Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Jambalaya

It's hard with young children to find a meal that everyone readily eats.  And since my kids all like sausage and rice, I decided to try to make Jambalaya.  Not authentic, obviously, since I don't like shrimp, but I found a recipe that used chicken instead.

Actually, this is the 3rd recipe I've tried, and this one seems to have hit the sweet spot.  Everyone eats most of it, and nobody gets angry when I put it on their plate.

The recipe called for cooked chicken.  I just cut up raw chicken and sautéed it, and followed the recipe from there. (except I left out the celery and parsley.  Celery because I didn't have any, and parley because I didn't have fresh parsley and I didn't feel like reaching up into the back of my cabinet where my dried stuff got shoved)


  • 1 lb. cooked chicken
  • 1 lb. smoked sausage
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 12 oz. seasoning mix (onion, bell pepper, celery)
  • 2 cups long grain rice
  • ½ to 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 3.5 cups water
  • 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
  • 2 whole bay leaves
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • ½ bunch parsley
  • to taste salt and pepper
  1. Slice the sausage and cook in a large pot over medium heat until thoroughly cooked (about 5 minutes). Don’t worry if the drippings begin to stick and coat the bottom of the pan, it will be deglazed later. Remove the cooked meat (leaving the fat/drippings in the pan) and set it aside for later.
  1. Add the chopped onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic to the pot with the meat drippings and cook until soft (about 3-5 minutes). The moisture from the vegetables should loosen anything stuck to the bottom of the pan from the meat (all of that flavorful good stuff).
  1. Once the vegetables have softened, add the dry rice, cayenne pepper and tomato paste. Stir it all together and cook for approximately 1 minute more. This will allow the tomato paste to caramelize and the rice to toast just slightly.
  1. Add 3.5 cups of water, diced tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, fresh cracked pepper (about 20 cranks) and salt (about ½ tsp). Stir it together, then add the meat back into the pot. Bring it up to a simmer, add a lid and reduce the heat to low. Allow the pot to simmer on low until all of the moisture has been absorbed by the rice (about 30 minutes). Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.


I served it with green beans and garlic bread

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