Recipe: Jambalaya

Those of you who know me well know that I absolutely LOVE New Orleans. I've been known to turn to Jason out of nowhere and say "Can we go back to NOLA soon?" Most of the time we aren't able to be quite that spontaneous, but oh how I dream we were strolling Jackson Square with a Hurricane and beignets in hand after a lunch of charbroiled oysters and po' boys. And having some amazing family friends who live just across the lake means that there's not only good food, music, and weather to be had, but also great company. Sigh...

Well in the meanwhile until our next getaway, we enjoyed some delicious jambalaya this past week for lunches. This recipe is so simple and so full of flavor. I had never been real thrilled with homemade jambalaya until about 2 years ago when I had my cousin, Andrea's, version. And no, she's not from New Orleans, she's actually from Texas, but she set the bar pretty high with this one. I think after she served this at her parents' in Oklahoma all of our extended family was asking for the recipe. And for good reason, it's become a favorite in our house. I have made a few tweaks to the original recipe based on the ingredients I generally keep on hand, but believe me, none of the wow factor has been lost.

Jambalaya

Ingredients:                                                                 

24 oz. chicken broth or stock                        ½ onion, diced

½ cup of French Onion Soup Mix                2 T. butter

          (click here for my DIY recipe)           1 ½ cups shredded Chicken

20 oz. tomato juice                                        2 Andouille Sausages

1 ½ c. brown rice, uncooked                         ¼ tsp. sea salt

2 stalks celery, diced                                     1/8 tsp. black pepper

1. Bring half of the chicken stock to a simmer, then stir in the rice. Cover and cook for 15 minutes while prepping the other ingredients. Place the butter in a 9x13 casserole dish and put in the oven while it preheats to 350 degrees.
2. Dice the onion and celery, and cut the sausage into bit sized pieces, preferably half circles.
3. Once the butter is melted, remove the pan from the oven. Pour the par-cooked rice and all the cooking liquid into the baking dish, then add all the remaining ingredients to the pan also.
4. Stir to combine everything, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour, or until the rice is tender, at 350 degrees. Be sure to stir the pan halfway through baking to ensure even cooking and no burnt edges.


Did I mention this is a GREAT way to utilize some of that amazing homemade stock and shredded chicken you've now got stored in your freezer from the Crockpot Chicken and Overnight Stock recipe? Well it is. And while the above version is how I most often times make it, you can also mix it up by adding things like shrimp and the true star of creole cooking, crawfish, when you can get your hands on them. Please also note, if you are using white rice instead of long-grain brown rice, you should reduce the amount of stock to only 15 oz., and you can forget the step of par cooking the rice - just dump the uncooked grains straight into the baking dish and call it a day.

**Yes, I am once again guilty of diving right in (and in this case serving the whole week's worth of meals) before realizing that I didn't take a single picture. I'll update this post the next time I make this recipe...which most likely won't be too long from now.)

Printable version (also lacking photos.. epic failure, I know)