help Florida man make gumbo

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All tips appreciated.

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High quality, homemade chicken stock

I'm in Louisiana but Florida man by blood.

Oh lawd! You will get a million different responses here. I’ll give you mine without being a smartass. I’ll get downvoted because not a single person in Louisiana makes it the same.
My first step is to season and smoke 4lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs. If you don’t have a smoker, I would season them and throw them in a skillet. Don’t have to cook them too much. But get them tender enough to shred.
Start a roux. 1 cup oil. Put it in the pot and let it heat up a minute. Then throw in 1 cup AP flour. (Medium heat)
Stir. And don’t step away. Stay there and stir until you get a milk/ dark chocolate color. (Milk is fine, dark is kinda an expert thing)
As soon as you get your color, throw in the trinity. Which is 1 yellow onion, 1 green bell pepper, and 2 stalks one celery. incorporate into the roux. Once cooked for a minute add 4 cloves of minced garlic.
Get that cooking down. In the meantime start heating up your Chicken stock.
If you can make your own, great! If not, just buy the box. Get the better brand. Not sure why but I always do.
I pour in a 4 cup measuring cup and heat in there microwave for about 2:30 minutes. One. Warm I pour slowly in the roux vegetables. Do that until you’ve put about 12 cups of stock in. Stirring constantly. Take a big pan out and start browning about 2lbs of sliced sausage. Use your favorite sausage.
At this time your chicken should be done. Take it out and shred it.
I throw in a couple of dashes of hot sauce and put okra in.
Then I put the chicken in. I let simmer for about 30 mins, then taste and adjust seasoning. Once I get it where I want, I simmer for another 30 mins then throw in the sausage. If you put the sausage in too soon, it won’t taste like sausage. It’ll just taste like a meaty piece of gumbo.

I always add the sausage in when I start rice. Which takes about 30 mins.
My family personally likes to eat gumbo with the basic Texas Toast that you get out of the freezer section so I do that too.

My son (10) wrote this for his school newspaper and it’s what we use for a quick, easy, great tasting gumbo. We “cheat” and use jar roux and rotisserie chicken. You’ll find many different recipes out there. Try as many as you’re able to.

I’d be willing to help, but you’re quite an opinionated poster. I chalk that up to you being young.
How many people are you feeding?
Have you ever made gumbo before?
Do you want to make “This dude is the GUMBO KING!” or just having friends/family over for the holidays and make gumbo?

Your first mistake is that you want to make a thiccc gumbo. You want a flavorful gumbo that people can’t get enough of. NO style & Mary Mahoney’s is fine and I’ll eat it by the cup. But, you want them craving; as in, they can’t be satisfied with one helping.

I just made 10 gallons for my family, my brother, & my sister’s family and it’s gone.

One more tip:
As you cook the gumbo fat will rise to the top. Skim this off with a large spoon or ladle. Put ur gumbo in the fridge overnight (covered) . This will get the flavors married and more fat will rise to the top. Scrape this fat off as well. To me tasting a lot of fat in a gumbo is a turnoff.

Dont forget the eggs.

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We have the choice of either a stainless steel or Caphalon pot

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Are you making the roux? If you don't have a cast iron skillet, then you will probably want to bake your roux instead.

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As you cook the gumbo fat will rise to the top. Skim this off with a large spoon or ladle. Put ur gumbo in the fridge overnight (covered) . This will get the flavors married and more fat will rise to the top. Scrape this fat off as well. To me tasting a lot of fat in a gumbo is a turnoff.

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i'm not sure what i'm doing but i rarely have oil on top. sometimes i do but most of the time there's barely any.