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Chicken Gumbo

Chicken gumbo with oysters, okra, ham, onions, and tomato juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Chicken Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Flour the chicken pieces lightly.

  2. Heat the butter in a frying pan.

  3. Fry the chicken with one sliced onion until browned but not cooked through.

Simmer the gumbo

  1. Transfer the chicken and onion to a soup kettle with water and oyster liquor.

  2. Add the chopped ham, chopped oysters, remaining onion, red pepper, and tomato juice.

  3. Once the chicken is cooked, remove all meat except the white meat.

  4. Mince the white meat.

  5. Return the minced meat to the soup.

  6. Add the can of okra (or fresh okra if using).

  7. Let everything boil for 30 minutes.

Thicken and season

  1. If the gumbo isn't thick enough, add a little flour.

  2. Season to taste and stir in Worcestershire sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Okra + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and body, with browning adding savory flavor to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and helps the chicken and onion brown for richer flavor.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown.
Okra
Releases natural gums during cooking that help thicken the gumbo.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and body to the broth.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savory flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Fry the chicken until browned but not cooked through. Browning builds flavor through the Maillard reaction. Cooking the chicken fully at this stage would leave it dry and overcooked after the long simmer in the soup.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, oyster, onion, ham, pepper, tomato, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrathe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, oyster, onion, ham, pepper, tomato, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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