Jambalaya

This was the first week of our new session for my cooking group and our theme this round is "fall." I switched weeks with someone, so I ended up having to post the first recipe. After a lot of debate I ended up going with jambalaya. I decided to go with this recipe because it's filling, it's versatile, the entire dish can be made in one pot and is a good for watching football!

Jambalaya is a lot like chili, everyone has a recipe and believes theirs is the best. As this was my first time making jambalaya, I look forward to trying out other versions. You can make jambalaya as healthy or unhealthy as you wish. Healthier choices include: brown rice (will increase your cooking time), low sodium products, white meat chicken and turkey sausage.

I used chicken breast instead of thigh and added turkey sausage because it's what I had. I also omitted the shrimp because we didn't have any on hand. Green onions make an excellent substitution for scallions. I had some problems with the meat & rice cooking in the begining. I'm pretty sure it was because my pot wasn't big enough, as it was nowhere near close to being done in the 20 minutes the recipe indicated. I put the mixture in a larger pot and cooked until finished. While I was looking around online, I noticed a lot of people cook theirs in the oven, I think I might try that next time around.

I served the jambalaya with sourdough bread and some white wine. The husband and I both thought the jambalaya was delicious and it made even better leftovers!