The (requested) jambalaya recipe!
We had this jambalaya while visiting some friends in Florida this past fall, and since all six of us liked it, of course I asked for the recipe.
Because you KNOW how hard it is to find a dish that everyone likes and that's reasonably healthy too. Aaand, it really doesn't take too long to put together, which is marvelous.
It's been in pretty regular rotation around here, and since several of you asked for the recipe when I shared a photo on instagram...well, that's why I'm writing this post.
Zoe is actually allergic to shellfish, so I just spoon out a portion of the jambalaya near the end of the cooking time, right before I add the shrimp, and she's good to go.
Here's what you'll need. Almost all of these ingredients can be bought at Aldi except for the andouille sausage (although perhaps they carry it on a special buy sometimes. I'll be keeping an eye out!)
To start with, you'll slice the sausage and brown it in some hot oil.
Andouille sausage is quite spicy, so if you really hate spicy food, feel free to substitute something milder.
Next, remove the sausage from the pan and set aside. Then add your chopped onions, celery, and peppers to the hot pot and saute 'em until they're softened and lightly browned.
Add in the garlic and cook it for about a minute, and then stir in thyme, oregano, Creole seasoning (all I can ever find is Cajun!), canned tomatoes, Rotel, and chicken broth.
(I use my Actually Tasty homemade broth ;))
The recipe calls for two cans of Ro-Tel, but since Mr. FG and the girls aren't huge fans of spicy food, I use one can of Ro-Tel (the Aldi brand, of course) and one can of regular diced tomatoes.
Bring to a boil and stir in the rice. You'll cook this over low for about 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender.
Then you'll stir in your cooked sausage, some cooked, shredded chicken (which I've left out before and no one complained), and your raw, peeled shrimp.
Cover the pot and cook your jambalaya for about 5 minutes more, or until the shrimp have turned pink. Stir in some chopped parsley if you have it, and then you're done.
'Scuse the steamy picture here...it was a hot pot of food!
We always eat ours for dinner that night and then store leftovers in the fridge, but the recipe says you can actually prepare the jambalaya and freeze it.
Then when you want to serve it, you just thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours and bake it until it's heated thru.
Having not tried that, I can't vouch for how well it works, but if you're into freezer cooking, it's something to consider.
I know this seems like a super long ingredient list, but this is actually not that hard to throw together, so don't be scared off!
Jambalaya
serves 6
1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
2 tablespoons canola oil or bacon grease
2 cups diced sweet onion
1 cup diced celery
1 large red bell pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning (less if you're worried about spiciness)
2 10 oz. cans Rotel, drained (swap one can for reg. tomatoes to reduce spiciness)
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
1 pound peeled medium-size raw shrimp
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat; add sausage and cook until browned. Set sausage aside.
Add onion, celery, and pepper to the pan drippings and saute until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and oregano, and saute about a minute.
Add bay leaf, Creole seasoning, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil, stir in rice, and simmer about 20 minutes, or until rice is tender.
Stir in chicken, cooked sausage, and shrimp; cover and cook about 5 minutes more, or until the shrimp are pink. Stir in parsley and serve.
This look delicious! I have a bunch of spicy Italian sausage in my freezer from a whole pig we bought, I'm going to try and substitute that and see how it works!
I too am allergic to shellfish but I could make it with everything but the shrimp (the rest of my family would not miss it). It looks like a good entree for a cold winter night.
This looks terrific. I'd also like to try it with brown rice. We have a TON of brown rice in our pantry... I assume I'd just have to simmer longer, and maybe add more liquid...
Yes, for cooking longer. We do jambalaya, red beans and rice, spanish rice, and dirty rice often with brown rice, instead of white. I personally don't notice much of a taste difference.
Would you need any more liquid? I was thinking a longer cooking time might result in more liquid loss through evaporation.
I am not sure what the difference is between Creole seasoning and Cajon, but tony cachere's is the gold standard out here, and comes in varying degrees of heat. Next time you order from amazon, add in a package of it... you won't be sorry.
Just out of curiosity I googled the difference between creole and Cajun spices. For the sake of picking up a jar of spices or mixing your own they seem to be the same, or close enough. I'm sure those steeped in that culture could tell you the subtle differences.
I have made this similarly and just threw in some pieces of polish sausage because it's what I had on hand. I have also used my own canned tomatoes and added spicy peppers. This recipe seems to be pretty forgiving. I always make a huge batch then eat some that day and put meals size batches in the freezer. Thanks Kristen for the reminder about this, I haven't made it in a while and it will be delicious for cold winter nights!
This sounds delicious! I make something very similar but with a more tex-mex spin. It only has the sausage plus a can of black beans and includes chili powder, cumin, and paprika. So yummy, cheap, and quick to make.
This looks delicious. It also looks like it will feed many. I notice that many of your recipes do not state how many servings there are. Will you please try and include that in the future. Thanks
I would say that this feeds our family of 6, with some leftovers. But of course, that'll all depend on how hungry your family is!
There's really no difference in the seasonings between Cajun and creole. The main difference in the food comes into play with roux. Cajun food is mainly brown roux (gravy) based as where Creole food is tomato based.
Jambalaya is a staple here and I highly recommend when a person is able that they use gulf shrimp when cooking. It adds to the taste like you wouldn't believe.
For a different taste you can cook the shrimp separately in a pot of boiling water seasoned with Louisiana Crawfish, Shrimp and Crab boil. A little goes a long way but it really helps bring out the flavor in the shrimp.
Mmmm now I'm hungry for some. Lol
Ah, that is good to know! So jambalaya sounds like more of a Creole dish, then.
Yes this version is a creole one. I have seen a Cajun one before and it was okay but not nearly as good.
I 2nd the gulf shrimp. I was in Louisiana last spring, and I've never tasted shrimp that was so, well tasty. I've loved eating shrimp my entire life so I've eaten quite a few, but gulf shrimp tastes so flavorful. All this talk is making me miss the wonderful meals I ate out there.
When I make jambalaya, I add okra. Don't know if you or your family might not like the texture, but I'm always trying to add more veggies to my meals. I use the frozen and add it with just enough time to warm up, but hopefully not cook too much.
My husband (OK, I do too) loves jambalaya and I have never made it from scratch. We always wish that there was less sodium in the boxed versions. This recipe sounds delicious! Do you have an idea of how long it takes to make it?
Well, the cooking time is only about 30 minutes or so, between the sauteeing, the rice cooking, and the shrimp cooking.
You do have to chop veggies, but that doesn't take crazy long, and I imagine you'd have to chop veggies for the boxed version too? Or do the mixes include dried veggies?
The boxed versions include veggies and you just add meat. I imagine that the veggies in your recipe are much tastier, though! Thanks!
Agree with all the seasoning comments. We lived in Louisiana for a short while and the absolute best hands down seasoning was called 'slap your mama'. It is so so delicious. May not be able to find it in your neck of the woods but we were able to find it in a large portion of the southern states. I'm sure it's on Amazon. It is More flavorful and less salty than Tony's in our opinion
I agree, I have lived in L.A. my whole life and Slap your momma or cajun werewolf(when you can find it) beats Tony's hands down. They are not as salty. We will also use leftover ham in place of the sausage around Easter. Jambalaya was originally a cajun dish, using not so desirable cuts of meats like dirty rice. There are some that think putting tomatoes in jambalaya is the same as putting a tutu on Santa Claus. It causes much debate, such as the type of meat and rice. I find it amusing, just remember that when reheating jambalaya you may have to add some extra broth to remoisten the rice. I prefer to reheat it in the oven. It doesn't seem to gum up as bad.
I found Emeril's Essence recipe on the food network and use it whenever a recipe calls for creole or Cajun seasoning. Since you make it yourself you can adjust the heat. I love making my own seasoning mixes since I usually always have everything on hand.
Drooling. I think I will be making a de-spiced batch of this for Fat Tuesday this year!
Please tell me, what is Rotel?
It's canned tomatoes with green chilies added: http://www.ro-tel.com/
This recipe is pretty similar to the jambalaya I make with a recipe from the SNAP cookbook linked a while back at the Non-Consumer Advocate. And it is delish! We eat it up so fast, none ever makes it to a freezer.
And yes to Gulf Shrimp -- and Apalachicola Bay oysters! Living on the Gulf at the Bay, we won't even look at anything else. My husband was once far from home and broke down and bought Atlantic shrimp. He said they were a huge disappointment. We're undoubtedly snobbish about it, so pardon my bragging, please.
Is there something that you would change out shrimp for if no one in the family eats it? I think I could use the chicken and potentially a less spicy sausage, but I think this sounds like a well balanced dinner. 🙂
If you include the chicken and the sausage, that should honestly be enough protein. If you felt like it wasn't quite enough, you could always just bump up the chicken and sausage amounts a bit to fill in.
We tried this tonight, and it was fantastic! Just the thing for a cold January night. I left out the chicken because I didn't have any. I also doubled the amount of chicken broth, and it was still really thick.
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it.
Would quinoa work in place of rice? Cook time is about the same.
I've never cooked quinoa before, but yes, if it cooks in about the same time, I imagine it would work (As long as the liquid needs are the same too).
This recipe was great. I covered the pot after the rice was added and cooked for 35 minutes instead on low.
My Dad used to make this for my whole family almost once a month. Estranged relatives would ask him for containers of it.. so he was always cooking it.
He passed away and I never got a chance to get the recipe from him. I searched all day to find one like his.
This one HIT THE MARK and came out even better than I expected.
Thank you for posting!!!!
Wonderful! I'm so happy this brought back happy memories for you.
Oh yum. I made it tonight with brown rice, kielbasa (that's what I had), put my own hot pepper in it from the garden, and used my own chicken broth I'd frozen. Made enough for two meals, unless my DH eats it tomorrow when I'm at work!
Is there a printable version I'm not seeing?
My husband loves jambalaya, so I've tried many, many recipes. This one tops the list. It's so good. Thanks!
Yay! I'm so glad!
Dig it. I can say that if you plan to freeze it, wait to add rice and shrimp until you actually intend to serve it up. Otherwise....reheating can land you with mushy rice/seafood. Good stuff, though! I add banana peppers, shredded carrot, pickled onions, etc if I have it laying around.