Recipes
Index By:
  Cuisine
  Category
  Source

Home

Jambalaya a la Everything

From Betty Fussell, I Hear America Cooking

Serves: 6-10

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp. chicken, pork, or beef fat
  • 3.5 lb. chicken, cut into serving pieces
  • 1/4 lb. smoked ham, cubed
  • 1 lb. smoked sausage (polish, garlic, french), sliced
  • 2 c. chopped onions
  • 1 c. chopped celery
  • 1 c. bell pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 c. long grain rice
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1.5 tsp. hot red pepper flakes
  • 1.5 tsp. thyme
  • 2 bay leaves, crushed
  • 1/4 tsp. allspice
  • 1 pint shucked oysters
  • 3 c. hot chicken, beef, or fish broth
  • 1 lb. ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
  • 1/2 lb. shelled shrimp
  • rind of 1 lemon

Steps:

  1. Heat fat in heavy skillet, and fry chicken pieces until well browned. Remove and let cool, then cut meat from the bones into 2-inch cubes.
  2. Fry ham and sliced sausages in the same fat. Remove and set aside. Mix onions, celery, bell pepper, and garlic together, save 3/4 cup for garnish, and saute the remainder in the fat, until wilted, about 5 minutes.
  3. Stir in rice and seasonings and saute 3-4 minutes to coat the grains with oil. Add chicken, ham, and sausages.
  4. Drain oysters and add their liquid to the rice. Add hot broth, stir rice well with a fork, cover pan, and simmer over low heat until rice and chicken are barely tender.
  5. Fold in tomatoes, shrimp, oysters, remaining vegetable garnish, and lemon rind. Bring to a simmer, cover, and let stand off heat about 10 minutes, or until the seafood is cooked but the shrimp still crunchy.

Notes:

  • I've never deboned the chicken.
  • I almost always use kielbasa for the sausage.
  • I've tried all sorts of seafood variations, including smoked oysters instead of fresh, mussels. I've thrown a lobster in.
  • I like to use a piece of preserved lemon peel for the "lemon rind," but at that point it's almost anticlimactic.

Keywords: Cajun, Rice, Jambalaya.