Chicken and Sausage Gumbo - Cooking Louisiana

Cooking Louisiana - Chicken & Sausage Gumbo for 100

Chicken Sausage Gumbo is an old Traditional Cajun favorite and we often cook big batches of it when the crowds get big. I'm estimating that this will feed 100 people considering the only side dish being potato salad or bread.

This gumbo is cooked in an 80 quart (20 gallon) seafood boiling pot. It is also started the day before serving because of preparation and cooking time.

10 gallons of water.

6 hens cut up and seasoned (marinate over night) - see note below
5 lbs. Chaurice (not chorizo) or fresh pork sausage.
5 tbs. another type of sausage (your choice, fresh or smoked)
2 lbs. pork Tasso
3 lbs Andouille
6 lbs. onions chopped
4 bunches celery chopped
6 bell peppers chopped
3 cups green onion tops chopped
2 cups parsley chopped
3 pints dark roux (Savoie's or other in jar)
Have the following seasonings handy
Louisiana Hot Sauce
Salt
Black pepper
Thyme or poultry seasoning
Paprika
Cooked Rice [1/2 cup raw rice minimum for each person]

Note: If you deal with a meat market they'll usually cut the hens up for you for a slightly higher cost. Hens are tough to cut. You can also use regular chickens, but, they are not as flavorful.

Day 1 - Preparation

In a 375ºF oven bake chicken until slightly brown (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours). Turn as needed.
Let cool and refrigerate. See note below.

Note: if you want to minimize tiny pieces of bone in the gumbo; take all the back sections out and boil them in a stock pot until tender enough to debone. Throw the bones away, reserve the meat and refrigerate. It's a good idea to do this anyway because it will tell you how long you're going to have to boil the remaining pieces to get them tender.

Lower fire to 350ºF and bake all fresh sausages about 40 minutes. Let cool, cut and refrigerate.

Cut smoked sausage in bite sized pieces, and, tasso in 1/4" pieces.

Chop all vegetables.

Refrigerate everything (an ice chest or two works well for this)

Note: You can skip the hen baking part if you're time limited. This adds flavor from the browning.

Day 2 - Cooking

Bring 10 gallons of water to a boil. Dump roux in and boil hard (rolling boil) about 1 hour. Be sure to stir so none of the undissolved roux sticks to the bottom and burns. Add vegetables except green onions and parsley, sausages and tasso and boil another 30 minutes.

Add whole pieces of chicken and boil until tender (that means you'll have to check them to see when they are tender enough)

Note: The time till tender will depend on the age of the birds. This could be as long as 3 hours. If you boil the backs separately the day before you'll have a good indication of how long it will take the chicken pieces to tenderize.

3/4 way through the tenderizing process add green onions.

Add parsley 15 minutes before the tenderizing is completed.

Lower to a simmer, taste and add seasonings as needed. Since sausages and tasso have their own seasonings it's difficult to estimate the exact amount of additional seasonings needed. Salt will almost surely be needed.