Cajun Food | Basics with Babish (feat. Isaac Toups)

This week on Basics I'm joined by chef Isaac Toups to show you how to make some amazing Cajun dishes: jambalaya, gumbo, dirty rice, and rillons.

Check out Isaac Toups' restaurants:

Ingredients & Shopping List
+ For the Chicken & Sausage Gumbo:
1 lb boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 small white onion, diced
8 ounces beer (just not a light beer!)
4 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 pound andouille sausage, cut into coins (or smoked kielbasa)
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
Cooked white rice, for serving
Sliced scallions, for garnish

+ For the Rillons:
2 pounds pork belly, skin removed
Kosher salt
2 cups red wine (full bodied like Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon)
2 cups sugar
Fresh thyme

+ For the Dirty Rice:
1 pound ground beef
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Cumin, to taste
Cayenne, to taste
1/3 cup beer (not a light one!)
Plus roux and trinity ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/3 cup diced celery
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup beer (not a light one!)
2 cups chicken stock
3 cups cooked white rice
Scallions, for garnish

+ For the jambalaya:
Dirty rice (ingredients above)
1 pound andouille sausage, sliced into coins
4 boneless chicken thighs

[babishculinaryuniverse]

Why’d he have to wear a blue shirt to the shoot, you can’t tell who’s who

[RetroMediaInc]

Isaac Toups is what Babish will grow up to be if he gets watered regularly and plenty of sunshine.

[mamba_kekw]

Wow city babish and country babish this is great

[b.c.]

The tension between "Don't worry about it" and Andrews's extremely obvious physical restraint from worrying about it is making this so much funnier.

[Mildcat]

Andrew frantically trying to damage control Isaac's complete and utter disregard for measurements is possibly my favorite thing on this entire channel.

[ShifT]

"I got this cool whisk you can use."
"Yeah let's try that."
*sets it to the side and never touches it again*

[eamonnoski]

Babish will be finding green peppers and garlic bits in his kitchen for years.

[ZoeBateman]

this looks like a "don't talk to me or my son ever again" meme

[erinsolomon]

As someone from Louisiana, this is literally the first time ever, that I'm not disappointed in a youtube video about cooking from Louisiana. And thanks to our Cajun chef for making the distinction to correct someone from saying Creole instead of Cajun. Very different styles and flavors of cooking!

[biazswed]

Isaac is the personification of “you’re doing amazing sweetie”

[lovetolaugh]

Yall look like alternate timeline versions of the same dude I love it. Love your vids!

[rowkeaton]

I'm glad you finally got to spend some time with your dad

[Ulquiorra]

"You can always add more seasoning"
*30 seconds later*
"All the fucking black pepper"

[rid]

“You can call me whatever you want, just don’t call me late for dinner.” *words to live by*

[musicnfoster]

(foam about to overflow from pot)
Isaac: "I've never scraped the foam off of anything"
Babish: *nervous laughter*

[sailorratchet]

"If you're in a place on the planet where you can't find chicken and sausage...MOVE." Words to live by. Thank you, Isaac.

[impendingfrog]

I would watch thousands of hours of Isaac Toups cooking, he's got such a wonderful presence.

[joelburch]

The trick to cajun cooking: do everything unceremoniously

[derekguilfou]

"like a tablespoon of spices?"
"yeah i'm not measuring."
Spoken like a true cajun.

[NicDoesDumbThings]

babish's first mistake was expecting cajun food to have any kind of measurement aside from eyeballing