Title: Artis' chicken gumbo
 Categories: Chicken, Soups, Vegetables, Cajun
      Yield: 8 Servings
 
      3 lb Stewing chicken
      1 lg Onion
      4    Shallots -- or green onins
     20    Stems
      2    Cloves garlic -- more w/out
           Sausage
    1/2 md Green pepper
      4    Bay leaves
      1 lg Spoon
    1/2 lg Spoon
           Roux
      1 lb Andouille sausage -- or ham
      1 pt Oysters -- with liquid
           Salt and pepper
           File powder
           Parsley
           Flour
           Oil or chicken fat -- for
 
  Cut up chicken and season with salt and pepper. Fry chicken until
  brown, in its own fat, in a black iron pot. Place in soup pot. Cut up
  seasonings. Pour off fat from pot. Smother seasonings and take out by
  rinsing with small amount of water, putting in soup pot with browned
  chicken. Make a dark roux, add 2 1/2 quarts water, pour into soup
  pot. Fry sliced sausage slowly to render fat. Add sausage to gumbo.
  Let cook, with lid cracked, on Low heat until tender, 2-3 hours for a
  good old bird. Remove bay leaves. Add oysters, about 10 minutes
  before serving, cooking just until they curl. Add file after oysters
  curl and turn off heat, or pass file to be used individually. Serve
  in rimmed soup bowl over hot cooked rice.