re: My first attempt at Gumbo (w/ pics)

Very nice looking job for your first attempt!!! Mine is darker than that, but I also know that the camera doesn't always catch the color just right. Looks like it has just enough body to me and isn't runny in my opinion.

It doesn't look greasy or oily to me.

I would caution a bit on cooking raw chicken in the gumbo itself. If you notice on the stock, sometimes, you'll get that foamy stuff on top that you remove from a stock. Could happen with your gumbo if you cook too much raw directly in it. I cut the meats smaller. They're too large for my taste, but if you're the only one eating it and you take honker bites of food at once, it works for you.

I think you did a terrific job and if you enjoyed the flavor, then it was a home run for you.

BB, stop trying to make trouble with the rotisserie chicken business. I highly recommend Sam's chickens as long as you don't get their seasoning in the water. On occasion, I've gotten an off putting flavor from their chickens.

I also make smoked chicken and smoked turkey gumbo or turkey gumbo with roasted turkey quite often. Same thing as using a decent rotisserie chicken in my mind. And, I sometimes use grocery stocks/bases instead of water when I'm not making a stock from scratch, plus I make 5 gallons of gumbo at a time often and rarely do I have enough stock for that. I shore it up with a stock base or something of that nature. I'll usually roast the bones of whatever cooked meat I'm using or, at the very least, I simmer them not roasted in the liquid I'm using for the gumbo.

My rules for MY gumbo are:

I make my own roux and it's very dark.
I do not use frozen trinity.
No okra.
No tomatoes.
No bay, oregano or other strange seasonings. (Mine is packed with flavor and doesn't need it. And, I love the flavors of the dark roux with the veggies and the meats.)
I don't cook the file' IN the gumbo. I let folks add that themselves.
Always have extra green onions for garnishing.
Extra sausage/andouille because I like it that way.
No whole pieces of chicken and I cut the chicken and the sausage into bite size pieces so I don't look like a chipmunk or a squirrel storing acorns in my cheeks trying to eat a big old honker hunk of meat. And, I shouldn't have to "cut" meat in my bowl or worry with bones in my bowl. I like to have meat, rice and liquid on my gumbo spoon for each each perfect bite.

Again, those are MY rules. People has their own preferences.

That's pretty much it. If you like yours another way, geaux for it.