Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

This past weekend Dudley found this song on one of the CD's in my car:

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and file' gumbo
'Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou.

He's so enthralled that he hasn't wanted to stop listening to it. But, it was a great song to have stuck in my head while making this week's Craving Ellie pick!

That's right, this week the Craving Ellie group is cooking with jazz, thanks to Anonymous New York. Definitely check out her blog, I just recently found it and I'm a huge fan. The recipe is for Shrimp & Ham Jambalaya; however, I am not a big eater of shrimp. Actually, I hate it. A whole lot. I spent most of my childhood receiving any number of dispairing and disparaging comments as to how a person born in New Orleans could turn down Cajun specialties such as crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. My parents love Cajun food and for years I ate a grilled chicken breast while everyone else dug into the mudbugs. I like Cajun food more than I used to, but I still hate shrimp. I wish I liked it, and about twice a year I'll try it to see if something's changed, but even this past May I still thought, "blech!" when I put it in my mouth. It's too bad because there are so many delicious looking recipes that feature shrimp, such as jambalaya. BUT, all is not lost on the jambalya because you'll often find chicken and sausage jambalaya in lieu of the seafood variety.

In an effort to keep this healthy, I used smoked turkey sausage rather than regular smoked sausage or andouille. I also like my Cajun food spicy so I double the cayenne pepper and added some Tony Cachere's to the mix. The last change that I made was to add a rib of chopped celery because you can't have onion and bellpepper without the celery to round out the Trinity in Cajun cuisine. Dudley was here for this dinner and he pronounced it very good. I thought it was a very good jambalaya, and I'll make it again, but next time I'm going to play around with the spices even more.

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
adapted from Jambalaya with Shrimp & Ham by Ellie Krieger

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 1-2 ribs of celery, diced
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
  
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 12 ounces diced, smoked turkey sausage
• 6 oz of cooked chicken breasts, diced or shredded
  
• 2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can no-salt added diced tomatoes
• 1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
• Hot pepper saucer
  

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over a medium heat. Add the onion, peppers and garlic and saute until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Mix in the next 11 ingredients, salt through the diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Stir in the rice, cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until rice is done and most of the liquid is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with hot pepper sauce.