After some
gentle nudging from an awesome swap organizer,
pinkleo, and her partner in crime,
jennieingram (who says she enjoyed this recipe), I am posting my hubby's version of Jambalaya.
(teaser image for thumbnail)Ingredients:1 large chicken breast, boiled and shredded
1.5 lbs Cajun sausage (smoked sausage may be substituted), sliced
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup onoin, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice
1.5 cups converted rice
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
2 envelopes Lipton Onion Soup Mix
7 cups water
1 lb shrimp, no tails, no shells, deveined
2 Tbps vegetable oil
Instructions:- Heat oil in large stock pot over medium heat
- Add chicken and sausage. Cook until starts to brown, stirring occasionally
- Add celery, onion, garlic, spices/herbs. Cook until the veggies start to sweat, stirring occasionally
- Add tomatoes with juice. Cook until "they get a little juicy" (a couple mins)
- Add soup mix and water. Stir and bring to a boil. This is where i add the bay leaf, but you can add it at any time, really.
- Add rice. Continue boiling until most of the liquids have been absorbed. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot when stirring after the rice starts to absorb the liquids or it might burn.
- Add shrimp and continue cooking until shrimp are cooked (about 5 mins).
-Remove from heat and serve! Keep an eye out for that bay leaf. It's not poisonous, but it does not soften while cooking and could cut your mouth or throat. You don't want to hurt anyone with your cooking, so remove it!
Notes:I find it difficult sometimes to find cajun sausage. Jewel used to carry it, but the one by me stopped for some reason. Now I find it at Dominick's. If you can't find cajun sausage, you can substitute smoked sausage, it just won't be as spicy. This is the brand I use:
If you do not like or cannot eat pork, this sausage also comes in a chicken variety.
The packages of sausage come in 1lb, so I use 2lbs of sausage. For this batch I also used 2 med chicken breast instead of 1 large. It's all i had and I like chicken.
I also kind of guestimate the celery and onion. For this batch I used half of a large white onion and 4 stalks of celery. When hubby cooks, he guestimates the spices as well.
You can really substitute any meats you like (or don't like). I am not a huge fan of shrimp, so we normally don't put in the shrimp. I did use shrimp for this batch; partially because i knew I would be taking pics, and partially as a treat for hubby.
With the cajun sausage and the cayenne pepper, this is a spicy dish. If you don't like spicy you can eliminate the cayenne and use smoked sausage instead of cajun. If you want more heat, add more cayenne!
