Last night I made jambalaya for the first time. And it turned out SO good! I was actually quite impressed with myself (hehehe) which is why I decided to post it on here for you all to enjoy as well. Seriously, you HAVE to try this!
It started out as an adventure- McKenzie and I walked to the grocery store just to pick up a few items that I needed, one of which being the Andouille sausage that is called for in the recipe. After walking all the way there and searching high and low for it, I decided to ring the service bell at the meat counter.
Butcher guy- "Hello, how can I help you?"
Me- "Do you carry Andouille sausage?"
Butcher guy- "Uh.... If we did it'd be over by the breakfast sausages."
Me- "Well this isn't a breakfast sausage. It's kind of like keilbasa, but... not."
(We walk over together to look at all the sausages)
Butcher guy (after slightly glancing in the general direction of the sausages)- "I don't think we carry that brand."
Me- "Andouille isn't a brand, it's a type of sausage."
Butcher guy- "Hmm...I don't think we carry it."
Me- "Uh... ok. Thanks anyway."
In all honesty I think the butcher guy had NO idea what Andouille is. I've never bought it before so I just didn't know exactly where to look. After searching all the different kind of sausages I decided to just get Keilbasa and call it a day. I grabbed the "spicy" variety and almost walked away when I noticed it had expired last week- gross! I put it down and searched thru all 20 or so of the same kind only to find out that they were ALL expired. (It's a smaller grocery store that we usually only go to if we need one or two things and need it quick. And this has actually happened a few times before...) I was disappointed and grabbed a "smoky" keilbasa instead (not expired), hoping that it wouldn't ruin the flavor of the jambalaya.
As I got ready to start making it, I realized I forgot to buy an onion. *doh!* But luckily we had half of one from a few days ago still in the fridge and I only needed half or 1/4 anyway, so it all worked out in the end. :)
Ok- so here's where the recipe begins. Micah found this on Food Network's website and it comes from the King of Cajan himself, Emeril Lagasse.
Ingredients-
1 chicken breast, diced
1 Tb Creole seasoning (recipe will follow)
2 Tb olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 chopped green bell pepper
2 Tb chopped garlic
1/2 can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup rice
3 cups chicken stock
5 oz keilbasa sliced (about 1/3 the package)
Creole seasoning (I made just enough to get to the 1 Tb called for in this recipe. If you want to make a bigger batch and save some for later, click on the link at the bottom to see Emeril's bigger batch recipe)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp paprika
Combine all ingredients thoroughly
Directions-
In a bowl, combine chicken and Creole seasoning and mix well. Set aside.
In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion and bell pepper, 3 min. Add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well. Stir in rice and slowly add chicken stock. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 min. (I covered mine with a lid and that seemed to help get the rice to cook through a little better)
While the rice mixture is cooking, start cooking the diced chicken over medium heat. Once it looks about done, toss it and the sliced sausage into the rice mixture. Let it cook until the rice is done and most the liquid is gone. (About 7-10 minutes)
Add salt and pepper to taste and BAM! (Sorry, couldn't help myself. I get all excited about Emeril...hehehe.)
Oh yeah, and this is for about 3-4 people.
This is the way we made it, but the original recipe calls for a few extra ingredients that we decided not to use (shrimp, hot sauce, celery). You can either try our way or click here for his original. (There are also like a million different jambalaya recipes by him alone, this is just the one we thought sounded best.)
All in all, I 'd say this was perfect. I actually enjoyed the smokiness of the keilbasa and will probably just use that next time anyway instead of fussing about the Andouille. This had just enough kick for us, but if you're adventurous you should try the hot sauce, add extra Creole seasoning, and maybe you can get your hands on some Andouille sausage...haha
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