This delightful Seafood Gumbo is full of shrimp and crab and it has a nice spicy kick. There’s nothing like a warm bowl of gumbo, and I especially like a seafood gumbo.
Spicy Southern Kitchen participates in affiliate advertising programs. We may earn a commission when you make a purchase through links on our site.
Making a big pot of gumbo is a little labor intensive, but it lasts for days and only gets better with time. It’s perfect for a lazy afternoon spent at home. Build a nice fire in the fireplace and put your biggest pot on the stove.
The most time-consuming part and the most important part is making the roux. It is a process that should not be rushed. It forms the base of the flavor and you really want to take the time and develop a deep, robust flavor. Making roux can take some practice. Turn the heat up too high and it will burn and you will have to start again.
In addition to shrimp and crab, this Seafood Gumbo is also flavored with the Holy Trinity- (onions, bell pepper, and celery), lots of garlic, a bottle of beer, thyme, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, and lots of Cajun seasoning. Plus there’s a pound of andouille sausage for some meatiness.
Equipment Needed
- 6 to 7-quart Dutch Oven– It’s important to use a Dutch oven with a thick, heavy bottom so the roux doesn’t burn. This Dutch Oven is perfect.
- Fine-Meshed Sieve– for straining the shrimp stock. This set of 3 strainers is very useful in the kitchen.
More New Orleans-Style Recipes
Seafood Gumbo
Ingredients
- 2 pounds unpeeled fresh large shrimp
- 1/2 cup butter, divided
- 2 (32-ounce) cartons chicken broth
- 1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
- 1 cup finely chopped celery
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 (12-ounce) bottle amber beer
- 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup green onion tops
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 pound lump crabmeat
- Cooked rice for serving
Instructions
- Peel and devein shrimp, placing shrimp shells in a large pot. Refrigerate shrimp until needed.
- In a large pot, melt 1/4 cup butter over medium heat. Add shrimp shells and cook until pink. Then add broth.
- Bring broth to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm until needed.
- In a large Dutch oven, cook sausage until browned. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add oil and remaining 1/4 cup butter to Dutch oven. Heat over medium heat until butter is completely melted.
- Add flour and stir with wooden spoon until smooth.
- Reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring frequently until roux is a dark caramel color. This will take 30 to 40 minutes.
- Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add green pepper and celery and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring often.
- Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
- Add beer and stir in well.
- Pour shrimp stock through a fine-meshed sieve into Dutch oven. (I like to add it in 3 separate additions, mixing well between additions.
- Add Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and bay leaves, plus the reserved andouille sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
- Add green onions, parsley, and shrimp. When shrimp are pink, remove from heat and stir in crabmeat.
- Serve with white rice.
Notes
Want to Save This Recipe?
More New Orleans Inspired Recipes
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
Excellent recipe! Just made this today and added chicken thighs to mix! Very easy to make; but be patient with the roux! Thanks for sharing!
Prep time takes longer than 20 min. I added 4C okra and 2Tbs File. It is amazing. I am gonna add crawfish tails next time I make this.
I absolutely love this recipe! I leave out the beer and it’s still just as great. More and more of my friends are becoming gluten free. If I used a 1:1 gluten free flour, will the roux come out the same?
I have made this recipe twice and both times it’s turned out great. Thanks for sharing.
Why do you not add either (or both) okra or gumbo file to this? I think they both add so much wonderful flavor.
I added 4C okra and 2Tbs of file to mine and its amazing
I added leftover red snapper fish heads to the shrimp broth. And the fish cheeks makes the gumbo really rich. I also love the worchestershire sauce .
I was very intimated about making gumbo for the first time but it turned out amazing! Only changes I made was I doubled the crab, had jalapeño pork & beef sausage on hand and added crawfish tails. This is sooo good and sooo easy!
This hands down the best recipe for Gumbo. I have shared this recipe numerous times as every time I make it people ask for it.
Hello!
I am from Germany and I tried you recipe today. Unfortunately I didn’t get my hands on crabmeat. So I used clams instead. I never knew you could cook flour so long! It was a blast cooking your gumbo and it was soooooo good! I didn’t add the sausge because I am a pescetarian. But I wanted to say thank you very much for your detailed and easy recipe. Yummy 🙂
I wish you a great Easter celebration
Tanja (from Essen, Germany 🙂 )
The ingredients say “chicken broth” but the recipe refers to “shrimp stock”???
When you boil the shrimp shells in the chicken broth, it becomes the shrimp stock.
This recipe was great-although it was intensive to make it was delicious.
1ST ATTEMPT AT GUMBO, I AM IN A GUMBO COMPATION, I WILL BE EATING MORE GUMBO. INCREDABLE.
Looks like a great recipe and the high review scores bear that out. One question about a “large pot”. If making a 1x/10 serving amount of this recipe, is an 8 quart stock pot big enough or do I need to go larger? Any guidance wouldl be appreciated.
This recipe was delicious. Thank you for sharing it!
The roux was hard work. I did learn a lot from this recipe. Thank you.
I have made this recipe now at least 5 times. It is the BEST gumbo recipe I’ve found. Fantastic! 5 stars all the way!
Great recipe. Needs some correction in the instructions for the 2X recipe. In the ingredients section it calls for 1 cup of butter vs. 1/2 cup of butter in the 1X ingredients, but in the instructions on 2X recipe numbers 2 and 5 have you using a 1/4 cup of butter when they both should be 1/2 cup of butter.
It tasted bitter, but I think I overcooked the roux. Watch it closely! That was my own fault, but so be careful. I also added okra, which I didn’t see in the recipe. Finally, I may have missed something, but the ingredients seemed to say chicken stock, but the directions reference shrimp stock?
This was awesome! I have an old recipe from a Cajun woman who lived near me as a child. For the most part this was almost identical!
I used this as a base since I only make gumbo on New Years and like trying new things. I’ve never used Worcestershire sauce and added chicken thighs, clams, mussels and oysters along with the crab and shrimp. The roux turned out beautifully. I doubled up the spices since I used larger quantities of seafood and this was outstanding.