Jambalaya Friday

Good Friday to you! May we all have restful, fun weekends. Our weekend will include celebrating my husband's 32nd birthday. We'll be dining on New Orleans style BBQ shrimp and I'll be posting that recipe later this evening. I'm really excited to share that one with you, as it isn't what you'd imagine.

But for now, I'm sharing a very tattered, battered recipe that I copied out of a book a long time ago. The book was "Sweet Potato Queens Cookbook and Financial Planner." It was one of those books that got me through incredibly boring summers in the dorms during summer sessions in college in middle TN. You should totally go buy all those books right now, they are laugh out loud hilarious and heartfelt. They bring out that inner majorette.

Jambalaya, Y'all (*adapted, with love and gratitude, from the previously mentioned book)

Ingredients (color coded by step):
1lb good hot sausage (I usually use turkey breakfast sausage)
1/2 - 1 lb ham (I get one of those ham steaks and cube it up)
1 lb boneless chicken (we use boneless/skinless breasts x 2, anything will work)
2 chopped onions
2-3 ribs celery
1-2 bell peppers (any color)
3/4 of a beer (something you'd actually drink, as you'll want to drink the last 1/4)
1 10 oz can whole stewed tomatoes
1 box chicken stock (equals 4 cups)
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper
Tony's Cajun seasoning! (or something comparable)
2 cups rice (not the minute stuff, regular long or med grain rice)

Now, here's how we're gonna cook this up:
1. In a big ole, heavy bottomed pot, brown your sausage (nice and broken up) and your ham, then add your chicken meat and brown that too.
2. Add chopped onions, celery, bell peppers (the trinity) and your beer. Give her a good stir to prevent things from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cook until onions are clear, not browned.
3. Now dump your tomatoes in a bowl and mash and tear at them with your hands and add them to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes or so. If you really like tomatoes, you can add more smooshed tomatoes, but leave out the juice.
4. Add your chicken stock and seasonings and let it all simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add the rice and bring the concoction to a high boil for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, then cover and reduce heat to the lowest setting possible. DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF THE POT FOR a full 20 MINUTES, OK? I mean it. You want all that heat and steam trapped in there so that rice will cook up real nice.
6. After the 20 minutes on low, take the lid off, turn the rice real gentle-like, and taste it to make sure its all cooked. If it isn't, cover that puppy back up and let it go for another 10 minutes.

As with most recipes, the real trick is to go in order and follow the instructions. If you happen to make any magical changes to this recipe as you go, please report them here!

Go forth and celebrate,
Molly