What’s the difference between gumbo and Étouffée?

Étouffée and gumbo are two traditional New Orleans rice dishes with a few important differences.

The most noticeable difference between étouffée and gumbo is the consistency of the finished dish. While both recipes employ broth as a basis, such as shrimp stock, crawfish tailstock, or chicken broth, étouffée has a thicker, gravy-like consistency due to the addition of a roux (a mixture of all-purpose flour and butter).

Gumbo, on the other hand, is a soupy stew broth with a thinner consistency than étouffée. In certain gumbo recipes, roux is used, but larger liquid-to-roux ratios are used to maintain the stew-like consistency.

Proteins in étouffée are more limited than in gumbo traditional versions often include shrimp, crawfish, or, on rare occasions, chicken. Gumbo has a lot more diversity, and it’s typically all in the same meal, including meats like chicken, shrimp, and andouille sausage.

On the surface, étouffée and gumbo have similar flavour profiles because they both use Cajun seasonings, the “smothering” technique and “the Holy Trinity” of diced aromatic veggies: onion, green bell pepper, and celery.