Jambalaya

Yesterday afternoon when I got home, the temps were pleasant and the evening promised to be cool.  Cool weather is a blessed relief from our standard hot, humid, muggy weather, and I had the hankering for some comfort food.   T here are three basic varieties of jambalaya; white, red, and brown.  I normally cook white jambalaya, but we'll talk about the others too.  This is Cajun cooking at it's finest, and it is one recipe that's quick, normally an hour from the time you drag the pots out from under the cupboard until you serve it on the table.

JAMBALAYA

Ingredients

1 lb chicken, deboned
1 lb link sausage
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 green pepper (bell pepper), chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped.
2 cups rice
chicken broth
salt
black pepper.

Prep and Cooking

Chop your vegetables.  Slice your sausage.  Cut up your chicken into bite-sized peices.
Get out a black iron pot. (You do have cast-iron cookware, right?)
Put a little oil in the pot and saute your vegetables. You want the onion clear and sweet.  Add your chicken, and cook it for  a bit, then add your sausage.  Let it cook for a while, stirring occasionally to keep anything from sticking.  The sausage will lose some fat, but that's okay.  It's adding to the flavor.

When everything is cooked, you have a decision to make.  Drain the oil or not.Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, depending on how my body is feeling. Some sausage has more fat than others.  You decide.

After you've made that decision, add the two cups of rice and enough chicken broth to cover the rice.    Cover the pot, set a timer for 12 minutes and put the fire on low.  Let that chicken, sausage, veggie and broth mixture simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.   

Bon apetit!   That's white jambalaya.  For brown jambalaya, make a roux gravy, or use a brown gravy mix.  Add that to your meat/veggie mixture and simmer until the rice is tender.  For red, add a can of diced tomatoes and peppers (Rotel) to your broth.