In South Louisiana you rarely see a party that's missing a big ole pot of jambalaya. It’s a common staple and one of our most cherished rice dishes. This flavor-packed dish gets its unique flavors from browning down a variety of proteins and seasonings in a black iron pot and utilizing all those drippings and flavors to cook the rice so that each grain absorbs that beautiful, bold Cajun flavor.
Ingredients
• 4 small onions
• 4 stalks celery
• 2 bell peppers
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1/2 bunch minced parsley
• 2 lbs cubed pork
• 2 lbs chicken thighs
• 2 lbs smoked sausage
• 1/2 pack bacon
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire
• 1/4 bottle crystal hot sauce
• 1 can V-8 (5.5 oz.)
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 2 tbsp or less browning sauce
• 1 can Rotel
• 2 lbs long grain rice
• Creole seasoning
• Salt to taste
Directions
1. Prep meat by trimming off fat and cutting into bite sized pieces. Slice bacon and sausage. Keep each separate. Liberally season pork and chicken with creole seasoning.
2. Prep trinity by medium dicing onion, peppers and celery. Mince garlic.
3. In a large black iron pot add olive oil and brown sausage. Remove once browned.
4. Add in chicken and remove once browned.
5. Fry bacon pieces and remove once crispy. Leave drippings in pan.
6. Add pork to fry in bacon grease. Brown well but you also want to cook pork a lot longer to help render fat.
7. Once pork is cooked down add it trinity. Use evaporating liquid to scrape off all burnt bits on the bottom of the pot. Cook vegetables until really soft. Add in garlic.
8. Add in about half a quart of chicken stock and cover pot. You want to get the pork to break down and get tender and also for most of this liquid to evaporate. The reason being, you want to evaporate the liquid is so that you can get an accurate rice to liquid measurement.
9. Once the liquid is just about gone add in the smoke sausage and 1 can of Rotel. Let that cook a few minutes.
10. Get the liquid ready. You’re aiming to have 3/4 of a quart of liquid for every pound of rice so we’re going for 1-1/2 quarts. Add in Worcestershire, hot sauce, V8, splash of browning sauce and use chicken stock to get you to 1-1/2 quarts total liquid.
11. Add in chicken and bacon bits and all drippings.
12. Add in our measured liquid. Season with creole seasoning and salt. Taste. You want this to be overly seasoned with spice and salt because the rice will absorb a lot of the seasoning.
13. Bring mixture to a boil.
14. Add in green onions and parsley. Bring mixture to boil and add in 2 lbs of long grain rice.
15. With a flat spoon, gently move around the rice not stirring too hard to break it up. Just enough to keep the rice from settling on the bottom to burn.
16. Once the liquid is almost fully gone put the cover on, lower the heat and allow to cook for 15 minutes. No checking!
17. After 15 remove the lid and give the rice a roll around the pot. This isn’t a stir; you want to get big portions and just kind of flip the rice over itself. Careful if the bottom feels stuck DO NOT SCRAPE OR DISTURB IT. Just stir on top of it.
18. Place cover on at very low heat and let cook another 20 minutes. After that, roll rice once more. Turn off heat and cover. Let sit 20 more minutes before last flip and serve!
19. C’est bon!