The holy grail of crock pot jambalaya

[Ceebs]

- 1 pound chicken or turkey breasts
- 1 1/2 pounds (preferably) Andouille sausage **
- 1 pound shrimp, cooked
- 1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 of a medium Onion, purée'd
- 1 each medium red and green bell peppers
- 1 cup Chicken broth
- 1/2 cup White wine
- 2 teaspoons Oregano, minced, preferably fresh
- 2 teaspoons Parsley, minced, preferably fresh
- 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
- 2 cups white rice, cooked

** If you can't find Andouille sausage at your local grocery store, any good quality smoked and spiced pork sausage will do - Andouille is just authentic Cajun victuals, and therefore best for our purposes. I get my Gerhard's Sausage brand Andouille at a natural foods chain we have here in San Diego called Henry's. Trader Joe's locations throughout the US also carry it, and cajungrocer.com has Andouille made with - wait for it - alligator.

Cut chicken or turkey into roughly one inch cubes and slice sausage on the bias as thinly as you can manage. Purée onion in a food processor - or chop it if you don't mind getting teary-eyed - and slice your bell pepper as thick or thin as you like. Put all in crockpot. Add the liquid ingredients and spices (in other words, everything else except for the shrimp and rice), and stir thoroughly to ensure even distribution of spices throughout the ingredients.

Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours if you're in a rush. At least 30 minutes before eating, add cooked shrimp and cooked rice, then let them simmer to warm. The longer you cook this - within reason - the more tender and melting your jambalaya will be. In my opinion, the best part is throwing everything together in the crock pot the night before, then waking up the next morning to the most wonderful smells wafting throughout the house from the kitchen.

For a thicker jambalaya, omit 1/4 cup of the chicken broth, 4 oz of the crushed tomatoes, and only partially cook the rice before throwing it in. The rice will absorb a lot of the liquid and poof up this way. Note that there is no reduction in white wine; with spicy, rich food, goes lushes. "A glass for the chef, a glass for the pot. " Don't fight it.

To make spicy jambalaya rice, use an extra 1/2 cup of chicken broth, and a bit more white wine and crushed tomatoes. (Highly technical here, "a bit more".) Then a few hours through cooking, spoon out the excess liquid to make a stock. Cook the rice in this stock instead of using plain water. You can either mix the jambalaya'd rice into the pot as shown above, or skip putting the rice in beforehand altogether and your guests can add it to taste.

Cooking rice for dummies: put two parts liquid to one part rice into an uncovered pot, bring to a boil, stir once, turn heat way down, cover tightly with a lid, and let cook on low for about 20 minutes.

The only significant source of fat in this is the Andouille sausage, and if you omit the rice, it's low-ish carb too.

thats sounds yummy.I love crock pot cooking's

*What doesn't kill you makes you stronger*

[Spook]

is the best way to cook if you don't have time to cook during the day and the best thing about it....the spices and flavors are soaked into the food very deeply to get the most outta it. Preparing to slow cook some spagetti sauce tonight too with some ground sirloin......hmmmmmmm.

*** "Woo baby! You have an ass that reminds me of two 5 lb bags of sugar, and wouldn't you know it? I got me a sweet tooth! Yeehah!!!!" ---Lone Star State of Mind....Tinker***