Posted on 06/01/2017 4:15:46 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Last week I was going through a big sheaf of recipes that I’d clipped or printed-out over the years but never tried. I found an America’s Test Kitchen recipe for Chicken and Shrimp Jambalaya, and decided to try it.
I’d never had Jambalaya, and I suspect that this is a mild, basic version – it turned out very well, though we thought it should have been ‘hotter’. This was probably because our supermarket Andouille was probably not as hot as the more authentic, ‘artisanal’ ones are.
We altered the original recipe slightly, using two peppers, one red and one green; and my husband believes it needs more onion, more garlic, more HEAT. Anyway, here’s the recipe as we altered it and experimented:
Chicken-Shrimp Jambalaya
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 medium rib celery, finely diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
5 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps. Olive oil
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
8 ounces of Andouille sausage, cut into ¼ inch pieces
1-1/2 C. white long-grain rice
1 tsp. table salt
½ tsp. minced, fresh thyme (or ¼ tsp. dried)
¼ tsp. Cayenne (more to taste)
1 14-1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes, with ¼ C. juice reserved
1 Cup bottled clam juice
1-1/2 C. chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 lb. medium to large shrimp, peeled
2 T. minced fresh parsley leaves
Heat oil in large, heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add chicken, skin side down, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn and cook the other side about 3 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Reduce heat to medium and add Andouille, cooking and stirring frequently until brown (about 3 minutes). Transfer sausage with slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towel and set aside.
Reduce heat to medium low and add vegetables; cook, stirring occasionally, and scraping bottom with spoon, until veggies have softened (4 minutes).
Add rice, salt, thyme, cayenne and cook, stirring frequently until rice is coated with fat, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, reserved tomato juice, clam juice, chicken broth, bay leaves, and browned sausage to pot.
Bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir once, keeping chicken on top, skinned side down. Replace cover and continue cooking at simmer until chicken is no longer pink when cut into with paring knife – about 10 minutes more.
Transfer chicken to a clean plate and set aside. Add shrimp on top of rice and continue to cook until rice is fully tender and shrimp are opaque and cooked through, about 5 minutes more.
While shrimp are cooking, shred chicken. When shrimp are done, remove from heat, remove bay leaves, and stir in the parsley and chicken. Serve immediately.
(If you’d rather, the original recipe suggests using the food processor to process the roughly chopped onion, celery, peppers and garlic until chopped fine fine. We didn't see the sense in doing that, and then having to wash the processor.)
Next, I want to try Shrimp Creole! And if anyone has a favorite recipe, please post.
While browsing for something else, I happened to hit on this recipe for a sweet type of ‘strata’, that looks very good: Overnight Blueberry French Toast:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/15057/overnight-blueberry-french-toast/”
-JT
This week: Jambalaya! and an interesting twist on both French Toast and Breakfast Strata.
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking thread ping-list, please send a private message.)
-JT
You need to know how to make a roux
I was expecting Roux, but that wasn’t part of the recipe. I thought Roux was used in Gumbo; is it also part of Jambalaya?
This may have come from an ancient FR cooking thread. Now when I save a recipe I note where it comes from...
Shrimp Creole
The following is what I would use for a pot of Creole i.e. about 4 quarts. Adjust the quantities to you desired amount of finished creole. I like left overs for work. I freeze what is left in portion sized containers.
1. About 2 lbs of cleaned shrimp
2. Two large bell peppers or 3 or 4 small ones chopped
3. Two large onions chopped
4. Italian Seasoning 1-2 tablespoons to your taste
5. 1 to 2 tablespoons of Chili powder to your taste
6. 2 cups of water
7. 3 large green chili peppers or a can of them (Moutainpass or Hatch is the best brand.) I put mine in a blender with about 1/2 cup of water and it turns them into a paste. This enhances the flavor.
8. Tomato Sauce that would equal about two quarts which is two of those large cans I think they are 32 ounce cans.
9. Salt and pepper about a 1/2 teaspoon of each and a tablespoon of garlic powder. The Tomato sauce will have quite a bit of salt in it also so you may want to omit the salt depending on your taste
10. 2 cups of water.
Saute bell peppers lightly and then saute the onions and set both aside. Bring the water to a boil and add all the spices and turn off the burner for about 15 minutes. The boiling water will pull the flavor out of the spices and into the water.
Add all the ingredients together except the shrimp. Bring to a low boil actually a low simmer for about 30 minutes.
Add water as necessary to make it the right consistency. Taste the sauce and if it needs something according to your tastes, add it.
Add the shrimp to the mix and once it is starts to simmer shut off the fire and let it sit there for about 15 minutes.
Serve over rice or without. It is good either way. Some people like it hot so have cajun seasoning available to add to your bowl or the chili of your choice. The above can also be used as a recipe for chicken, sausage, or crab creole. I did put some chicken in the one that I made.
We visited New Orleans some years ago & took a cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. Here’s their Chicken Creole recipe...
New Orleans School of Cooking
CHICKEN CREOLE
INGREDIENTS:
3 Lbs. boned chopped chicken
8 Tbsp. butter (1 stick)
*8 Tbsp. flour (Place flour in the center of a sheet pan, at least two inches away from the sides of the pan. Bake flour on 350 degrees until golden brown stirring occasionally. Sift the flour once it comes out of the oven before using.)
1 14-16 oz can tomato sauce
TRINITY: (Next three items)
2 C. chopped onions
1 C. chopped celery
1 C. chopped green pepper
1 Tbsp, chopped garlic
1 C. chopped green onion
1 C. chopped parsley
3 bay leaves
3 C. chicken stock or flavored water
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 thin lemon slices
** Joe’s Stuff seasoning to taste (** Joe’s Stuff is an all-purpose seasoning which contains a majority of your herbs (i.e. thyme, basil etc.) You may also add in any of your favorite herbs.
Cooked rice
PROCEDURE:
Sauté the chicken in butter for 2-3 minutes, and remove. Add the flour and stir over medium heat until lightly browned.
Add onions, celery, green pepper and garlic and sauté vegetables until they begin to turn transparent. Add the stock, tomato sauce, bay leaves, brown sugar, lemon slices and Joe’s Stuff seasoning. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
Add green onions, parsley and chicken during the last five minutes of cooking. Serve over rice.
I always start my Jambalaya with a roux. About 3 tbl flour and bacon fat
My go to Jambalaya recipe, but I always add serrano peppers for as much heat as I think my wife can handle.
Iris Rideau’s French Quarter Jambalaya
Recipe Ingredients
3/4 lb 340g / 11oz Andouille or smoked sausage
Olive oil - as needed
6 Chicken drumettes
3/4 lb 340g / 11oz Peeled deveined shrimp
1/2 Green bell pepper - chopped fine
1/2 Onion - chopped fine
1/2 cup 73g / 2.6oz Finely-chopped parsley
1 Garlic clove - chopped fine
1/4 cup 59ml Canned tomato sauce
3 cups 120g / 4.2oz Bay leaves (small)
1 teaspoon 5ml Fresh thyme leaves
Salt - to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper - to taste
1 Cayenne pepper
3 cups 711ml Water
1 1/2 cups 240g / 8.5oz Rice
Recipe Instructions
Halve sausage lengthwise and then slice crosswise. Saute sausage in large skillet with 1 teaspoon olive oil and remove. Without washing pan, saute chicken drumettes in additional 1 teaspoon olive oil and remove. Repeat with shrimp and remove.
Without washing pan, add 1 teaspoon oil and saute bell pepper, onion, parsley and garlic until lightly browned. Add tomato sauce, bay leaves, thyme and salt, pepper and cayenne to taste, then bring to simmer.
Add 1 1/2 cups water, rice and sauteed sausage, chicken and shrimp and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 1/2 more cups water and continue to simmer, covered, until water is absorbed and rice is cooked, 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard bay leaves.
This recipe yields 6 servings.
Yeah, a 1/4-teaspoon of cayenne won’t even move the heat needle in Cajun country. Next time, double up and re-evaluate. Alternatively, one of the Louisiana hot sauces on the table may be the solution for the pepper-heads. You can order authentic Cajun Andouille from multiple places on the Web. I have an actual Cajun meat market here in Tulsa so we go there when jambalaya is on the menu.
Thank You!
When I was a kid, my father belonged to this men’s ‘social club’ which had ‘family nights’ for every holiday. They would brine their own Corned Beef for St. Patrick’s day (lots of Irish in the club) and make all sorts of other things. I learned Chicken Cacciatore there, a revelation in taste for me, at the time (lots of Italians there, too!)
And one time he brought home Shrimp Creole, from the club. It was marvelous, and your recipe sounds like it would be very much like it.
-JT
Thank You!
My husband was joking that the recipe is probably not hot enough because Chris Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen, which developed the original recipe that we were working from, wasn’t really into too much hot pepper ;-)
Their recipes have always turned out excellently for us, especially the ones for Chicken and Dumplings, and Chicken Biryani; but I guess they do have to tone things down to be middle-of-road-ish.
Wine and Cheese Strata
Ingredients
1/2 loaf dry French bread, broken into pieces
3 tablespoons butter, melted
8 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
4 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (1/4 inch thick) ham slice, coarsely chopped
1 3/4 cups milk
9 eggs
4 green onions, minced
1/4 cup sherry
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
1 Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
2 Arrange bread pieces in the prepared baking dish; drizzle with melted butter. Top with Swiss cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, and ham.
3 Whisk milk, eggs, green onions, sherry, mustard, black pepper, and cayenne pepper together in a bowl until foamy; pour over bread mixture. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and refrigerate for 24 hours.
4 Remove dish from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
5 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
6 Bake strata in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Remove aluminum foil and top with sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, until a knife inserted in the strata comes out clean, about 10 more minutes.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/232713/wine-and-cheese-strata/
3 Cups of Bay Leaves???
(Fresh, or Dried :-)
Excellent.
Roux is very easy, if anyone is wondering.
Equal parts flour and fat.
I use it for my gravies, thickening cream soups and my potatoes au gratin.
I use it in many casseroles. But from what I’ve read, the Roux that goes into Louisiana cooking is a Project - a long time of cooking to get it the right brown-ness.
I remember being at the beach with a family who had owned many restaurants; and my job one night was to ‘stir the roux’. I think I was standing there and stirring for at least a half-hour.
Siting here eating a bowl of truly terrible Moroccan veggies and chickpeas I found online an hour ago and reading your Chicken Creole recipe with envy. How terribly clever of you to go to cooking school in NOLA. We went there every Easter when my grandmother was alive and ate Oysters Rockefeller at Antoines and every other wonderful thing. So really, I do know good food. My own cooking is very simple, Three ingredients, all fresh, best quality. Period. What can go wrong? On the bright side, I’ve never lost my girlish figure. On the other side....I’m a rotten cook, ask my kids.
Inspired and wide-eyed by your recipe. Ask me in a week whether I’ve taken the trouble to make it. And how it turned out.
JOE’S STUFF is at Amazon. Is it Joe’s Stuff hot ? Or plain Joe’s Stuff NOLA seasoning?
That’s where I learned how to play pool and cards when I was a little one ;)
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