My sister loves Cajun food. As such, she has been asking me for years to try my hand at Jambalaya, one of her favorite dishes. The first time I tried fixing it, I followed a recipe out of a cookbook verbatim; it came out absurdly bland. And I definitely don’t want my dish to taste like the super bland tomato rice dish you always get in restaurants. So I did a bunch of research online, and pulled in my gumbo recipe for some flavor notes. The result; the best damn jambalaya you will ever eat. I’m not being hyperbolic here, this will blow away every other jambalaya.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Andouille Sausage, cubed
• 3 Tbs Unsalted Butter
• 1 Onion, minced
• 1 bundle of Green Onion, minced
• 1/8 cup minced Garlic
• 2 ribs Celery, minced
• 1 Green Bell Pepper, minced
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, minced
• 2 Tbs Cajun seasoning
• 3 dashes Tabasco
• 2 small cans V8
• 2.5 cups Chicken Stock
• 1.5 cups Long Grain White Rice
• ½ lb Bacon
• 1 lb boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 Tbs Dried Parsley
• 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ tsp Dried Thyme
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice

Instructions

1. Rinse the rice. Cook in pot or rice cooker with 2.25 cups of water to ensure it isn’t a massive clump.
2. Cube your sausage and chicken, toss in Cajun seasoning and dried thyme.
3. Cook the bacon in a stock pot, remove from the pot, leaving the grease on the bottom.
4. Saute the sausage and chicken until cooked, remove from the pot, leaving the grease.
5. Add the butter to the pot, once melted, add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic, saute until starting to caramelize. Once this happens, add V8 cans 1 at a time, reducing each time.
6. Then add Tabasco, dried parsley, bay leaves, Worcestershire, and lemon juice. Add chicken stock slowly, ½ cup at a time, cooking down.
7. Once you have a nice simmering stock, add back in the meat. Return to a simmer for 10 minutes.
8. Add rice, stir to combine; simmer for 10 minutes and serve with green onion as garnish.

Yield: Dinner for 5