Dave Madison's Chicken Andouille-Gumbo

Dave Madison prepares his entry in the Columbia City Barbecue Cookoff, August 2001. Youth in Focus Photograph by Joshua Reese 

Hello, Seattle in July! A time when the city seems to be shining with little memory of the months of rain—the skies full of fireworks, lake shores full of bathing suit-clad swimmers, and hands full of iced coffees or quickly melting ice cream cones. One signature smell often found wafting through the July air is that of barbecue, whether it is meat, vegetable skewers, or even pineapple roasting on the grill. In the barbecue spirit, it feels appropriate to highlight our 2002 interview with local barbecue master Dave Madison about his journey to becoming a virtuoso on the grill, which began long before his 1980s move to Seattle during his childhood in Louisiana.

“When I was a young man, I wanted something to leave my children…So I started selling fish, which we captured in the bayous, and we would process. I started selling them to the guys at the plywood plants and stuff like that. So, I was selling fish. Someone said, ‘Well, man, you know, in Louisiana on Fridays everybody eat fish. Why don’t you open up a café?’ Well, there’s an old gambling shack up there, used to be a café in it.” I went up there and I told Mr. Alfred, I said, ‘I’ll clean this kitchen up and I’ll make it like new, if you rent it to me for $50 a month.’...He said, ‘Yeah.’ So, for $50 a month and all the fish I could catch out of the King River, I had a business. Didn’t have a name for it, right? Didn’t need a name. It [was in] this old gambling shack in the gutter part of the city. I saw beauty in that, because if I could get those people to buy my fish, I’m in. So me and my girlfriend, we started cooking. Guess what we would sell? Two slices of bread, fish, and just a basic lettuce, tomato, pepper salad. Later on we started throwing in baked beans. For a dollar and a half, you could get three fish and that. That took off. It looked like overnight it become a job. Because there was such a demand — it went from Fridays to Saturdays to Sundays after people got out of church. To, ‘When you guys gonna open up during the week?’ Right? This snowballed.

I’m getting ready to get big, real fast. But it takes time. I advertised for three months all over Alexander, Shreveport and Monroe and all points in between, you know, the little small towns. No. Nothing. Just the same old little fish-eating crowd. My old lady done told me, “Give this place up.” [Then] they have this big humongous parade with the glamorous bands and stuff, and all the tourists come in there. We’re sitting in the club and people start walking in. Tourists, college kids and all of a sudden—I made $1,500 that night, clear profit. Sold all my stock, everything. Now, I’m known in three cities. Okay. Then I got that army crowd — this is during the Vietnam War. Fort Polk, that’s where you go to get your advanced infantry training before they send you to Vietnam. And man! I was like, “Oh god! This is work.” Because now you’ve got the kitchen, you got the drinks, you got the beer, you got the music, you got all this stuff to keep together. But it’s my first true taste of freedom. Ain’t that something”

Dave Madison’s story is one that reminds us of how food changes people’s lives, brings communities together, and brings us closer to that sense of freedom we’re meant to celebrate this time every year. This July, try to get out and connect with your local community—check out the Columbia City farmer’s market Wednesday evenings if you’re in the area, and if you want to tap into Madison’s spirit, try making his famous Chicken Andouille-Gumbo below!

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Chicken Andouille-Gumbo

Dave Madison, originally from Southern Living

Ingredients:

• 1½ gallons water 

• 1 4 lb. chicken, cut up 

• 5 bay leaves 

• 5 parsley sprigs 

• 3 whole garlic cloves 

• 1 lb. andouille or smoked sausage, diced 

• 2 medium onions, chopped 

• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped 

• 1 large celery rib, chopped

• 3 Tbsp. minced garlic 

• 4 chicken bouillon cubes

• 1¼ cups vegetable oil

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 Tbsp. salt

• 1 tsp. ground red pepper

• 1 tsp. ground black pepper

• 1 bunch green onions, chopped

• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley

• Filé powder

• Hot cooked rice

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large stockpot; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour. Remove chicken, reserving broth. Skin, bone, and coarsely chop chicken; set aside. Strain broth into a large bowl, discarding solids. 

Return 1 gallon broth to stockpot. Add sausage and next 5 ingredients; simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour. 

Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat; gradually whisk in flour, and cook, whisking constantly, until flour is a dark caramel color (about 20 minutes). Stir into sausage mixture, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour. 

Stir in chicken, salt, and red and black pepper; simmer, stirring occasionally, 45 minutes. 

Skim off fat. Stir in green onions and parsley; simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. 

Remove from heat, and stir in filé powder. Serve over hot cooked rice with hot sauce, if desired.