Jambalaya is standard Louisiana fare, and like most Cajun and Creole comfort foods I’ve come to love while living here, it somehow manages to use inexpensive, standard fridge and pantry ingredients while still being unbelievably delicious. In fact, I call this my “Hey, I’m cleaning out the fridge!” meal because it uses up all those odds and ends I never got a chance to use and it’s still probably one of my family’s favorite meals! It can be served as a side dish, but really, it’s meant to be a main dish. It’s one of those rustic meals that somehow manages to be homey and yet could be served for company at the same time.
Ingredients Needed
See full recipe card below for measurements an instructions.
- White rice
- Butter
- Green bell pepper
- Onion
- Green onion
- Celery
- Garlic
- Smoked Sausage– You’re looking for fully cooked smoked sausage. Something local is great, or the horse-shoe shaped sausages widely available at grocery stores, like this one. Avoid Kielbasa and make sure it says sausage on the label.
- Ham -I usually buy a simple ham steak for this recipe
- Canned tomato sauce
- Creole seasoning – like Tony Chachere’s
How to Make Jambalaya
This is just a quick overview. You’ll find a full recipe card below!
- Cook white rice. Nothing fancy here, just cooking rice!
- I like to make this in a large dutch oven so there’s plenty of room in the pot to stir. Heat some butter to melt.
- Add all your vegetables: finely diced green bell pepper, celery, green onion, and white/yellow onion. Cook these until tender.
- While those cook, you’ll prep your proteins. If you have a food processor, it works great here. I add the ham and sausage, diced in large pieces and pulse a few times.
- Add the meats and fresh garlic to the vegetable mix and cook for about 10 more minutes.
- Add tomato sauce and creole seasoning and then add your cooked white rice and mix everything together.
- Season additionally to taste and serve!
Frequently Asked Questions
For sure! Personally, I’ve found it difficult to control the heat level when using Andouille (the majority of the time having it be way too spicy!) But if you’re not afraid of heat, or have a brand you love, feel free.
You can vary the proteins in this, or add additional. However keep in mind if you sub out shrimp or other shellfish, or chicken, you’ll miss a lot of the smoky flavor you get from the ham and sausage. I feel like that’s the best combo, so if you skip out on the sausage and ham, you might want to add some liquid smoke and extra seasoning to compensate.
Yes, leftovers are fantastic! If you find your rice has absorbed moisture and it feels dry, add a splash of water to loosen things up.
Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups white rice
- 5 cups water
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
- 1 bunch green onions, sliced
- 2 stalks celery, finely diced
- 12 ounces high quality smoked sausage *could be anywhere around that measurement depending on the package you buy. Shoot for somewhere between 8-12oz.
- 8 ounces ham
- 5 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 8 oz can tomato sauce
- Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning or other creole seasoning of choice
- kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
Cook Rice
- We're just cooking white rice here- if you have a go-to method, feel free to use it. You could also cook in a rice cooker if this fits your capacity. Place rice in large stock pot and rinse first. To rinse, add some cool water and swirl rice around, then carefully discard the cloudy water. Repeat this processes a couple times, drain well and then add the 5 cups cooking water. Bring rice to a simmer on the stove top. Reduce heat to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove from heat and set aside.
Cook Jambalaya
- Heat a large pot like a dutch oven (my preference), or an extra large skillet (at least 14" – this recipe makes a LOT of jambalaya!) to medium heat on the stove top. Add butter to melt and coat pan. Add green pepper, onion, green onion, and celery to pot. Saute, stirring occasionally until softened, about 10 minutes.
- Cut sausage and ham into 1" pieces and place in a food processor. Pulse just a few times to roughly chop. You're not making ground meat, just rough chopping. Alternately, you can use a knife and cut it into very small bite-sized pieces.
- When vegetables are tender, add garlic and sausage/ham mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
- Add tomato sauce and 1 ½ teaspoon creole seasoning and stir everything well.
- Add cooked rice to pan and stir to combine.
- Lastly you'll season to taste. This varies depending on what brand Creole seasoning you are using, the salt content of your sausage and ham, and your personal preference. If you are using Tony's with salt, continue seasoning, being careful to not over-salt. If using salt-free Tony's, add flavor until sufficient to your liking, and season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.
- Serve immediately.
Questions & Reviews
sounds delecious
I just wanted to saw I make this recipe without the meat, butter, oil and rice. Instead I add squash and/or eggplant and tons of veggies and love it. I know, kind of weird, but it works!
Jambalya is originally from western Africa and from what this liberian lady told me it is suppose to have 2 – 3 different kinds of meat in it, or sometimes from the same animalbut different parts of the animal body. It cost a lot to make the original recipe from what I remember her telling me, so if this is a scraps will do kinda recipe…and it works! Im game on!!!
Loved it. Added it to our family recipe blog.
what would be good to serve as a side with this?
fish, chicken, or lamb.
Tried this one on a whim tonight and it was delicious!! A little spicy for the wee one, but everyone else loved it! 🙂
I made this tonight for dinner and it tasted AWESOME, but it was kind of mushy. Any idea what I did wrong? My husband loved the flavors, too…but noted that it was all kind of “together” instead of separate like your picture.
You know, rice is kind of tricky like baking–so much of it depends on your elevations, you know? I’m guessing (and totally tell me if I’m wrong here, haha!) that you’re at a low elevation. If your rice is coming out mushy, especially when you’re adding stuff to it, try reducing the water by 1/4 c. Make sure you’re using long-grain rice. Also, a good parboiled rice is a great choice for things like Jambalaya because it doesn’t absorb water the same way–I use Zatarain’s (because it’s readily available and cheap), but if you can’t find that, try Uncle Ben’s parboiled rice (NOT instant rice). You can also reduce the water by 1/4 c. and 1 tablespoon and then replace that tablespoon with white vinegar–that will help the rice not stick together. The other piece of advice I have is (wow, I think I need to write a whole new post on cooking rice, lol! Apparently I have a lot of advice! 🙂 ) place the rice in a 12″ skillet (rather than a saucepan or pot). Heat the pan over medium, stirring the rice constantly, for about 5-7 minutes or until the rice starts to become fragrant and toasted. Add the liquid, bring it to a boil, then cover it, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 20 minutes. Let it stand covered for 5 minutes and you’ll have perfectly cooked, flavorful rice! 🙂
Thank you SO much! I will try this next time 🙂 I still enjoyed the leftovers today for lunch 🙂