re: When doing gumbo what do you with the chicken

What I do:

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Try flouring skinless pieces, fry them , and use in the gumbo. Makes the best chicken and sausage gumbo by far.

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What I would do if I wanted the best and time is no object:

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Roast 2 chickens at 425 for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.
Remove skin and remove meat from bones
Place bones on a bed of celery and onions, add carrots for anything other than gumbo stock
Roast bones and vegetables at 400 for one hour.
Place roasted bones and vegetables in stock pot add cold water.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 2 and half to three hours.

Result will be a stock that doesn't have to be de-fatted and the color and richness is almost like a beef stock.

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I guess I'm the odd ball here. I just cut up some raw chicken and throw it in the pot.

I like to flour and fry mine, then boil and debone after it gets tender.

As Miz Darla said, there is no one best way. Or if there is, no one I trust as a gumbo expert has shared it with me. I do know that I am not that gumbo expert I mentioned.

Talked to Paul Prudhomme about gumbo and a lot of other stuff over a three day period (NRA show) twenty years ago in Chicago's McCormick Center. He had no one way, or any great gumbo secret he shared and we had lots of good times talking. He listened patiently and then said my recipe was "OK".