Hot & Spicy Jambalaya Dinner Menu

Cajun Recipe and a Cool Cucumber Salad

Mar 19, 2007 Diane Laney Fitzpatrick

Heat up the night with a New Orleans cooking classic.

Jambalaya is the perfect one-pot meal. With chicken, shrimp, kielbasa, tomatoes, rice and chopped vegetables, it has something for all tastes. Serve it with fresh French bread and a cool Cucumber Salad.

Hot & Spicy Jambalaya

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 pound kielbasa
2 tablespoons oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup chopped celery
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, diced
1 large can stewed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1½ cups chicken broth
4 cups cooked rice, cooled

Cut up chicken into bite-sized pieces. Slice kielbasa into coins. Pour oil into large stock pot, turn heat to medium and place chicken pieces and kielbasa into pot. Cook, stirring often, until chicken is just cooked through. Add garlic, celery, peppers and onions and continue to cook until onions begin to be transparent. Add diced tomatoes, canned tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, cayenne, sugar, black pepper and chicken broth. Simmer for 40 minutes. Add shrimp and continue to simmer until shrimp turns pink. Add rice just before serving.

Cucumber Salad

3 large cucumbers, thinly sliced
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vinegar
1½ teaspoons dill
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine sour cream, vinegar and dill in a medium-sized bowl. Stir to mix well. Add sliced cucumbers and fold to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Chill in refrigerator before serving.

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