Jambalaya is a Cajun/Creole dish and is an exceptionally versatile one pot dish. There are many versions to this dish but below is the basic idea to preparing the jambalaya recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 yellow onions (large ones, chopped fine)
- 8 cups water (approximately)
- 4 cups rice
- 1 bell pepper (chopped)
- 2-3 banana peppers (chopped, for a hot jambalaya)
- 3-5 crushed garlic cloves
- 2 bundles green onions (chopped)
- 2 lbs. hot sausage (chopped)
- 1 whole chicken (cut up, or pork)
- Salt
- Onion powder
- Red pepper
Directions
- Brown the sausage and chicken (or pork) and put them aside.
- Saute both the yellow onions and garlic in a large pot. Add a little water to prevent them from becoming dry in the bottom of the pot. Constantly stir them and ensure they do not burn.
- Add the meat and enough water to cover everything to this sauteed mix.
- Season this mixture with the garlic cloves, salt and onion powder and cook until the meat is tender.
- Put in the peppers and green onions approximately 15 minutes before adding the rice.
- Add the rice afterward and let it simmer for 15 minutes or until the rice seems to be getting cooked.
- Bring the bottom of the rice to the top of the pot by using a large enough spoon to turn it over once.
- Leave this on a low heat or until all the water has dried out of the pot and the rice is tender.
- Serve with a salad, white beans and French bread.
- This serves approximately eight (8) persons so increase or decrease the ingredient measurements to serve the size of the crowd that is expected.
Tips
- It is usually recommended in any variation of the jambalaya recipe that a cast iron pot is used. This will ensure that the dish does not burn. A thin pot will cause the dish to burn.
- Tomatoes can be added to the dish for taste as well as color.
- An uncommon way to cook the jambalaya recipe is to cook the vegetables and meat separate from the rice. In this way, the meat and vegetables are cooked with spices and a small amount of oil and the rice is cooked in stock. This method shortens the cooking time but it is not recommended to be used if Creole or Cajun persons will be eating from your dish.
- There are unlimited variations on the jambalaya recipe. The jambalaya recipe can be made with the meat kind of your choice: beef, pork, chicken, sausage, crayfish, shrimp, oysters as well as combination of these and any other meat kind. If fish is being used, they should be added last since these do not require much cooking. The most common way to make a jambalaya recipe is the Creole Jambalaya, also called the “Red Jambalaya”. With this style, red tomatoes are used. There are also some versions which call for the jambalaya to be baked after everything is cooked.
