What To Serve at Your Super Bowl Party: Hometown Recipes from New Orleans and Indianapolis

It's high time to plan your 2010 Super Bowl party for the Saints/Colts showdown this Sunday at Super Bowl XLIV. But while football fans across the nation will be serving up the obligatory chili, chicken wings and chips n' dip, why not put a special spin on your football fare, with hometown foods representing each team? We enlisted two top chefs to go head-to-head with Super Bowl party recipes from the Big Easy and the Big Indy.

Cheer on the Saints with New Orleans's hottest chef, John Besh of Restaurant August. His classic chicken and smoked sausage gumbo comes from his recent cookbook, My New Orleans(Andrews McMeel).

John Besh's Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo

Serves 10–12
1 cup rendered chicken fat or canola oil
1 cup flour
2 large onions, diced
1 large chicken, cut into 12 pieces
2 tablespoons Creole spice blend
2 pounds spicy smoked sausage, sliced ½ inch thick
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 qts Chicken Stock
2 bay leaves
6 oz. andouille sausage, chopped
2 cups sliced fresh okra
1 tbsp. Worcestershire
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Filé powder (available at specialty markets)
Tabasco

1. Make a roux by heating the chicken fat or oil in a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil. It will immediately begin to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate and continue whisking until the roux takes on a deep brown color, about 15 minutes. Add the onions, stirring them into the roux with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue stirring until the roux is a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes.

2. Season the chicken with Creole spices. Add the chicken to the pot, raise heat to moderate, and cook, turning the pieces until browned, about 10 minutes.

3. Add the smoked sausage and stir for a minute before adding the celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. Cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes. Add the thyme, chicken stock, and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and skim off the fat from the surface of the gumbo every so often.

4. Add the andouille, okra, and Worcestershire and season with salt and pepper, several dashes of filé powder, and Tabasco. Simmer for another 45 minutes, continuing to skim the fat off the surface of the gumbo. Remove the bay leaves and serve in bowls over rice. Pass more filé at the table.

In the kitchen for the Colts is Jay Watson, owner of the landmark Indianapolis drive-in The Mug N' Bun, with its signature breaded pork tenderloin sandwich.