Today being Sunday I thought I’d make something nice for dinner that I could also take to work to share for lunch tomorrow. But what to make? I want something both simple and delicious. I’ve done enchiladas recently. And black bean chili. I have this great Cook’s Illustrated recipe for chicken and sausage gumbo, but I’m too lazy of a cook lately to do a recipe like that one. There’s got to be a way to make something similarly tasty without spending hours in the kitchen and dirtying every pot and pan I own.
Fuck it. I’m going to make jambalaya. Or something like it. It’ll have chicken. It’ll have rice. It’ll have andouille sausage. What kind of seasoning does one use for a dish like this? I know they sell “cajun seasoning” and similar products in the store, but I bet I have everything I need to make my own. A few Google searches tells me that I’m looking at 3 parts paprika, 2 parts garlic powder, 1 part each black pepper, cayenne and thyme. That should get me pretty close.
So I went to the store to buy things. I got Klement’s andouille sausage. I got a pack of boneless chicken thighs. I got a bag of long grain white rice, some chicken stock and a can of diced tomatoes. I got a green bell pepper and a plastic container each of diced onion and celery. Yeah, I know it’s more expensive to buy it prepped, but it’s also less wasteful. This way I won’t have half the celery rotting in my fridge two weeks from now.
Upon returning home I found myself thinking it’s too bad I don’t have a rice cooker. Then I paused. Do I have a rice cooker? I do! Long forgotten on a high shelf in my kitchen was a rice cooker. This is getting easier and easier. Sure, I could just cook the rice in the same pot as everything else, but that would put me on the hook for knowing how much rice and how much liquid and all that. It’s just simpler in a rice cooker. I think I’ll use chicken broth instead of water and add in some of my cajun seasoning, too.
I think my plan of attack is this.
- Get 1.5 cups of rice going in 2 cups chicken broth
- Cut up 4-5 of the chicken thighs into bite sized pieces
- Cut up the sausage
- Dice the green pepper
- Cook the chicken and sausage in some of the spice mixture until the chicken is done and remove it from the pot.
- Dump in the veg with more spice mix and cook until softened.
- Add the tomatoes and maybe some tomato paste and hit it with some Worcestershire sauce.
- Add the cooked rice
…and voila. Jambalaya or something like it. Nothing can go wrong with my flawless plan. Not only will I have a delicious dinner tonight, but I will be hailed as a hero in the office tomorrow because of the containers of leftover Jambalaya-or-something-like-it which everyone will love.
UPDATE: So, I did exactly as outlined above and…it worked! It’s a little spicier than I had anticipated (I broke out in a sweat eating a bowl of it) but it is delicious. And there’s a lot of it. I’ll be eating this all week. Hopefully my work pals will try some, too.
