Chicken Gumbo
1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon chopped onion 1 quart sliced okra 2 quarts hot water 3 small tomatoes Less desirable pieces chicken Flour Salt and pepper Brown the onion in the butter; add the okra and fry until the okra will rope from a spoon. Stir constantly. Pour all into the hot water and boil down to a quart. Scald the tomatoes; peel them; cut into small pieces and add to the soup. Next sprinkle with salt, pepper and flour the wings, back, neck and other undesirable portions of a chicken and fry them a light brown. Lift from the frying pan with a fork and add to the soup one half hour before serving.
A short ingredient list that depends almost entirely on one step being done properly: the okra has to be cooked long enough to give up its mucilage before any liquid goes in.
- The hinge: fry the okra until it ropes"Rope from a spoon" means the cut okra has released enough mucilage to draw a thread when lifted. Expect 10 to 15 minutes over medium heat with constant stirring, and do not add liquid before it happens or the soup stays thin and the okra tastes green.
- A quart of sliced okraRoughly 1 lb of pods, or about 3/4 lb once trimmed and cut into rounds. Frozen cut okra works and ropes just as readily; thaw and drain it first or it will steam rather than fry.
- Boil down to a quartTwo quarts of water reduced by half in an uncovered pan takes 45 minutes to an hour. This is where the body of the soup comes from, so keep the lid off and give it the time it needs.
- Three small tomatoesAbout 3/4 lb, or roughly a cup and a half once peeled and chopped. A cup of drained canned tomatoes is a fair substitute out of season.
- "Less desirable pieces"Wings, back, neck, and any trimmings — the collagen-rich parts of a bird jointed at home. Two or three thighs or a pack of wings will do; the dredged flour that browns on them also thickens the soup slightly.
- Half an hour is the minimum, not the targetBacks and wings need 30 to 40 minutes at a simmer to be pleasant, and the meat should read 165F at its thickest point, away from the bone. If you want to pull the meat and return it shredded, give the pieces the full time first.
- Salt lateReducing two quarts to one concentrates everything. Season the chicken as directed, but hold most of the salt for the soup until after it has reduced.
- YieldA quart of reduced broth plus the tomatoes and chicken, so rather over a quart finished: four small bowls as a first course. Serve over a spoonful of rice if you want it to eat as a meal.
Gumbo's name is generally traced to a West African word for okra — forms such as ki ngombo in Bantu languages — though the derivation is not settled. Note that there is no roux and no filé here at all: the thickening comes wholly from the mucilage the okra gives up in the frying pan, which is why the instruction to fry until it ropes is not a picturesque detail but the whole method. The recipe's frankness about "less desirable pieces" marks it as an economical soup, of the kind where the wings, back and neck left over from a bird jointed for roasting or frying were put to use rather than thrown out.