How to make Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a staple in New Orleans cuisine. The word "jambalaya" was first printed in 1837 though the dish dates back long before that. There's an old wives tale that tells of the beginings of jambalaya.

A traveler was on his way through New Orleans when he stopped at a local inn. Due to the lateness of the hour there was little food left for the traveler. The owner of the inn called out to the cook, Jean, and told him to "throw something together." In the local dialect this would have been "Jean, balayez."

Which over time starting sounding more and more like jambalaya and there you have it. Of course then there's always the other version of how it came to be...

Ever heard of Paella? The rather ridiculously delicious dish from Spain that includes rice & a whole bunch of other stuff you "throw together." The spanish did settle this area for quite some time and that plus a little french influence, a lack of saffron and BAM! Jambalaya.

There is both a creole and a cajun version. Today we'll be making the cajun version which is also known as brown jambalaya. (No tomatoes, unlike it's sibling the creole version which is known as red jambalaya.)

Here we go...

Rough amounts of what we use are as follows:

3 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1lb of andouille sausage

1 medium onion

head of garlic (yeah...the whole thing!)

1 green pepper

3-4 stalks of celery

4 cups of parboiled rice

Tony's seasoning, to taste

a splash of Kitchen Bouquet

and roughly...2 tablespoons of crisco

This served roughly 8 adults with generous portions. (And possibly left overs.)

I would like to say that "I" started off by chopping but I pretty much just took notes and pictures this time. Bo, Ty's dad, did all of the hard work. You'll see those are his hands chopping and stirring throughout. He's a really good teacher.

Start off by chopping all of your veggies & meats.

Garlic.

Onion. This onion saw a uinique chopping method. It looked good at first. A pretty decent rough chop to get it started and then Bo went all crazy with the slap chop. He claimed the blade was dull from over use but I really think he just enjoyed slapping it. Caught me off gaurd the first time. I'm glad I was just taking notes. I jumped about 3 feet in the air the first time he did it.

The celery also got a mean slap chop experience.

Voila! Trinity.

At this point there was a whirlwind of chopping involved. All of the parsley and all of the green pepper were chopped and then added to this bowl. Bo moved really fast, a real chopping pro, so I was unable to snap photos inbetween.

Cube your chicken. Set aside in a seperate bowl. Season with Tony's seasoning.

Slice up your sausages. Add to a seperate bowl, season with Tony's. And now this is where it gets really specific.

This is VERY important! Now I'd like to make it known that you can make a jambalaya in something other than a cast iron pot but it just doesn't taste the same.

It could be the crisco. You should use it to coat the bottom of the pot (and even the meat if you're feeling frisky.)

Brown the chicken and remove it from the pot.

Brown the sausage and remove it from pot.

Add your veggies garlic, onion, peppers, celery, parsley & cook until your onion has a clear color.

Add back in your veggies. Stir.

Now it's time to add your rice. That's parboiled rice. Not so popular where I'm from, I'm told it's a "Lousiana thing." It works out great because it isn't sticky. Just do your best. We used 4 cups of rice which means 8 cups of water, we added 1 can of Campbell's beef consumme & then added it to the pot. Bo suggests that if you have a couple of chicken boullion cubes he'd toss them in the pot at this time. We didn't have any in the house so I can't vouch for the deliciousness of this claim. Add all of this to the pot, bring to a boil and cover.

This is our covered cast iron pot. (You'll notice the HUGE pot on the ground. That's the one they usually use but since I requested a meal for just a few people instead of an army we're using the baby pot.)

Boil for 20-25 minutes until your rice has soaked up all the liquid and it's nice and soft.

Okay so let's pretend I rotated this picture so you could see Bo adding just the right amount of Kitchen Bouquet. Yes this is a real product. It's a browning and flavor additive. I've never heard of it, I'm not sure how crucial it is to the process but the end result was pretty darn tasty so I say go for it. I'm also not sure how widely available this product is so for my fav down in Florida, you'll have to let me know if you see it at Publix! He gave this a quick stir and then it was time to serve.

DONE! Time for dinner!

All kinds of meat can be used instead of just sausage and chicken. You can use shrimp and pork too. It's up to you. I think shrimp would have been really yummy. Next time maybe.

Again, don't judge my lack of photo rotation. I'm a novice. We weren't in a dish doing mood either so just paper plates and some garlic bread. MMM. I was told that white navy beans, potato salad and a good lettuce salad are great to serve next to it and that lemon pie makes a great dessert. But honestly, It was great just by itsself!