Easy Cajun Shrimp Gumbo

With Mardi Gras right around the corner, enjoy a Cajun inspired gumbo that's easy to make and tastes fabulous.

All the ingredients in this Cajun Gumbo recipe are easy to find in any part of the country. If you’ve been thinking about trying your hand at Cajun cooking, this is a great starter recipe. The trickiest part is the roux. Just take your time with the grease and flour. It will give the gumbo that rich flavor that is associated with Cajun and Creole cooking.

Cajun Shrimp Gumbo Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 TBS bacon grease (can use vegetable oil or olive oil)
• 3 TBS all-purpose flour
• 1 can stewed diced tomatoes (16 oz)
• 2 TBS tomato sauce (can use ketchup)
• 1 small onion chopped fine
• 1 chopped bell pepper (green or any other color)
• 1 TBS parsley flakes
• 1 clove garlic (crushed or chopped very fine)
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ lb shrimp cleaned and shelled (frozen or fresh)
• Rice (your choice of types)
• Hot sauce (Louisiana Hot Sauce by Bruce Foods is a good brand)

Directions:

1. In a frying pan with fairly deep sides, heat the bacon grease (or oil) until pretty hot. Then, stir in the flour. Use a fork to mix it in well. This will be your base or roux and flavor and thicken the gumbo. Stir and cook until the roux is a pretty light brown color.
2. Add all the other ingredients to the roux except the shrimp. Shrimp cooks fast, so you do not want to add it early. The shrimp will get tough if it cooks a long time.
3. Bring your gumbo sauce to a boil. Then turn the heat down to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
4. Add the shrimp. Simmer around 10 minutes with frozen shrimp and closer 5 minutes for fresh shrimp. The size will make a difference. You may need to cook a shorter time for small shrimp and likely longer for large shrimp. Just check the shrimp. It should be a pretty orange like color. Taste a shrimp if you’re not sure if it’s done.
5. Serve your Easy Shrimp Gumbo over rice. Typically it’s white rice, but brown rice or whole grain rice is also very good.
6. Have hot sauce available. Any brand is fine, but Louisiana Hot Sauce is a smooth sauce with a bite. Everyone can doctor up the Shrimp Gumbo to suit their own heat meters.

Enjoy these other great shrimp recipes:

Beer Boiled Shrimp - Boiled shrimp is super easy to make. Cooked in beer, it has a wonderful flavor. Very good for any gathering.

Southern Fried Shrimp - This recipe takes a little more time and work, but the light batter is great. Much better than store bought breaded shrimp and even shrimp at restaurants.

Joe Patty's Seafood Counter

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