Cook it Fresh

Both my husband and I  love spicy food and one of our favorite spicy dishes is jambalaya with chicken and sausage.  It’s a fairly easy, cheap one pot meal but could it be made even easier with the use of a boxed jambalaya mix?  I have used these mixes a few times in the past and they seemed pretty good, if a bit bland, but I wondered how jambalaya made from a mix would measure up when tasted next to homemade.  The homemade version I made was inspired by the recipe for Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya in the cookbook Real Cajun by Donald Link, but my version uses some different ingredients and is a little faster and less involved.  Below is the exact recipe I used for homemade Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya:

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

The recipe below makes a very spicy jambalaya so you may want to cut the chili powder and red pepper in half if you like a milder flavor.  I roasted a whole chicken and used half of the meat in this recipe, but you could also buy a store bought roasted chicken or just broil a couple of chicken breast halves and use that meat for this recipe.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 andouille sausages, diced
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1/2 of a medium onion, diced
• about 4 cups of chicken broth, store bought or homemade
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
• 1 1/4 cups long grain rice

1.  Heat the oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat and, when hot, add the diced sausage.  Cook until the sausage begins to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan.  Deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup chicken broth and let this simmer until the chicken broth all evaporates.  Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside.

2.  Add the butter to the pan and, once it melts, add the diced onion.  Cook the onion for 5 minutes or until is well browned and beginning to stick to the pan.  Add another 1/4 cup of chicken broth to the pan and cook until this almost evaporates.

3.  To the browned onions add the bell peppers, celery, garlic, tomato paste, salt, bay leaves and all spices.  Cook for about 10 minutes or until vegetables begin to stick to the bottom of pan.  Add 1/2 cup chicken broth and let this simmer until the broth is gone.  Add the chicken and 1 cup of chicken broth and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until liquid reduces by about half.

4.  Switch the chicken/vegetable mixture to a dutch oven or large heavy bottomed pan and add the rice, previously cooked sausage, and 2 cups of chicken broth to the pan.  Cover the pan and simmer on low for about 30 minutes or until rice is tender, checking halfway through to see if more broth is needed.  I ended up adding about 1 more cup broth by the end of cooking because the liquid was evaporating quickly.

5.  Once the rice is tender, remove the pan from the stove and let the jambalaya sit, covered for about 10 minutes before serving.

As a comparison to this homemade jambalaya, I made a box of Zatarain’s New Orlean’s Style Jambalaya mix and added the same amount of chicken and sausage to it so the two recipes would be similar.  I was pretty sure, before even beginning this post that the homemade jambalaya would taste way better than boxed and I was right, but the jambalaya from a mix measured up better than I expected.  Although the jambalaya from a mix lacked the depth of flavor and color of homemade, it was surprisingly good and didn’t have the extra-salty taste of many boxed mixes.  The boxed mix was definitely not as spicy as homemade, so anyone who likes their food very hot might want to add some hot sauce or cayenne pepper to the mix.  The fresh veggies in the homemade version also added a nice texture that was lacking in the mix, but overall the jambalaya mix was very edible and much faster and easier than homemade.  The mix also won on price as it only cost about half the price of homemade even with the sausage and chicken figured in.  I must note, however, that I am assuming the use of boxed chicken broth in figuring the cost of the homemade jambalaya and using homemade broth would save a lot of money on this one.

Bottom Line: Homemade Jambalaya was undeniably more flavorful and had better texture than that made from a mix.  Using a jambalaya mix, however, does save a lot of time and money and the end product was still pretty darn tasty making it a good option if you’re pressed for time.

Homemade Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya                               Zatarain’s Jambalaya mix

Cost:  $9.46                                                                                            Cost:  $5.62

Time: 1 1/2 hours                                                                                 Time:  35 minutes