasco or Louisiana hot sauce on hand to spice it up if you are in the mood.

Bon appetit!!