Healthy Jambalaya Recipe With Shrimp And Sausage (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good jambalaya? ›

Traditional jambalaya relies on the holy trinity of onion, pepper, and celery—but skipping celery here allows the heat and roasty schmaltz flavor of the cayenne and chicken fat to come forward. Cook until the onions are golden, stirring to avoid deep browning or charred spots, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Stir shrimp into jambalaya. Cook, gently stirring, just until they turn pink (2-4 minutes, depending on shrimp size). Never use precooked shrimp. It is rubbery.

It's packed with protein in the shrimp, chicken and sausage. Brown rice is your healthy source for carbohydrates. Obviously this is a meal for later on in your bariatric surgery recovery when you are comfortable eating different things all in the same meal.

One of the biggest complaints when making jambalaya is that the rice ends up mushy. And there's two main culprits of this – choosing the wrong type of rice and over-stirring. For this recipe, you want long-grain white rice, like basmati or jasmine. Don't use short-grain rice.

Just a little bit of acid balances and enhances jambalaya's deep, rich flavors. In some Cajun dishes, acid comes from a squeeze of lemon juice, but for jambalaya I prefer my favorite hot sauce, Crystal. It's not too thick or overpowering and gives the dish a pop of brightness.

The "holy trinity" in Cajun cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine is the base for several dishes in the regional cuisines of Louisiana and consists of onions, bell peppers and celery. The preparation of Cajun/Creole dishes such as crawfish étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya all start from this base.

Jambalaya, on the other hand, is a rice dish. Your average recipe contains about double the amount of liquid to rice, but the liquid cooks down. Jambalaya shouldn't turn out watery or mushy. Recipes with tomato sauce will turn out a little wetter, however, almost as wet as risotto, and that's totally normal.

Most types of shrimp will benefit from the simple, inexpensive process of brining, no matter how you plan on cooking them. Brining is like a marinade but instead of flavoring, it's sole purpose is to keep food tender and moist.

A cajun jambalaya, I'm reliably informed, should be somewhat dry, even slightly browned on the bottom, which rules out the soupier, wetter texture of those creole versions using tomatoes (Oliver advises cooks to aim for a “porridgey” consistency).

Two main categories of jambalaya exist: Creole (or red) jambalaya, which is associated with the city of New Orleans and contains tomato, and Cajun (or brown) jambalaya, which contains no tomato and is more common in other parts of Louisiana. The recipe I'm focusing on here is the former, with tomato.

What are the two types of jambalaya? ›

A hearty blend of rice, meats, vegetables, and lots of seasoning, jambalaya is a cold-weather comfort food that is sure to please everyone. There are two types of jambalaya: Cajun and Creole.

Cajun vs.

Creole jambalaya, also known as red jambalaya, contains tomatoes. Cajun or brown jambalaya does not. Jambalaya isn't thickened with roux, although some cooks do include a little skillet-browned flour.

Add in the uncooked rice, chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, Cajun/Creole seasoning, thyme, cayenne and bay leaf. Give everything a good stir. Cover and cook. Then cook for 25-30 minutes, being sure to stir the mixture every 5 minutes or so (to prevent burning) until the rice is nearly tender.

If you don't rinse it away, the starch creates a gluey film as the rice cooks. Rinse away the extra starch and the rice will be sticky enough to fluff up, but not too gummy. If you've been having trouble achieving the “just right” texture with your rice, try adding the rinsing step to your prep.

The one ingredient that seems to be fairly constant in all Jambalaya preparations though is some kind of sausage, and preferably a smoked one. Andouille, a spicy smoked sausage native to Louisiana, is the traditional choice.

One of the primary differences in Cajun jambalaya as opposed to the Creole variant is the absence of tomatoes. Instead, it relies on a dark roux (which is a cooked mixture of flour and fat) to achieve a deep, smoky flavor. Country meats like andouille sausage, tasso ham, or game meats take center stage.

Cajun jambalaya usually has a brown colour due to the meat dissolving in the broth. It also has a smokier flavour because of the meat being allowed to brown first.