Poll: Do you brown your chicken for gumbo?

90% of the time I do because I use thigh meat.

When I make my "cheat" gumbos with the rotisserie chicken from the market? No.

I smoke my chicken and make the stock with the bones and skin. My mom still does it with raw chicken directly in the pot, I like the way hers comes out too.

no

Never

I prefer to smoke the chicken if I have time. If not, I usually brown it.

Always. I brown sausage then chicken.

After browning, it all goes in a big bowl. The drippings at the bottom of that bowl are money!

If I'm using raw meat I do. But normally I smoke a chicken(s), de-bone, roast the bones and make a stock. Or use store bought rotisserie chickens and do the same.

Yeah, I always par-cook it somehow. Pan sear, smoke or what has now become a family favorite, shallow fry. Remove the skin, season and batter very lightly then shallow fry for 2-3 minutes a side. Make roux with remaining oil and seasoned flour from batter. Fried chicken gumbo.

I picked up this from Isaac Toups of Toups Meatery, and have really liked the way it turns out.

I oil, salt, and pepper my chicken (usually thighs), and then put them under the broiler. They brown up really nice and still hold together really well since you’re not messing with them much. It cooks off a cook bit of fat too, which goes straight into the pot.

I have fried my chicken before adding it. I have used Sam's Rotisserie chicken, which is convenient. I have used baked chicken from my oven, and have used raw chicken, like for chciken and dumplings. Left over chicken, too. Gumbo is gumbo and all of these work fine. Using roasted bones is also a great way to make broth, as is using canned chicken broth, with some added chicken stock paste.

I have never cooked a pot of my gumbo I didn't like. My mom never made a pot I didn't like. I have only had a few bowls of gumbo cooked by others that wasn't acceptable, with those few incidents being strange recipes, with Broccoli corn, Kale, and such added. The most common bad gumbo was burnt, or scorched stuff with the cook insisting the burnt taste was "Not too bad".