Jambalaya

Loving this recipe, especially because my husband
and I were still in the midst of our elimination ‘diet’
which for us was omitting gluten and dairy for 2 weeks.
Definitely not starving, continuing to use
good quality, high-nutrient value ingredients
to prepare meals that are fulfilling and that……

WARM THE SOUL.

Rotisserie from your grocery store will save you some
time with cooking the chicken and you will have the
bones of the chicken to make a lovely homemade
chicken broth. I put mine in the freezer
to save for later.

I added rice to this but you can also omit this.
Adjust your liquid ingredients as well depending
upon if you want a thick, stew-like meal or more of a
soup with extra broth/tomatoes. This one pictured is
right in the middle. Depends also on how much rice
you add that will take up and absorb the broth.

I begin always by setting out all of my ingredients,
cutting board and knife. Pot is on the stove
ready to add ingredients.

Prep the sausage by sautéing and then slicing
on the diagonal into bite-sized pieces.
Set aside.

Prep the chicken by removing all meat from
the bones of the chicken and set aside.
(sorry no pic)
Save bones/skin to make
homemade broth.
Freezes well if you don’t want to make
the broth right away.

Now begins the process of layering the flavors
that will all meld together to create a
delicious savory tomato broth. Yum!

Prep onions and start sautéing, as you prepare
your celery and peppers.

Once onions are softened, the garlic goes in,
then the celery and peppers.

Stir all this together and let sweat
(allow some of the water to come out of the
vegetables) for a few minutes while stirring.

After 5 minutes or so, add the herbs, spices,
chicken broth, and tomatoes.

Add the reserved sausage and chicken.

CAN YOU SMELL IT!!!!!

MAKE IT!

TASTE IT FOR YOURSELF!

SO GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Print

Jambalaya

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 30 mins

Total Time

2 hrs

 

the spicy kick of chorizo and the melt-in-your-mouth shredded chicken blended with herbs and peppers for a FAB one pot meal – MAKE A DOUBLE BATCH! you will be glad you did!

Course: Main Course, Side Dish, Snack, stew

Cuisine: cajun, creole, French, louisiana, spanish, west african

Keyword: chicken, chorizo, fried rice, green peppers, red peppers, stew

Author: maura

Ingredients

Meat

• 1 lb chicken use rotisserie for convenience, see note
• 1 lb chorizo see notes

Vegetables

• 1 onion
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 4 scallions, sliced

Herbs / Spices

• 1-2 tsp dried thyme
• 1-2 tsp dried basil
• 2 bay leaves
• 2-3 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 tsp Tabasco sauce (sub any hot sauce of choice)
• 2-3 tsp dried oregano
• dash of cayenne (more = spicy)
• salt and pepper to season

Liquid Ingredients

• 2 TBSP vegetable oil (any flavorless oil, i.e. grapeseed, canola)
• 1 14.5 ounce diced tomatoes with juices, canned
• 48 ounces chicken broth

Rice

• 1 cup dried white rice, uncooked cook according to package instructions

Instructions

1. Prepare sausage in advance in large pot, set aside and slice. Remove all chicken from the bones and set aside. Save bones in airtight bag and freeze for making chicken stock.

2. Using same large sauce pan, add oil and let heat up on medium heat.

3. Add onions and let soften, ~5-10 min.

4. Add celery and red/green peppers, and scallions and cook another 5 min., stirring occasionally.

5. Add all the herbs and spices, stirring to combine fully and to allow the aromas to develop, ~ 3 min.

6. Add the tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer ~ 30 min.

7. Add reserved sausage and chicken and allow to simmer for 30 min. longer.

8. As the jambalaya is simmer, make the rice, according to package instructions. 1 cup of dried white rice = ~ 3 cups cooked rice. Set aside to cool then fluff with a fork. Do not stir or it will get clumpy and mushy.

9. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

10. After simmering the jamabalaya for ~ 1 hr, add rice to the pot 1 cup at a time. Here is where you can decide if you'd like more of a soup consistency (less rice). Adding more rice will absorb the liquid and make for a hearty 'stew' consistency. This is what I prefer.

11. See notes for more details re: rice.

12. This would be so delicious served with some corn bread, which I did not do but will absolutely do next time! I will post my recipe then.

Recipe Notes

• I recommend making a DOUBLE batch!  
• may cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs and cut into bite-sized pieces instead of using a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.
• may sub andouille, kielbasa or any type of sausage you prefer.
• to reduce the fat in this recipe, use delicious turkey kielbasa, chicken sausage or any other plant-based option
• adding rice in smaller amounts will allow you to control the consistency of the dish. if you add too much rice too soon, you will lose some of the richness and flavor of the ‘broth’ and it will become very mushy.  
• you may choose to omit rice all together and this will make a lovely ‘soup’ dish as well.  
• as an alternative, you could also add dried rice to the simmering pot after ~1hr and allow the rice to cook in the ‘stew’, usually rice takes ~17 min. on a low burner with the cover on.  I find I have less control with the consistency b/c by adding too much rice, it dilutes the flavors of the ‘broth’.  
• I freeze half WITHOUT RICE ADDED, and add rice to the portion that I will eat for dinner and leftovers for the next few days. 
• When you pull the frozen portions out, add rice.  Rice does not freeze well and makes a very mushy meal when defrosted.