Creole-Cajun mixed jambalaya
Jambalaya is a spiced up New World variation on paella, and this tasty dish contains chicken, bacon and chorizo, and also tiger prawns. Spiced up with paprika, Cajun spices and jalapeno chili peppers. Delicious!
Table of Contents
Introduction
Jambalaya - a family of recipes
It is a Louisiana Creole recipe based on paella, and cooked in one pot, meat, vegetables and rice together. The Cajun version doesn't contain tomatoes.
The recipe here mixes influences from both styles, using chilies and Cajun spices, but also including the tomatoes. The traditional versions use celery, which I didn't include here, but of course, you can add it when you try out the recipe yourself!
Ingredients

olive oil
3 chicken thigh fillets, cut into strips
1 red onion
3 rashers bacon, chopped
75g chorizo sausage, chopped
1 small red bell pepper
1 small green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 jalapeno chilies, chopped
1 tsp paprika powder
3 tsp Cajun spice mixture
1 cup rice
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
pinch of saffron soaked in 1 tbsp warm water
12 tiger prawns
Cooking the chicken
Cook in batches

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and cook the chicken in batches for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Don't be tempted to cook all the chicken at the same time, as the moisture released can cause the chicken to poach, rather than fry and brown.
Remove the chicken, and keep it warm.
Cooking the red onion
And the bacon and chorizo

Add the onions to the pan and cook for a few minutes until softened, and then add the bacon and chorizo sausage.
Continue cooking for 5 minutes until browned.
Adding the bell peppers
And garlic, chilies and spices

Once the onion, bacon and chorizo are nicely browned, add the red and green bell peppers and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Then add the chilies, garlic, paprika and Cajun spice mixture.
Continue cooking for a further 2 minutes.
Now add the rice
Tomatoes and stock

Add the rice and stir it into the mixture.
Add the tomatoes, chicken stock and saffron mixture.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
Add the chicken and prawns
Completing the dish

Finally add the prawns and previously cooked chicken, stir to mix all the ingredients, cover, and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the rice is done.
And that's it. Jambalaya...done!
Cajun cooking
Do you like Cajun cookery?
Talk about your favorite recipes
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- JaguarJulie JaguarJulie Aug 9, 2009 @ 8:38 am
- I actually made shrimp jambalaya for our last house-warming party -- along with steak kebab skewers and shrimp skewers. I love this dish!
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- papawu papawu Apr 9, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
- Jambalaya is something I could eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as long as I have some tums and zantacs.lol. Fantastic lens and I am lensrolling this to my flavors of New Orleans lens.
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- TheGreenerMe TheGreenerMe Feb 12, 2009 @ 11:14 am
- Nice work! I love jambalaya, it's very satisfying. This recipe looks great!
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- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Oct 15, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
- This dish looks like a crowd pleaser! Welcome to Culinary Favorites From A to Z.
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