Cajun Jambalaya
Cooking Healthy Across America Copyright 2005
½ pound chopped ham, tasso, andouille sausage, or smoked sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ½ cups uncooked rice
1 14-ounce cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 bay leaf
½ pound cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
½ to 1 teaspoon hot sauce
Brown the ham or the sausage in a heavy 3-quart kettle, over high heat for about 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic. Cook and stir until the vegetables are lightly browned and wilted, about 5 minutes.
Add the dry rice and stir for about 5 minutes, until the rice has some color. Add the chicken broth and stir to loosen any scrapings from the bottom of the pot. Add the seasoned salt and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook on low for 25 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Remove the bay leaf; fluff the rice. Stir in the chicken and hot sauce. I splashed some hot sauce on the top too.
Makes 8 servings. Per 1 ¾ cup serving: 320 cal, 12 g fat, 4 g sat fat, 45 mg chol, 520 mg sodium, 32 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 21 g protein
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Gosh, how many times have I made jambalaya? Several times but still probably not often enough. It's something that we all enjoy. Even my son asked for seconds. I really should put it on the menu more often.
Some recipes call for tomato but this one did not. It was still pretty good but I might prefer versions with a bit of tomato. I used up a couple of links of Polish sausage that I had in the freezer for the pork portion of this recipe. I love when I get rid of something out of the freezer.
I froze this since I made it Sunday and we weren't eating it until later in the week. It didn't suffer too much from the freezing.
I'll say it again, cooking ahead of time on the weekend has done wonders for my weekdays. I just have to figure out a way to make it take less time out of my weekend.
Question of the Day: Do you have anything in your freezer right now that is fully-cooked that you could pull out for dinner tonight if you had to? Something you would just need to heat and heat?
11 comments:
I sure don't but I sure wish I did! I have been thinking about cooking ahead like you do, would really help the dinnertime madness around here! This recipe looks great, I might add some tomato like you suggested. Looks like a great way to use up leftover pork/chicken too.
Nothing homemade. I hesitate to cook and then freeze dishes...always afraid they won't be up to par after freezing. I guess I should try, though. I just have flashbacks of my lasagna that was awful after freezing. ????
Jan
I wish! But we are usually busy on weekends and though I try, I never seem to have time to pre-plan and cook for the coming week. Need to try to do that more often. We have a ton of meat and fish in the freezer, but no fully cooked meals.
At any given time, I have at least 3 of my 'chicken standbys' as my husband calls it. Cooking Light did a feature in January 2005 called Chicken 8 simple ways and they really are simple. However, I to like to cook ahead and re-warm during the busy weeknights and I found that all of the recipes in teh series freeze well in Ziploc/Foodsaver bags in the freezer and rewarm very well in a pot of simmering water (freeing up my microwave for the vegetables!)
Oh, and I always have pre-cooked whole roasted chickens (If I have my oven going, I will make 3 at a time and freeze two) as well as mashed potatoes (mashed with Fat Free cream cheese to make them freezer stable.)
I did have meatballs with sauce that I took out this morning because I'm home sick and wasn't up to cooking. Every time I find myself in a situation like this I think -- "I should have more fully cooked meals in the freezer!"
Hmmm...don't think so. The only thing I have are quick cooks like frozen fish.
I do, believe it or not. I spend the week before the semester starts doing quite a few freezer-friendly recipes, and they really come in handy as things start to heat up.
I have PW Chicken Spaghetti in my freezer right now. I have had very good luck freezing lots of different things. Its only BF and I and we aren't very good at eating leftovers so I started freezing just about everything - I figure I have nothing to loose since I will likely end up tossing it out after a week in the fridge anyway.
I wish! I have been thinking about doing something like that lately, though. It probably won't actually happen though...
BUT, I actually did cook a real dish tonight - Mushroom Ravioli. Good, but very rich.
I made some chicken tettrazini from cooking light a few days ago. We ate it and then I froze a few single serve portions for Robin because I'm going to cali in March for 2 weeks.
I probably have something... but it may have been there a long time. I think I'd rather make Jambalaya cause it's fun to say...
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