MY OWN WAY OF COOKING CHICKEN SAUSAGE SMOKED TURKEY NECK GUMBO: First of all I never use white meat. The more you cook white meat in a gumbo the harder and dryer it gets! And I never use skinless chicken meat. I only use chicken thighs and drumsticks with the skin on. That where the flavor is! I also use smoked turkey necks. I find the smoked turkey necks give the gumbo much more of a smoky flavor than smoked ham hocks. I use fresh homemade sausage from Lydia Food Store. I never use the sausage from WalMart. Even the local sausage they sell has fake smoke flavor and is ground way too fine. I buy my sausage from Lydia Food store. For the roux I use only dark roux never the light roux. For the veggies I just buy a bag of chopped seasoning mix and throw that in. Way too much trouble to sit there and chop all your veggies by hand !! For seasoning I prefer the Louisiana Cajun Seasoning over the other well know brand which has way too much salt. I also use garlic powder and never garlic salt. With garlic salt by the time you get the garlic flavor you are looking for you have over salted the gumbo! I also use a small amount of Tiger Sauce to add a little tang to it without over powering the flavor of the gumbo. I hate when someone puts so much seasoning in a gumbo or any dish for that matter. I hate it when it is so hot that smoke is coming out of every hole in your body and some holes you didn't know you had !! And you can't taste the food if it is over seasoned!! And I never never use long grain rice in any of my dishes! Only medium grain rice. And I put equal amounts of water and rice in the rice cooker and Cajun Country medium grain rice cooks perfect every time. I can't stand to eat rice that is what I call undercooked and you cannot find two grains of rice that are stuck together! I do not like mushy rice by any means but it needs to be a little sticky and soft so the gravy can soak in! This is what I call the perfect gumbo! I know opinions vary! But this is the best way to cook a gumbo that I have found! And one more thing! I never never put beer in my gumbo! If I want a beer I will drink it with the gumbo! Thanks , Don wedding wearing which backtrace to 1920 :) P.S. And yes I never did and never will understand how some say "Oh I can't wait till the weather turns cold so I can make some gumbo" !! "The weather is too hot for gumbo" !!! Well think about it! Anything else you cook in the heat of the summer is hot off the stove or the oven! What is the difference. Try Don's gumbo. You will love it!! Enjoy! :)