Jambalaya

Alright, here is one of my recipes for Jambalaya. I had this a few times in Mississippi, and this tastes almost just like what I had in the South.

·         2 chicken breasts

·         1 smoked sausage or polska or something like that. The authentic recipe always calls for anduille sausage, but that is kind of hard to find.

·         1 onion

·         1 bell pepper

·         5 or 6 cloves of garlic (or however much you like)

·         5 ribs of celery

·         3 cans of tomato paste

·         1 can of diced tomatos

·         8 cups of chicken stock (Diedre told me to make it with 1 cube of bullion per cup of water)

·         Seasoning mix: 2 tsp cayenne, 2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme. Careful with the cayenne, 2 tsp makes it spicy. If your spouse doesn’t like spicy stuff you will be stuck with a whole pot of this stuff that you have to eat on your own. This may sound alright until you are on your 3rd day of it. The thyme really makes it, you may add more if you like it.

·         2 bay leaves

·         Salt

·         4 cups rice

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and brown the chicken with salt and pepper.  Next lightly fry the sausage. Saute the onions, garlic, peppers, and celery.  Once the sauté is almost done add the tomato paste and le that caramelize a little. Careful not to burn it.  Pour in two cans of the chicken stock and stir it around. Add the seasoning, tomatoes, and salt to taste. Cook for ~10 minutes. Add the meat and cook another 10 minutes. Add the rest of the stock. Add any seasoning to taste. Stir in the rice and cook until the rice is done.  I have done this both in a pot on the stove and in a dutch oven in the oven. It worked so much better in the oven. The pot on the stove burned on the bottom and the seasoning didn’t seem to combine all that well. This makes a bunch, so half it if you don’t want to eat on it for a while.