Easy Jambalaya

From start to eating, I would say this recipe takes about 45 minutes because the rice has to cook for 20-30 minutes alone. So, time to one side, this is a really quick, simple recipe (especially because you can use so many canned, prepackaged, frozen ingredients... but you also don't HAVE to) that our family thinks makes some tasty Jambalaya. You can substitute so many things to make it just the way you like it (meat, veggies, rice mixes...).

Easy Jambalaya

Ingredients: 

*You can cut back or add to any of these proportions, but this version of the recipe is to make a large pot to feed our family of five, and because this was all we were having for dinner, I did try to make sure there was plenty of protein in it. If I was making this as more of side dish to go with another protein source, I might use less protein-to-rice and only cook one box of rice mix with half as much of everything else listed below.

• cooking oil or butter, couple of tablespoons
• diced onion (I used 1/2 of a 12 oz frozen bag)
• diced celery, couple of ribs (I had a small bag of pre-diced celery in the freezer that I used)
• shredded carrots, 1 big handful
• 2 (two) 14 oz. packages chopped andouille smoked sausage
• 1 big spoonful minced garlic from a jar
• 15 oz. can of corn, drained
• 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
• 32 oz. box of chicken broth
• 2 packages of (Zatarain's) jambalaya rice mix

Directions:

1. In a large (stock) pot, heat up your oil and/or butter for sautéing your veggies and meat. 
2. Once hot/melted, add your onions, celery, carrots and meat. Cook until the veggies are softened and the meat is starting to brown/caramelize. 
3. Near the end of cooking your veggies, add your minced garlic to the pot. 
4. Stir and cook for a minute or two before adding your corn, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and rice mix. 
5. Stir to combine everything. Bring your pot up to a nice simmer, stirring just a couple of times. 
6. Once the liquid is bubbling to your liking, turn the heat down to low (2 or 3 on my stove), put on the lid, and do not stir the rice anymore while it cooks (if you can help it) to keep the rice from getting mushy. The liquid in the pot should continue to bubble as the rice cooks without boiling over while the lid is on. 
7. Once all the liquid is absorbed as the rice is tender, then it's done. If the liquid is gone but the rice is not cooked to your liking, add a little more water and keep cooking until it gets to your desired consistency.
8. To cut the heat a bit for myself, I like to top my Jambalaya with just a little shredded cheese and/or some kind of sauce like ranch or yum-yum sauce. I have also found that sometimes this rice recipe is spiciest when fresh, and the leftovers kind of mellow out a bit. But I am NOT typically a spicy eater, so other people might not need the cheese/sauce or think this is spicy at all, you do you.

It is super easy to use ingredients you like, so feel free to pick different kinds of meat like shrimp or chicken. Use different veggies, like we have a boy who doesn't care of beans, otherwise I would totally throw in a can of black/red/or pinto beans... and I don't like green peppers, but I am sure that would be great in this dish if you like peppers... some people don't like carrots, so leave them out, etc. You can also change up the rice mix. You can use other brands, but Zatarains is my favorite and they have other rice mixes you could use, such as red beans and rice, black beans and rice, or dirty rice, depending on the flavor profile you are going for. If you like it spicy, you could use something like the Rotel diced tomatoes that have chilies in them. All that said, this is what I used this time around and we were really happy with it. 

How much you need of different ingredients also depends on how many boxes of rice mix you are using and how you like the proportions to your finished product. So for my family, I was using basically handfuls/spoonfuls of things until they looked like something my family would like (such as how much onion, celery, garlic, carrots, etc.). 

For the recipe listed above, we made a big pot to feed our family of five, and this was meant to be a "one bowl" dinner, where I didn't prepare any other dishes to go with it because there was meat for protein, veggies, and carb in the rice, therefore, we went heavy on the meat with 2 packages of sausage.

This is the sausage that I used, but you could also use one of those packages of smoked sausage that comes in one long piece, sort of in a u-shape, like Hillshire Farms. This Zatarain's is kind of the same thing, only cut into two pieces.