Delicious Jambalaya

Okay, this is one of my all-time favorite dishes! I know, I know, I say that a lot, but I have been making this one for many years thanks to a friend of  mine (Susan). We lost touch for a few years, I lost the recipe in a move, so no more jambalaya for me! I’ve been sad about this for many years and couldn’t find just the right recipe. I like my jambalaya with lots of tomato flavor and this one was just the perfect combination of that. All I could do was dream of it…..until she found me on Facebook! Thank you Facebook and thank you Susan for finding me. Of course, it’s great to be back in contact with her, but it’s awesome to have my jambalaya recipe back in the cookbook! What a sweet reunion.

There is a good deal of chopping in the recipe so make sure you have the time when you start making it. You can really use whatever meat you like, but I love this one with a combination of shrimp and kielbasa. You could use also use ham or chicken, but if I were you, I’d stick with the shrimp and kielbasa.

Sorry I don’t have pictures to show you the process. I was so excited to be making it again that I just took one when I was finished and as you can see, I didn’t do a great job with that either. I’ll be making this again soon so I’ll update this post with more pics.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup each chopped onion, green onions, celery
3/4 cup green pepper, diced (I like using red or yellow peppers)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans stewed tomatoes, chopped (I used the ones with italian seasonings added)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp each pepper, cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup uncooked rice
1 bag of frozen shrimp (about 25-30 medium)

1/4 lb kielbasa or cooked, diced ham

Directions:

Heat butter in large heavy skillet over low heat. Stir in onions, celery, green pepper, kielbasa (or ham) and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until onions are tender. Stir in broth, tomatoes, parsley and seasonings. Cover. Bring to a boil. Add rice gradually, stirring with fork. Simmer, covered for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Mix in shrimp. Cover. Simmer for 5 minutes longer. Yield: 6-8 servings.

This is such a flavorful dish. I’m sure you are going to love it. I usually double the thyme and garlic because I like tons of flavor so you might want to start off with the correct amount, taste and decide for yourself.

Delish!