Half-Hour Chicken Gumbo from MarthaStewart.com

I had a craving for gumbo, which is strange since I rarely eat gumbo and have never made it before. The idea came to me while I was at work. I had a package of kielbasa sausage and I wanted to try something a little different then my norm, spaghetti with sausage bites. I thought about making jambalaya again, but, didn't want to work that hard for dinner. Plus, it has been 3 years since I made it and I have no ideal were the recipe is. So thinking outside the box, I decided to make gumbo.

Gumbo is generally made with either shrimp, sausage, chicken, or a combination of meats. I decided to stick to a sausage and chicken combo since this was my first time making it. With the decision in mind, I turned to my favorite database of everything awesome on the web: Pinterest. There were several versions, but, I found Martha Stewart's Half Hour Chicken Gumbo to be the simplest. You will be able to find the recipe here.

Looks delicious right!

Since the chicken that is used is already prepared it saves a lot of time, plus the flavor adds to the soup. I did change a few things around. I used my kielbasa sausage I had in the fridge which isn't the spicy sausage Martha's recipe calls for, but, it worked. I added some ground red pepper to make up for the lack of spice from the sausage. I also really like the the flavor of tomato in gumbo, so I added 2 cans of chopped tomato. I am not a fan of bell peppers, so I left those out. Other than those minor changes, I keep to the recipe and here is my result. 

Oh, so pretttttyyyyyy

Quick note: I forgot to mention the 2 bay leaves I added. I like what bay leaves do to a stew or soup. 

So the first day I ate the gumbo with rice we had streamed the night before. But, the next I made some corn bread and ate the gumbo with that (which is what the recipe calls for). This was so good, I have to make it again. 

Kassoum's comment: "Its good, but, I don't like okra. My mom use to use it (in Africa) all the time."

His my toughest critic!