Saw the update - you made exactly what I was going to suggest. Down to using the sausage grease in the recipe. It might not be the authentic version, but it totally does the job for me. I used to make ghetto gumbo in college all the time - that packaged yellow rice, vac packed kielbasa, leftover chicken, shrimp if I could find any, whatever. I found that as long as I used some chicken base (always keep that on hand in the fridge) it turned out well.
My pairing of choice was, out of necessity, Beast Light. But I still drink cheap beer with gumbo now, I guess it's out of habit.