Chicken And Sausage Gumbo Ala Molly - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup bacon grease
2 large shallots, minced fine
5 garlic cloves, minced fine
1 cup hard alcoholic cider (the alcoholic kind)
6 tablespoons oil
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
2 cups green peppers (chopped)
2 cups onions (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
6 -8 cups chicken stock
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
gumbo file (to taste)
2 lbs texas hot sausage
1 whole chicken (boiled, deboned & shredded)
2 cups sliced okra

Preparation

Pour bacon grease into the pan and bring the heat up to Medium.
Add shallots and onions to grease and cook slowly until they start to look burnt and stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add cider to pan and reduce volume by 1/2 or more while stirring with a whisk. This will break up the shallots and turn very thick after a few minutes.
Add oil and butter (I also add whatever I skim off the top of the chicken I boil for this).
When oil and butter are hot, begin stirring in the flour, 1 tablespoon every 2 minutes until you go through the whole cup. I use a wire whisk for this and stir the whole time -- watching the smell so the flour doesn't burn (if you burn a roux, you need to start over or your gumbo will taste gross.) This takes about half an hour.
When the roux is ready (all flour is incorporated with the grease), add the green pepper, onion and celery and 1-2 cups of broth. Cook this while stirring for about 10 minutes until the vegetables start to cook.
Add stock, 1 cup at a time until the Gumbo is as watery as you like it. Bring this up to a slow boil, reduce the heat and cover it. Let it cook this way for about 15 minutes.
Add sausage, cover again and cook another 10 minutes.
Add the chicken and okra, turn the heat all the way down to low and cook 20 minutes.
Serve with additional file, over rice with soda crackers.