Need help. Gumbo chicken stock too weak.

I'd like to help, but this may not help at all.

Do you have enough roux? is it dark enough? you can make more and add it. that may help.

Do you have enough trinity? can make more and add that, too.

You can add "Better than Bullion" chicken and it will make the broth better. They make a seafood that will also work. You can add bullion cubes also. Both of these may make it much too salty, so be careful.

You can cook chicken in a separate boiler with some of the broth from your gumbo, then concentrate the broth and add that back in. You can roast it and deglaze the pan with broth from the gumbo and add that to your pot. You can sauté the chicken with very little seasoning, deglaze it with some of the broth from your gumbo and add that back to the gumbo to strengthen it.

Whatever you do, do not add more water, use the liquid from your gumbo as the liquid and then add it back.

Better than Bouillon chicken base will add some depth of flavor. What kind of sausage did you use? Maybe something smokier.

need more roux as others have pointed out

did you add any smoked sausage, or only chicken in your gumbo ?

remove all meat and veg. make another roux. get it super dark. add roux to pot then a box of store-bought chicken stock then meat + veg (which should already be mostly cooked down) to heat it back up. simmer until desired thickness.

Chicken soup has no roux. If you made soup, you didn't use enough roux. I

Used 1 cup flour and 1 cup oil roux for a 5 qt gumbo. That should be plenty of roux. However, It tastes more like a soup.

Flavor. It has a watery flavor

I appreciate your help but I have to respectfully disagree.
A proper mount of roux in a weak stock can certainly make it taste watery. But I'll go ahead and add more roux, can't hurt.

I make my stock and roux separately. Stock goes overnight. Start by deboning chickens and reserve meat, then roasting bones, then add bones to pot with aromatics, bay leaf, pepper corns, and cover bones with water and simmer uncovered overnight. Four chickens are usually enough. You can also use rotisserie chickens in a pinch. Make my roux in the morning, caramel coloring about 1 1/2 c fat to flour, remove from heat and let cool. Strain my stock a couple of times. Season my chicken meat already cut up in the fridge. Begin with rendering my chicken, Tasso, and andouille, and remove, and set aside. Then deglaze with and cook my trinity down and season as I go in layers. Add my stock to the pot, and bring to a boil that can't be stirred down, and salt and pepper to taste a little under. Then spoon and whisk my roux in to thicken just a little below where I want it in thickness, and cook for about an hour on simmer to get the flour taste out, bring together nicely and reduce just a bit. Add my meat to the pot and cook for maybe 30 minutes to an hour on simmer covered.

The secret is like in any soup. It is Always in the stock. The rest is just traditional cooking techniques. It's the concrete slab foundation of the building. You can have everything else spot on, but if you don't get the foundation right, the rest of the building will not stand.



In your case, I'd say its a clear stock issue. If you are at that point in the future and need to fix it, depending upon where you are in the process, you can perhaps use chicken base to add flavor. It may not fix the issue perfectly, but it should help save the day a little and make it better flavored. It's used a lot in soup making to shortcut. It's not nearly as tasty as a proper stock, but it's better than nothing, and better than watery broth.

I have NEVER made a separate stock for chicken gumbo. Nevah. In. My. Life. My daddy doesn't, my grammaw didn't. If you use actual bone-in chicken, cooked directly in the gumbo, you will save yourself plenty of time and trouble.

Brown the chicken parts, remove from pot, set aside. Make a roux; when it's brown enough, add the chicken drippings and the chopped onion to stop the roux's browning. Let the onions brown in the roux....don't hurry. Then add the other chopped veg--keep cooking until they wilt. Then add the reserved browned bone-in chicken parts, and some sort of smoked meat (andouille, tasso, smoked sausage), plus liquid & seasonings (cayenne, a little worcestershire, a squirt of lemon, bay leaves, a little thyme and maybe a tiny bit of sage, plenty of garlic). Cook until the chicken is not quite falling from the bones. Fish it out of the pot, debone, return the meat to the pot....gently simmer until as thick as you'd like.

It doesn't need to be thick to have great flavor.