Who Wants Jambalaya?”

The word “Jambalaya” always reminds me of “Seinfeld”, when Kramer almost sings the word as he describes the dish – but I got my inspiration from one of New Orleans’ greatest restaurants!

Commander’s Palace has been a New Orleans institution since 1890, and in the 1970’s the Brennan family took over and kept all of its delicious culinary traditions alive!

For week #35 of my “52 In 22 cooking challenge”, I wanted to cook classic creole food.

Wedged right in the middle of the latest ten cookbooks is the “Commanders Palace New Orleans Cookbook” by restaurant owners Ella and Dick Brennan.

As the cookbook notes, this is a cajun version of a traditional spanish Paella….here are the ingredients:

1/4 cup clarified butter

1 coarsely chopped onion

1 coarsely chopped bell pepper

3 coarsely chopped celery stalks

5 minced cloves of garlic

1 pound shrimp

1 pound boneless skinless chicken, cut into cubes

3 bay leaves

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp paprika

28 ounce can stewed tomatoes

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

3 tsp Louisiana Red Hot sauce

1 bunch green onions coarsely chopped

1/2 lb andouille or kielbasa sausage slice 1/2″ thick

1/2 lb ham and crawfish tails optional

1 cup rice

Let’s Get Cooking!

First thing to do is hope up your bell pepper, celery, onion and garlic.

Heat the butter in an uncovered heavy-bottom pot or kettle. Add all of the vegetables and garlic and saute for 5 minutes.

While stirring, also cut up your chicken and sausage, and take any shells off of your shrimp as well…

Add your shrimp, chicken, bay leaves and thyme and continue to cook it over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes…the chicken should have color on the outside and the shrimp will be pink.

Add the paprika and then the tomatoes, plus the chicken stock, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce and mix it all together well.

Finally, add the sausage and any other meat or seafood being used and when the mixtures comes to a boil, add salt to taste.

My “Rice Audible!”

According to the original recipe, this is where you’d mix the rice in and then cook the entire mixture over low heat for 30 minutes….but I called an audible on the rice…

Here’s a clip that explains why I didn’t add rice to the dish itself – which would have absorbed much of the sauce and made a thicker mixture when finished….

As I said in the video, I had some leftover green rice with roasted corn, and as the clip showed some cauliflower rice for Alex as well.

So instead of cooking it in the dish itself, I just added them into our individual bowls at the end, covered it with the jambalaya and the dish was ready to serve!

The cookbook calls this creole recipe “pot cooking” at its best – and they are right!

First, let me say again that adding the cup of raw rice to the dish when called for would have made this drier with less broth – and I love more broth with mine, so it worked for me!

The recipe also called for green onions, which I didn’t have, and those were to be shaved over the dish at the end, giving it some color…oh well, next time!

This is a delicious meal to make – all in one pot, full of creole flavor, and very filling. I will be making this many more times in the future!

This wasn’t the first time I’ve made a dish like this:

Remember My “Tale Of Two Paellas?”

Week #15 of the “52 In 22 cooking challenge” had me making a simple Spanish Paella that turned out to be anything but!

Click here to see why my “52 In 22 Cooking Challenge” forced me to make one dish twice!

I also asked you all to help me answer this question: did my Paella break Valencian law?

Well, it just may have – click here to find out why!

All year long, I’ve been trying to cook around the world, including this amazing Moroccan dish:

This Chicken Pot Pie had powdered sugar!

Click here to make it yourself!

And of course, I headed to Italy

Yes, The Sopranos Cookbook has a classic Italian recipe – and I learned something vital to this dish!

Click here to see what should never be eaten together!

If you enjoy these posts, why not subscribe and never miss out? It’s easy, and there are NO ads of any kind, just stuff I like – from music to movies, books, travel, food and more…click on the main page and “follow” me on the upper right…

https://johnrieber.com

As for my “52 Cookbooks 52 Recipes” challenge, I am sharing and storing all of these recipes on my food website as well:

“Bite! Eat! Repeat!” is your site for all things food – from these step-by-step cooking directions for 52 dishes from around the world – to fun stuff like Caviar Tater Tots!

Here’s just one of the many fun stores you can find there:

If you like what you see, please click on my link and follow this blog as well!

https://biteeatrepeat.com



Let me know what you think of my “52 In 22” challenge!

If you like the story, share it with friends on social media! Thanks!

Categories: cookbooks, Food, food blog, Food Review, Pop Culture, Recipes, Restaurants, Travel, Travel Adventures, Wacky Food

Tags: 52 cookbooks 52 recipes 52 weeks stunt, 52 for 22 challenge, 52 for 22 cooking challenge, 52 in 22 challenge, 52 in 22 cooking challenge jambalaya recipe, 52 in 22 food cooking challenge, 52 in 22 recipes, 52 recipes in 52 weeks, best jambalaya recipe, best paella recipes, best paella reicpes, Bite eat repeat, bite eat repeat webiste, bite eat repeat website, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, chorizo and olive paella, chorizo recipes, commanders palace new orleans, commanders palace New Orleans jambalaya recipe, food, jambalaya recipes, paella, paella controversy, Paella making Robots, paella recipe, paella recipes, Paella restaurants, Paella Robots, paella with chorizo, seafood paella, seafood paella recipe, Spanish Chorizo, spanish chorizo paella, spanish chorizo paella recipe