My first Daring Cook’s challenge experience gave me confidence to try another rice dish: Jambalaya. This is a Louisiana Creole dish of Spanish and French influence; a New World version of the Old World dish paella according to wikipedia.
This recipe is from Good Housekeeping Magazine (Feb 2005). I made this rice dish using chorizo de Bilbao instead of kielbasa, then I added green chillies and couple dashes of ground cayenne pepper to spice it up a bit. The smell of sauteed chillies mixed with chorizo and chicken is mouth-watering delicious. I counted every minute waiting for the rice to cook which seemed like forever. It took longer for my jambalaya to cook than the alloted time in the recipe.
Although the topic of the magazine issue was making do ahead meals and freezing, I did not make the whole recipe because I wanted to taste-test the dish first. We still have left-overs after doing only half the recipe. I still didn’t freeze it, we ate it the next day for breakfast; it tasted even better for me.
sauté the vegetables
add rice, herbs and spices
add broth and diced tomatoes
Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Kielbasa or smoked polish sausage or hot smoked sausage links / thinly sliced
- 3 teaspoons Vegetable Oil
- 2 lbs Skinless Chicken Thigh boneless
- 6 cloves Garlic crushed with press
- 3 stalks Celery large size / sliced
- 2 pcs Green Peppers or yellow peppers / medium size / cut into ½ inch pieces
- 2 pcs Onions medium size / chopped
- 3 cups Long Grain White Rice
- 1 tsp Paprika
- ¾ tsp Dried Oregano
- ½ tsp Dried Thyme
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 can Homemade Chicken Stock 14.5 oz (1¾ cups) chicken broth
- 1 can Diced Tomatoes 14.5 oz
- ½ tsp Hot Pepper Sauce
Instructions
- In a deep 12inch skillet with oven-safe handle and lid (or with handle and lid wrapped in double thickness of foil for baking in the oven later).
- Cook Kielbasa / Chorizo over medium to high heat for 2-3 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally.
- With slotted spoon, transfer kielbasa / chorizo to medium bowl.
- Add 2 teaspoons oil drippings in skillet then add chicken in 3 batches, and cook 5 minutes per batch or until browned, turning over once.
- Transfer chicken to bowl with kielbasa / chorizo.
- Preheat Oven to 425 F degrees.
- Reduce heat to medium.
- Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil to skillet.
- Stir in garlic, celery, peppers and onions.
- Cover and cook 12-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
- Add rice, paprika, oregano, thyme and salt.
- Cook 1 minute while stirring.
- Return chicken with its juices and kielbasa / chorizo to skillet.
- Add broth, tomatoes with their juice, water and hot pepper sauce.
- Heat to boiling over high heat.
- Place skillet on oven and bake jambalaya, uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Remove skillet from the oven and stir mixture.
- Cover and bake for 10 minutes longer or until rice is tender.
- Remove skillet from the oven, let stand, covered for 10 minutes.
- Spoon jambalaya onto dinner plates or spoon desired amount into freezer-safe containers.