Tasty Becca’s Jambalaya Recipe

Just recently I invested an afternoon helping my friend Becca cook up a big batch of jambalaya. Becca is from Biloxi, Mississippi and has been making jambalaya for several years.

Becca's Jambalaya Recipe

Ingredients

The components are noted in quantities necessary for a jambalaya batch for serving 12 people. You can quickly double or triple the recipe.

• Andouille and smoked sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick - 2 cups
• Tony Chachere's Creole Jambalaya Dinner Mix - 1 8-oz box
• Water - 2 1/4 cups
• Uncle Ben's modified original long grain rice - 1 cup
• Chicken broth (homemade is best) 2 1/4 cups
• Onion - a mix of yellow, red, and green onions (tops included), all chopped - 2 cups total
• Bell peppers - a mix of yellow, red, and green, all sliced - 2 cups total
• Celery, sliced - 1 cup
• Garlic, minced - 1 loading Tablespoon
• Bay leaves - 2 (Make sure they are fresh and strong, if not, include more).
• Whole cooked tomatoes - 1/3 of a 32-oz can, break up the tomatoes with your fingers as they enter, reserve the tomato juice to include if required.
• Diced tomatoes - 1/3 of a 14-oz can.
• Tomato sauce - 1/3 of an 8-oz can.
• Sugar - 1 pinch.
• Dried thyme - 1 teaspoon.
• Tabasco sauce - a number of sprays.
• Oregano - 1 teaspoon.
• Cayenne pepper - 1/2 teaspoon.
• Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning - to taste.
• Fresh Shrimp, in shell, however cut making it simple to get rid of from shell - 1 1/2 to 2 pounds (Remove shells and store shrimp in ice water while shelling.).
• Lemon juice - juice of half a lemon for each lb of shrimp.

Method

Prepare the vegetables and shrimp. It'ses a good idea to get as much of the prep work done ahead of time, specifically if you are making a large batch. Keep in mind that Becca gets her shrimp fresh, not frozen, in the shell, and butterfly cut to make it simple to de-shell. After slicing up all the vegetables, de-shelling the shrimp takes a bunch of time because you wish to make sure to get all of the shell pieces out. As you de-shell the shrimp, place the shrimp in a bowl of cold water. When you are done de-shelling, stress the water from the shrimp and put the shrimp in the fridge to stay cold. You will not include the shrimp to the jambalaya until the last 2 minutes of making this meal.

In a huge frying pan, fry the sausage pieces on medium heat, in batches, up until prepared through, about 15 minutes for each batch. As you complete each batch, pour out the sausage and whatever fat has been launched into a big stockpot. The size of the stockpot depends on how much jambalaya you are making. For a this batch, I would use an 8-Qt stockpot.

Add Tony Chachere's Creole Jambalaya Dinner mix, and 2 1/4 cups of water for each box utilized. Add Uncle Ben's long grain rice and 2 1/4 cups of chicken broth for every cup of rice utilized. Include onions, bell peppers, and celery. Slowly bring mixture to a simmer, on MEDIUM heat. This is slow cooking. You desire it on medium to prevent the jambalaya from burning. While the jambalaya is cooking, stir it every once in a while to make sure that absolutely nothing is adhering to the bottom.

Add bay leaves, garlic, entire tomatoes (reserve juice), diced tomatoes, tomato sauce. Add thyme, tabasco, oregano, cayenne pepper. Sluggish cook on medium heat adding tomato juice and stock as required, as the rice takes in the liquid in the pot. You do not want it to get dried out, nor do you desire it to be too liquidy. At this moment, stir typically making sure absolutely nothing sticks to the bottom. Have the temperature be just a notch listed below a simmer. If it starts to boil, lower the heat, or add water. Prepare gradually for an hour as the rice soaks up the liquid.

Becca with the Creole seasoning5 While the jambalaya is cooking, taste often and adjust seasonings. Becca likes her jambalaya quite hot; she states, "If you're not sweat' n, it's not hot enough!" She adds Tony Chacher's Creole spices to raise the heat. Contribute to taste.

When the rice has actually taken in as much moisture as it will, slowly fold in the shrimp. Add lemon juice (1/2 a lemon for each lb of shrimp). Cover and cook for 2 more minutes. Get rid of from heat and you're done.

Tweet