After years of making boxed jambalaya, I started the journey of finding an easy but legit recipe. I’ll never make boxed again! What I did learn on this journey was that every Cajun or Creole recipe was a little different – Cajun recipes don’t use tomatoes and creole recipes do. Some folks use more broth, some use more meats, rice, trinity (the ‘trinity’ is onion, bell pepper, and celery.) What was crystal clear was that every recipe I read, the authors were passionate about their cooking! What I decided to do was take what I liked from several recipes, and create my very own.
What you’ll need
- Large pot ( I use an 8 quart cast iron Dutch oven)
- Olive oil
- 4-5 chicken breasts
- 6 – 8 thick cut bacon slices
- 2 lbs andouille sausage
- 2 small onions
- 6 celery sticks
- 2 green bell pepper
- 5 cloves minced garlic
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 1/4 cups long grain white rice
- 3 to 4 Tablespoons of Cajun seasoning (I use Rustlin Rob’s)
- green onion for topping
Step by step:
Some folks boil their chicken and debone, some bake a whole chicken and debone. The dark meat adds more depth to your jambalaya, but to keep it simple, I butterflied some breasts, covered in olive oil, sprinkled with Cajun seasoning, and baked for 35 minutes at 375 degrees.
While your chicken is baking, heat up your pot under medium heat. Dice 6-8 slices of bacon and add to your pot. While that bacon sizzles, chop up your sausage. Keep giving that bacon a stir until it starts getting some color.
When that bacon has cooked and rendered some fat in your pan, remove with a slotted spoon to a separate dish and add in your sausage.
Chop your onions, bell pepper and celery as your sausage browns. Once your sausage gets a little brown, remove it with a slotted spoon and add to your resting bacon. Then add your trinity to the pan and saute until onions are browned but not burned. Scrape all the goodness from the bottom and add garlic then drippings from chicken.
Rinse your rice. Dice your chicken, while veggies continue to deepen in color.
Add all the meats in with the vegetables. Add 2 Tablespoons of Cajun seasoning. Here’s where you can add less or more depending on your tastes. Also, you can salt at this point if you use low sodium broth in the next step. I did not salt because all I had was regular broth. Anyway, this is where you season. Stir it all together and let the meats and veggies sizzle with the seasonings for a few minutes.
Now you add your 6 cups of broth and your 1 1/4 cup of rice.
Give it all a good stir and bring to a boil then turn your heat to a simmer, cover and simmer for 35 minutes. Rice should be tender but not mush. Let cool and serve with green onion on top. pairs well with French bread or corn bread😍