June 30, 2009

Chicken, Ham and Chorizo Jambalaya

After watching a show on Food Network about jambalaya, I've been jonesing to have some. I know this is not an "authentic" jambalaya recipe but I gotta do what I gotta do to satisfy my fix! Try to get smoked chorizo, I made the mistake of getting fresh chorizo and they turned into small meat patties instead of sliced sausage.

A helpful tip: Never stir your jambalaya, instead turn the rice and don't do it often. You don't want to break the rice into mush.


1 lbs. chicken breast or thigh, or both (cut into cubes)
1.5 lbs. smoked chorizo (sliced in an angle)
1.5 lbs. cooked ham (diced)
2 medium onion (chopped fine)
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
3 cups chicken stock
6 cups long grain rice
½ cup oil

Spice mix:
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon chili flakes
1 tablespoon salt
½ tablespoon cayenne
½ tablespoon onion powder
½ tablespoon garlic powder
black pepper, to taste

Marinade mix:
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Marinade chicken with marinade mix for about an hour. Add oil to a pot or wok, turn to medium heat. Add in chorizo and brown for about 5 minutes.


Add in marinated chicken and ham to brown for about 20 minutes.

Set meat aside, leaving oil in the pot or wok. Add chopped onion into oil. When onions are starting to brown, add in garlic. Be careful not to burn them.


Once onion and garlic are browned, add in browned meat, chicken stock and spice mix.


Turn heat to high. Once mixture is in a rolling boil, add in rice.


Turn heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes, covered. Uncover and turn rice from bottom to top, mixing everything together. If rice is starting to burn on the bottom, add a little bit of water. Cook for another 15 minutes, covered. If rice is not done, cook a few more minutes. Turn heat off and let stand for 10 minutes.


Turn rice and your jambalaya is done! Makes about 10 servings.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I tried this out last week. Pretty good, although your timings and quantities didn't match up too well to my own experience. For example, it took me a lot less than 20mins to brown the chicken, and the ratio of rice to everything else was a little off balance.

But that's the brilliant thing about cooking, isn't it? You can try different things, fiddle the amounts, experiment. Mine came out a little too spicy, so I might reduce the chilli flakes and cayenne next time.

I added some tri-colour peppers just after the garlic, since I felt just onion wasn't enough veg for all that meat. I'm surprised you didn't put more veg in yourself. My wife is Chinese and she always insists on adding more vegetables to things.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks. I really liked the recipe and I plan to try some of your others out too, especially the Chinese ones.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comment, Gwyn.

Sorry the timing was a little off. I guess it varies depending on what cookware you're using, etc.

A lot of these recipes came about from experiments so the ratio might be off. Some people like more meat, some people like more rice, some people want more vegetables LOL. I like my food hot too, so I should have warned people.

I'm not really a vegetable kinda person, though most of the vegetarian food I cook are for my partner.

Let me know what you think of the other recipes!