Chase's Jambalaya
It's been too long since I wrote up a recipe. So here's one of my favorites - it's been cobbled together from a combination of experience, other recipes, and whatever happens to be on hand at the moment.
Chase's Jambalaya
Ingredients:
left over chicken (anywhere from a whole baked chicken to a single serving can be used - if there's less chicken, use more veggies)
one bell pepper
one onion
celery (anywhere from two to four stalks)
four cloves garlic, minced or dried
a bit of oil
8 cups chicken broth (or water)
4 cups rice
spices (garlic salt, cayenne pepper, ancho chili pepper to taste)
Tabasco sauce (optional and to taste - I use a couple tablespoons)
Chop chicken, pepper, onion, and celery well. Put in pot with oil, garlic, and spices, cooking until soft and aromatic. Add chicken broth and Tabasco sauce. Bring to a boil. Add rice. Simmer until the rice is cooked. (Don't let the rice burn!)
*
This is actually a family favorite - it feeds a family of four hungry people for a couple of nights. It also freezes absurdly well. My freezer is never without a couple servings of my jambalaya. It's also pretty variable - you can use most meats, add some sausage if you like (andouille, preferably) or some ham, toss in some more greens. If you don't like spice, don't use the Tabasco sauce, but be warned: freezing tends to reduce the heat of this dish so the Tabasco sauce helps to keep the kick alive.
The chicken broth helps keep the flavor alive (and even using a low sodium version from the store is fine because it's all going into the rice). The real key is having onion-pepper-celery-garlic. I'm not a huge fan of onions, so I don't use many in this, but plenty of people use more than three times as many onions as I do in jambalaya. (Would you believe that I grew up not eating onions at all, practically, until I got to college? Green bean casserole at Thanksgiving was the only exception to this rule.)
Chase's Jambalaya
Ingredients:
left over chicken (anywhere from a whole baked chicken to a single serving can be used - if there's less chicken, use more veggies)
one bell pepper
one onion
celery (anywhere from two to four stalks)
four cloves garlic, minced or dried
a bit of oil
8 cups chicken broth (or water)
4 cups rice
spices (garlic salt, cayenne pepper, ancho chili pepper to taste)
Tabasco sauce (optional and to taste - I use a couple tablespoons)
Chop chicken, pepper, onion, and celery well. Put in pot with oil, garlic, and spices, cooking until soft and aromatic. Add chicken broth and Tabasco sauce. Bring to a boil. Add rice. Simmer until the rice is cooked. (Don't let the rice burn!)
*
This is actually a family favorite - it feeds a family of four hungry people for a couple of nights. It also freezes absurdly well. My freezer is never without a couple servings of my jambalaya. It's also pretty variable - you can use most meats, add some sausage if you like (andouille, preferably) or some ham, toss in some more greens. If you don't like spice, don't use the Tabasco sauce, but be warned: freezing tends to reduce the heat of this dish so the Tabasco sauce helps to keep the kick alive.
The chicken broth helps keep the flavor alive (and even using a low sodium version from the store is fine because it's all going into the rice). The real key is having onion-pepper-celery-garlic. I'm not a huge fan of onions, so I don't use many in this, but plenty of people use more than three times as many onions as I do in jambalaya. (Would you believe that I grew up not eating onions at all, practically, until I got to college? Green bean casserole at Thanksgiving was the only exception to this rule.)