This Creole-style gumbo is a one-pot wonder loaded with chicken, shrimp, crabmeat, smoked sausage, and Creole spices in a tomato-based stew thickened with a roux, a bit different from Cajun-style gumbo. You will absolutely love the flavor.
Creole Style Gumbo Recipe
I'm a huge gumbo lover and I'm happy to share with you this delicious Creole-style Gumbo that I learned how to make in New Orleans.
Gumbo is the Official State Cuisine of Louisiana. You'll find many variations around the state, with a variety of different ingredients and different seasonings depending on the location and the cook.
The largest differences are typically boiled down to Cajun vs. Creole Style Gumbo. In general, Cajun Gumbo is more rustic with fewer seasonings and focusing on meats like chicken and sausage, though might also include game meats.
Creole Gumbo is generally characterized by the use of more seasonings and fresh herbs, other meats like seafood, as well as tomatoes. You might think of it as city gumbo, or New Orleans gumbo.
This is a Creole style gumbo made with a mix of meats and seafood, thickened with a roux. It's one of my favorites, and I hope you love it, too.
Let's talk about how to make Creole style gumbo, shall we?
Creole Style Gumbo Ingredients
The full ingredients list with measurements and full instructions are listed in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Meats. Use chicken breast or chicken thighs and andouille sausage. You can use other smoked sausage, like Conecuh sausage.
- Seafood. Shrimp and crabmeat. Or use your favorites.
- Peanut Oil or Vegetable Oil. You can also use butter.
- Flour. For the roux.
- Vegetables. Green bell pepper, onion, celery, garlic.
- Tomatoes. I am using crushed tomatoes, though you can use fire roasted or freshly chopped. You can also use tomato sauce (passata).
- Creole Seasonings. Plus salt and black pepper. Try my homemade Creole seasoning recipe. Much better than store bought.
- Cayenne Pepper. For additional heat. Optional.
- Chicken Broth. Or use seafood broth.
- Bay Leaf.
- Thyme.
- Chopped Parsley.
- Filé Powder. Optional. For thickening your gumbo for serving.
How to Make Creole Style Gumbo - the Recipe Method
Heat some oil in a large pot and cook the chicken and andouille a few minutes, just to brown the meats. Set aside.
Make the roux by adding peanut or vegetable oil to the same pot. Stir in the flour to form a slurry, and stir over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the roux browns to the color of peanut butter, about 15 to 20 minutes.
You can go lighter or darker if you’d like. I often enjoy a dark roux the color of chocolate.
See my post on How to Make a Roux for more information and a video tutorial, with a discussion on options.
Add the peppers, onion, celery and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the chicken and andouille.
Add the tomatoes, Creole seasoning, cayenne, chicken or seafood stock, bay leaves and fresh thyme. Simmer 1 hour to thicken.
Stir in the shrimp and crab and tuck into the gumbo. Simmer 6-7 minutes, or until the seafood is cooked through.
Boom! Done! Your Creole gumbo is ready to serve. Stir in fresh parsley and serve into bowls with filé powder on the side for thickening, if desired. Garnish with extra parsley. This is great over white rice.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Adjust the thickness of your gumbo with your roux. Use a lighter roux the color of peanut butter or a copper penny for a thicker stew. Use a darker roux the color of dark chocolate or mahogony for a thinner soup-like gumbo. Use a blonde roux for a very thick gumbo.
- Okra is a popular addition to gumbo, and also acts a thickener. If you include gumbo in the dish, consider skipping or using less roux.
Storage & Leftovers
Leftover Creole gumbo will last up to 5 days in the refrigerator in a sealed container. Reheat it gently in a pot on the stove top to enjoy again.
You can also freeze gumbo for 3 months in freezer containers. It freezes quite well.
That's it, my friends. I hope you enjoy my Creole style gumbo recipe. Let me know if you make it. I'd love to hear how it turned out for you, and if you decided to spice it up!
Cookbook Recommendation
If you enjoy Cajun and Creole cuisine, I recommend the following cookbooks. There are a lot of great recipes.
- Louisiana Real and Rustic, by Emeril Lagasse (affiliate link, my friends!)
- Complete Cajun Cookbook: 100 Home-Cooked Bayou Classics, by Ryan Boudreaux (affiliate link, my friends!)
- Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link's Louisiana, by Donald Link (affiliate link, my friends!)
- Also, check out MY cookbook - The Spicy Food Lovers' Cookbook, by Mike Hultquist (affiliate link, my friends!)
Amazon Affiliate links, my friends! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Got any questions? Ask away! I’m happy to help. If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I’ll be sure to share! Thanks! — Mike H.
Creole Gumbo Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 pound chicken breast or thicken thighs, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 pound ounces andouille sliced into ¼ inch slices
- 3/4 cup peanut oil or vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 medium bell pepper chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 medium celery stalk chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 28 ounce crushed tomatoes (2 14-oz cans)
- 2 tablespoons Creole seasoning
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper optional, for extra spicy
- 6 cups chicken stock or use seafood stock
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 1 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 pound crab meat (I used lump crab - use more shrimp or tender white fish as an alternative)
- 4 tablespoons chopped parsley + more for serving
- 1 tablespoon filé powder or to taste optional, for thickening
Instructions
- Heat a pan to medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil and heat.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to the pan along with the sliced andouille. Cook a couple minutes per side until browned. Set aside until ready to use.
- Add the peanut oil to a large pot and heat to medium heat. Add flour and stir. Cook for 15-20 minutes, constantly stirring, until the roux browns to the color of peanut butter. You can go lighter or darker (chocolate brown) if you’d like.
- Add peppers, onion, celery and garlic. Stir and cook about 5 minutes.
- Add chicken and andouille. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Add crushed tomatoes, Creole seasoning, cayenne, and chicken stock. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom.
- Add bay leaves and thyme and cook at medium-low heat for 1 hour to thicken.
- Stir in shrimp and crab and tuck into the gumbo. Simmer 6-7 minutes, or until the seafood is cooked through.
- Stir in fresh parsley and serve into bowls with filé powder on the side for thickening, if desired. Garnish with extra parsley.
Notes
Lyle says
I usually make Cajun Gumbo, but this is excellent and almost as good 😜. Apart from the tomatoes, it's actually very similar to my recipe.I use Chef Isaac Toup's 15 minute roux technique, which saves you at least half an hour of stirring when making a dark chocolate roux. I also had to make a couple of ingredient substitutions as I live in Canada. Frozen lobster meat is actually less expensive than canned crab meat, so I used it. Andouille sausage is nearly impossible to find here, but Kielbasa is a great stand-in. I also make my own seafood stock from lobster and shrimp shells I save in my freezer. It was great for Mardi Gras, served with the Natchitoches meat pies I made 😋. Laissez Les bons temps rouler.
Mike Hultquist says
Sounds wonderful!! Glad you enjoyed this one, Lyle! I appreciate the comments!!
Laurie B. says
Brings me right back to New Orleans! Laden with seafood, chicken, and andouille, it was just perfection! Added a few habaneros and some extra cayenne for that "madness!"
Mike Hultquist says
Wonderful!! Thanks so much, Laurie!! Very happy you enjoyed it!
Malcolm Laird says
We finally took out the Dutch oven to make your dish. A couple of changes: my wife is allergic to bell peppers, so we used poblano. We cannot find andouille sausage so we used smoked turkey. Other than that we stirred until we had a nice chocolate roux. Then we followed the rest of your instruction. We very rarely find okra, which we love, so it wasn’t added. Neither was crab meat as it is currently unavailable. We ate the gumbo out of a bowl - no rice. My wife is still raving about it. We look forward to trying more recipes.
Mike Hultquist says
Fantastic!! Glad you both enjoyed it, Malcolm!! Awesome. Thanks for sharing this!
TheMJ says
Excellent recipe and what I hope is a great starting point. I made a few changes, since I am in SWFL and we are in the middle of our growing season. I replaced canned tomatoes with fresh, and used some shishito peppers in addition to the bell pepper. I added a whole habanero (3 slits for heat and flavor) while simmering for extra heat. No crab. Just chicken, sausage and shrimp. Overall, delicious and will be made again.
Mike Hultquist says
Great way to adapt the recipe! Very nice. Glad you enjoyed it!!
Todd says
This recipe is fantastic. I made it for dinner one night when we had company visiting from West Virginia. Everyone loved it and all went back for seconds. My daughter, who hates seafood, ate it hungrily. That was the true test of how good this gumbo is. I opted to add the cayenne pepper and was not disappointed. I ate a bowl the next day for lunch, and then my wife and I finished (our guests left for the east coast) the rest of it for dinner the next evening and it was still delicious. I highly recommend this fantastic dish! Thank you Mike!
Mike Hultquist says
Excellent!! Glad everyone enjoyed it, Todd! This is so great hear!! Thanks so much for sharing this. I do appreciate it!
Todd Thompson says
Et toi!
Followed the recipe…
I used a little more celery, used half pound of lump crab and half pound of crab claw meat fo the crab. I don’t reckon I tinkered with the recipe much more than that. Peanut butter colored roux, and proceeded step by step after that.
Big hit. My wife is used to my cajun gumbo and found this remarkable. It was served over rice with thin sliced garlic bread, a big ol’ dollop of The Best Stop tater salad on top, gumbo file and Louisiana hot sauce on the side, and an ale in a frosty mug. Ah-yeeeee!
Mike Hultquist says
Perfection!! I want to eat at your house next time, Todd! I love to hear it. Thanks so much for your comments, and I'm very happy you both enjoyed the recipe.
Rico says
The gumbo recipe was really good. I made it during the recent New England blizzard, and it hit the spot. I pretty much followed the recipe but added scallops and crabmeat. I spiced it up a little using home grown thai peppers, garlic and herbs.
I look forward to seeing what you have planned for March.
Mike Hultquist says
Glad you enjoyed it, Rico. I'll have to try it with scallops next time. Thanks for sharing this.