Jambalaya

It's Nick's birthday so I made his one of his all time favorite meals, Jambalaya.  I've made this dozens of times, but this time I wanted it to be authentic so I created the exact same dish we had when we went to New Orleans years ago. Well... I guess it's not exact because my chicken legs were ginormous and the ones we in NOLA were smaller.  Other than that... it was like stepping back into The Big Easy. Enjoy!

Jambalaya

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

6 chicken drumsticks

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon creole seasoning (recipe below)

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 jalapeno pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

4 roma tomatoes, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 bay leaves

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp hot sauce

1 cup brown rice

3 cups vegetable or chicken stock (make your own veggie stock here!)

5 oz Andouille sausage, sliced

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Season chicken with creole seasoning and place on baking sheet so that the meatier side is facing up.  Put a dab of butter on each chicken wing.  Place in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until chicken in cooked.

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add onion, green pepper, jalapeno pepper and celery.  Stir and let cook for 3 minutes.  Add the garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, worcestershire and hot sauces.  Stir in rice and slowly add broth.  Reduce head to medium low and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.  When rice is just tender, add shrimp and sausage.  Cook until shrimp is done, about 10 minutes more.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and creole seasoning.  Top with a chicken drumstick. 

Creole Seasoning: (I just used store bought, but if you want to make your own, here are the spices)

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly

Yeild: 2/3 cup