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Seafood gumbo in a two-handled bowl on a piece of wood.
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4.77 / 13 votes

Seafood Gumbo

This seafood gumbo, a Cajun specialty, is loaded with shrimp, crab, oysters, and plenty of spice.
Prep Time1 hour 45 minutes
Cook Time3 hours 30 minutes
Total Time5 hours 15 minutes
Course: Mains
Cuisine: Southern
Servings: 12 to 16 servings
Calories: 908

Ingredients

For the seafood stock

  • At least 6 cold beers for the cook, (kidding...sorta)
  • 4 pounds medium (16 to 20 count) shrimp, shell-on and preferably head-on
  • 6 blue crabs
  • Salt
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • One (4-inch) rosemary sprig or 2 tablespoons dried
  • 13 bay leaves
  • 9 quarts (36 cups) cold water

For the seafood gumbo

  • 3 cups vegetable oil
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 medium green bell peppers, diced
  • 3 celery stalks, diced
  • 2 jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 2 teaspoons filé powder
  • 2 teaspoons store-bought or homemade chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • Several dashes of store-bought or homemade hot sauce
  • 2 pints shucked oysters, liquor strained and reserved
  • 1 pound crab claw meat, carefully picked over for shells
US - Metric

Instructions

Make the seafood stock

  • Crack open a beer and start sipping while you peel the shrimp. Set the shells and heads aside in a bowl for the stock. Set the bodies aside for the gumbo. (Something to keep in mind for subsequent batches of gumbo is if you desire a richer stock, you can simply double the amount of shrimp shells. To amass this stash of shrimp shells, each time you peel some shrimp for a recipe, stash the shells in the freezer.)
  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the crabs and a generous amount of salt, cover, and boil for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain immediately and set the crabs aside to cool. (Yes, after just 5 to 7 minutes. If you were going to fully cook the crabs, you would boil them for 10 to 15 minutes, but you want to leave most of the flavor in the crab so it imparts some to the gumbo.
  • Peel the front flaps and tops off the crabs and place in a large bowl with the shrimp heads and shells. Use your fingers to scoop out the orange back fat from the middle of the crab and dump it in a small bowl. Break the crab bodies into 4 pieces each and set aside for the gumbo in a different bowl as the shrimp bodies.
  • Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the reserved crab and shrimp shells and shrimp heads, if using. Cook, stirring frequently, until the shells turn pink, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the onion, celery, garlic, paprika, rosemary, bay leaves, and 9 quarts cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and gently simmer for 1 hour.
  • Remove the stock from the heat and strain, discarding the solids.


Make the seafood gumbo

  • Heat the 3 cups vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, whisk in the flour and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, whisking slowly but darn near constantly, until the roux has thickened and is the color of a dark copper penny, 45 minutes to an hour. You’ll want to reduce the heat gradually as you go. When the roux first begins to take on color, reduce the heat to medium. Continue in this fashion, gradually lowering the heat as the color of the roux deepens. By the end of the cooking, when the roux is appropriately dark, the heat should be on low. It’s essential to whisk the roux constantly as it cooks (but not so vigorously that you splatter the roux and burn yourself!), because if even a small bit of flour sticks to the pot, it will become spotty, scorch quickly, and impart a burnt taste to the entire roux.
  • Carefully add the onion, bell pepper, celery, jalapeños, and the reserved crab back fat. (We say "carefully" because this will create a near volcanic reaction of bubbling, steaming, and sizzling. The roux at this point is around 400°F (204°C) and the addition of cold vegetables causes an explosion of flavors and smells.) Stir until the vegetables are well coated.
  • Stir in the garlic, salt, paprika, filé powder, chili powder, black pepper, cayenne, white pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, thyme, and hot sauce and continue to cook, stirring, for a few minutes.
  • Add 2/3 of the strained stock and the oyster liquor, bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pot to ensure nothing clumps and burns, until the mixture returns to a gentle simmer.
  • If necessary, start skimming the oil from the top of the gumbo almost instantly (by the end of the cooking process, the gumbo will probably have released almost all of the oil from the roux). Continue to simmer and skim for about 1 hour. Taste it. If it still has a strong roux flavor, gradually add the remaining 1/3 of the stock, tasting as you go, until the flavor tastes more like the stock than the roux. If you don't use all the stock, freeze the remaining stock for another use.
  • When the flavor of the gumbo has developed and its appearance is clearer (that is to say, with fewer dots of oil), add the oysters and crab meat. Bring the seafood gumbo back to a simmer and cook gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Skim once more and add the shrimp, and simmer for 1 more hour. Ladle the seafood gumbo into bowls and crack open another beer.

Nutrition

Serving: 1bowl | Calories: 908kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 57g | Fat: 59g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 311mg | Sodium: 1956mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g