Jambalaya

This is a great Cajun dish that is a one pot meal and will feed a crowd. It has lots of flavor and you can adjust the spiciness to your liking. If you cannot get the crawfish tails, replace them with shrimp, cut into bite size pieces. I am using frozen crawfish tails, to save quite a bit of time. If you have ever been to a crawfish boil, you will know that peeling crawfish takes quite a bit of time and there isn’t much meat per crawfish. In the south, crawfish also know as “mud bugs” are usually in season in the spring of the year.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of yellow onion diced
1/2 cup of red pepper diced
1/2 cup of celery diced
2 garlic cloves minced
2 cup of long grain white rice, not minute
1 bottle of Abita Ale
3 cups chicken broth
1 – 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning or more if you prefer it spicier
1 lb. of smoked Andouille sausage
2 lbs. of crawfish tails cleaned
Thinly sliced green onion for garnish

Technique

In a large Dutch oven or pot add olive oil and sauté onion, red peppers and celery over medium high heat until soft. Add garlic and sauté for a minute longer. Add rice and stir for a minute. Add ale, broth, diced tomatoes, Cajun seasoning and stir. Add sausage and bring to a boil. Reduce heat low and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more broth, if mixture seems dry and rice hasn’t gotten tender. Add crawfish and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve family style or plate and garnish with thinly sliced green onions.

Suggested Beverage

A beer is a must – try Abita Ale – (Abita Springs, Louisiana) or your favorite beer.

Chatty Advice

Jambalaya can be mixed up many different ways. This is my version of it and I am using a red pepper as opposed to a green pepper and a mix of crawfish and sausage. If you intend to use live crawfish, make sure they are alive when cooking them and discard any dead ones, before adding them to the pot. Also, if you intend to use sausage or chicken that has not been cooked, sauté it before adding the vegetables. Again, the seasoning mix can be increased or decreased to your liking or add a mix of seasonings. Mix it up your way and have fun with your Cajun feast!