Duck Gumbo With Andouille Sausage

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Full of authentic flavor: After many trips to Louisiana and growing up in Houston where Cajun influences are found throughout our food scene, I know a good gumbo, and this is it. Thanks to our dark roux, blend of Cajun spices, Holy Trinity of vegetables and savory filè powder, you’ll think you’re enjoying a bowl of duck gumbo in New Orleans.

That rich duck meat with loads of sausage: Andouille sausage adds the best flavor, but we make this gumbo extra delicious by preparing our roux with duck fat. It adds the most wonderful silky texture and richness.

Perfect for a crowd: This gumbo makes enough for 10 good dinner servings, so you can keep everyone full and happy. If you’re serving as an appetizer, you could double that serving size.

Make ahead for easy entertaining: I’m a big believer in making your life easier with some make-ahead recipes when entertaining, and gumbo is perfect for that. We’ll chat through a couple options.

Bonus: If you love this dish, make sure you also plan some time to make my chicken and andouille gumbo and shrimp and crab gumbo! After all, you can’t have too many gumbo recipes. They’re all delicious in their own ways.

Ingredients

Whole duck: Rather than buy separate duck pieces, I recommend using a whole duck. For one reason, it's simply more economical. But I also like to use a whole duck because it gives us more skin to render the fat, and we can simmer the gumbo with the spine and neck for an added depth of flavor.

This does mean we need to cut up our duck before cooking, but don't let this intimidate you. Here's a helpful video tutorial on how to cut a whole duck.

For tools, a sharp knife should do the trick, but if you get into any tricky pieces, I find strong kitchen shears can cut through a lot of bones, especially the spine. I've even used shears to cut around pieces for stubborn areas. Plus, the duck pieces are going in gumbo, and then we're shredding the meat, so it doesn't need to be beautifully carved. You can do it!

Andouille sausage: For that authentic flavor, you want andouille sausage -- not just any old smoked sausage. Fortunately, it's easy to find these days even outside of Louisiana and neighboring areas.

Holy Trinity: This is otherwise known as the trio of vegetables that's a common combination in Cajun cooking. The trio includes celery, onion and green bell pepper.

Cajun seasoning: While you can use store-bought seasoning, I highly recommend preparing my homemade Cajun seasoning, which I use in all my gumbos. It takes only minutes to prepare, and it doesn't have any weird additives. Plus, you don't have to only use it in gumbo -- I especially love sprinkling it on chicken and fish before cooking.

Filé powder: This is also essential to giving our gumbo that authentic flavor. Filé powder is made from ground sassafras tree leaves that not only thickens our gumbo but also adds a distinctive savory note. While it's available on Amazon, you should be able to find it in the spice section of your grocery store.

Chicken stock: If you have homemade chicken stock, that will make a great gumbo. That said, I truly believe Better Than Bouillon makes the best store-bought chicken stock, and that's my recommendation here if you don't have anything homemade. This is a concentrated paste you use to make the stock, and you can find it in the soup section of the grocery store or on Amazon.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: To start our duck gumbo, we begin by browning that delicious Andouille sausage to give it a nice crust (photo 1). We want to do this in two batches because there will be too many sausage slices to fit in one batch, but this only takes about two to three minutes per side, so the process is quick.

Step 2: Now we render that duck fat. For this step, we set the duck breasts skin-side down and let it cook until most of the fat renders (photo 2).

To ensure we don't unevenly cook the duck, I like to render all the pieces. I start by rendering the duck breasts and then render the thighs along with some extra pieces of trimmed skin. We render until we have ½ cup.

Step 3: Once we have our duck fat, we're ready to make that famous gumbo roux. For this step, we whisk in flour and continue to cook until it goes from a blonde roux to a dark roux (photos 3-6).

Be prepared because this takes time, so turn on some music or Netflix and enjoy the process. To get a dark roux, expect to whisk for at least 45 minutes, but an hour is not uncommon. You might be tempted to stop before it turns dark brown, but that deep roux is what gives gumbo its rich flavor -- this is not designed to be a quick weeknight meal!

Step 4: Once we get that dark roux, we add our Holy Trinity vegetables and cook until they soften (photo 7). At the very end, we add a heap of fresh garlic.

Step 5: Now we're ready to add our chicken stock, Cajun seasoning, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, browned Andouille sausage and duck with the skin removed (photo 8). We bring the mixture to a boil, lower to a simmer, cover and let the gumbo keep simmering for about an hour and 20 minutes.

Step 6: After the gumbo simmers and the duck cooks, we pull out the duck pieces and shred the meat with two forks (photo 9).

Step 7: Now we add the shredded duck back to pot along with our filé powder (photo 10).

And that's it! Serve this delicious duck gumbo with a big scoop of hot white rice and finish the meal with a slice of luscious bananas foster cheesecake, and you have yourself a meal that will instantly transport you to the French Quarter.

Related: For more duck recipes, try my smoked duck and holiday roast duck.

Recipe FAQs

Perfect Pairing

Wondering what beer goes with gumbo? Try a nice Belgian-style dubbel. This style of beer has a rich maltiness with dried fruit notes that are fabulous with duck. Plus, the dubbel's thicker body stands up nicely to the bold duck and thick roux.

For a wine, you'll love a pinot noir. This wine features some nice earthy notes that complement our duck and pair nicely with our seasoning, especially that filé powder. This wine also shows off some berry notes, and like the dubbel, those are perfect with duck.

Of course, you might also be in the mood for a classic New Orleans cocktail. The Ramos gin fizz is just that. Henry C. Ramos invented this cocktail in the late 1800s at his bar known as the Imperial Cabinet saloon.

For the perfect bowl of Cajun comfort food, I hope you try this duck gumbo with andouille sausage. You'll devour it in no time.

Cheers!

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