Creole Jambalaya w/ Brown Rice

So I was supposed to spend a long weekend visiting a friend in New Orleans with my sister, but it didn't quite turn out that way. Because of all the stormy weather, (even though Friday was a perfect bluebird day) all the flights out of Boston were screwed up. We sat on the plane for hours before they told us anything, missed our connecting flight and found out that all flights to New Orleans were booked up until Saturday night, and even those weren't a sure bet. So a long weekend started to get shorter and shorter until it was pointless to fly out. Just our luck, right? (My phone also broke on the way walking into the airport...icing on the cake.) We drove back from Boston, picked the dogs back up from daycare and went straight to the grocery store for multiple bottles of wine and ingredients to make a fabulous dinner (unreal steak salad, will blog later!).

As you can imagine I was extremely excited to visit New Orleans and get a taste for some authentic Creole/Cajun deliciousness. This craving didn't go away when the flight was cancelled so I decided to spend this evening in the frozen, blizzard conditions of Maine cooking a heart-warming jambalaya and pretend I'm soaking up 70 degree sun in Louisiana. Not quite the same but you gotta do with what you can.

Whether this is as good as anything I'd eat in NOLA, I'll never know, but for now I am extremely satisfied. It's super comforting and bursting with flavor - warm Creole spices, tender chicken and smoky andouille sausage nestled in rice and veggies in a creamy, (not actual cream but you know the deal) tomato-y base. I used brown rice for added nutrition and I like the flavor of it in this kind of dish. It's so so sooooo tasty and perfect for keeping warm in the blizzard we're having in Maine.

Andouille sausage is a must for recreating a more authentic recipe. It's a smoked pork sausage that originated in France and was brought to Louisiana and is classic in jambalaya - what you buy at a grocery store here isn't likely the true real thing but it'll be close enough to do the job. You need that good smokey-spicy flavor and you can even find some that have Cajun seasonings.

Also - in case you were wondering the difference between a Creole & Cajun jambalaya, they differ by the presence of tomatoes. Creole has tomatoes, Cajun does not. Creole style food is known as "city food" and Cajun is "country food". This recipe uses tomatoes and is therefore Creole - it's the more popular kind because the city food has become more widespread as people visit NOLA more commonly than the more rural areas of Louisiana.

I didn't use shrimp in this recipe because Maine shrimp are extremely hard (impossible) to come by and I didn't want to use frozen shrimp shipped from Vietnam or somewhere across the world. Once you have Maine shrimp it's hard to settle with something else. Usually the shrimp would be added at the end and cooked in the mixture for 20 minutes or so - you're welcome to add them!






Creole Jambalaya w/ Brown Rice

Ingredients:
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
3 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 lbs chicken, chopped bite size
12 oz package Andouille sausages, sliced bite size
2 small or one large onion, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2-3 tsp hot sauce (if you want extra spice)

Directions:

• Mix together Creole seasoning - ingredients garlic powder through pepper and set aside. 
• Melt butter in pot over medium-high heat.
• Toss chicken in 1 tbsp of the seasoning and add to pot and brown all sides. Add the sausage and stir, cook for a few minutes. Add the chopped veggies and stir to soften, 3 minutes or so. 
• Add tomatoes, remaining Creole seasoning, rice, broth, bay leaves and worcestershire, hot sauce and stir. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 35 minutes or so until the rice is fully cooked and liquid is nearly all absorbed, stirring once or twice. 

Recipe adapted from The Daring Gourmet