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Chicken and sausage gumbo recipe
Or, "Maillard reactions are your friends." :-)

This is a big recipe. It require at least two simultaneous burners, a very big pot, a patient dishwasher, five pounds of meat, and a time commitment, but it tastes pretty good!

3 pounds of chicken meat, bone in (I used thighs)
2 pounds of andouille sausage, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
2 cartons of chicken stock or broth
3 pounds of frozen cut okra, thawed
1 big onion, or multiple small ones, chopped small
2 ribs celery, chopped small
4-5 cloves' worth of chopped garlic (I get mine from a jar)
2 28-oz cans whole tomatoes
1 1/2 cups of medium roux (see below)
3 or 4 bay leaves
Seasonings: Black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, others to taste

1. In a medium-sized stock pot, bring the chicken stock, sausage rounds, and bay leaves to a simmer. This gets flavor out of the sausage and into the stock.

2. In a saucepan with rounded "corners," make a roux: Heat 1/2 cup peanut oil over high heat, and slowly whisk in 1 cup of flour, integrating it a spoonful at a time. Keep whisking. It will sizzle for a while; when that stops, it will start browning very quickly. You are now playing chicken with it. Don't let it burn -- just keep whisking the whole pan until the color looks like peanut butter. (Don't touch it; it's called "Cajun napalm" for a reason!) Turn off the heat, keep whisking until it's cooled some, and set it aside.

3. In a very large heavy-bottomed pot over your biggest burner, start browning the chicken pieces in a little oil. They don't need to cook all the way through. If they stick a little, that's okay. When they're lightly browned, turn off the heat, take them out and set them aside. Pour off the excess oil and fat for later. Now remember that stock you've got simmering? Ladle some of it into the big pan to deglaze it. With a flat metal spatula, scrape the sticky stuff off. Empty the big pot into the stock pot.

4. Now that your big pot is sort of clean again, pour back a little of the reserved oil. Saute the onions until they're transparent. Put in the celery, garlic, and the okra pieces, and saute all of that for a while. Eventually it'll start sticking to the bottom of the pot too. Keep stirring and scraping. When the sticky stuff is getting dangerously dark, deglaze with a few cups of that stock. Scrape the sticky stuff off, and let it all boil for a few minutes to dissolve it.

5. Put in the canned tomatoes, juice and all, and chop them coarsely in the pot. Pour in all the stock, along with its sausage and bay leaves. Put the chicken pieces back in, and the spices too. And the roux, too -- but this is complicated: it will absorb all the water it can, and it won't easily dissolve into the gumbo. Ladle some of the stock into the roux, and whisk it. It'll all get absorbed; do it again, and again, until it loosens or until you get tired of the exercise. Put the roux into the gumbo spoonful by spoonful, stirring each one in.

6. Bring it all to a simmer and walk away. Okay, you'll want to stir it once in a while to keep the bottom from burning (we've done enough of that stick-to-the-bottom stuff already). In an hour or so, the chicken will start to fall apart and you'll be too hungry to leave the gumbo alone.

7. Ladle the gumbo over rice in a bowl. Eat it with buttered French bread and a good attitude.