I can’t say jambalaya without a southern accent popping up for some reason. The problem arises when I try to get my southern cooking ability to pop up, it just isn’t there. I will admit I have never in my life made jambalaya, ate jambalaya or been around anyone who does make and eat it. But I see it on tv all the time and its been one of those dishes I have always wanted to attempt. Since my family does not like this type of meal I always just turned away but since my sister told me she recently made a pot  my taste buds have been screaming for me to attempt it.

I am not familiar with the dish I couldn’t tell you whether this is good or bad. I would like to know if any of my readers are from the south or are familiar with this dish that can tell me how it tastes (if you want to attempt making it) or if you have a tried and true recipe you use. Remembering to keep it gluten/dairy/soy free.

So here is what I did:

melted 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and sautéed 1 large onion (diced), 1 green pepper (diced), 3 stalks of celery (diced). Once I sweated them I added 1 tablespoon of tom sawyer gluten-free flour and added 1 tablespoon thyme, 1 tablespoon parsley, 2 bay leaves, 2 cloves of garlic (minced), a few generous shakes of red chili pepper flakes, 2 large tomatoes (diced). I mixed this all up and let it heat up. once hot I added 6 cups of chicken broth and brought that to a boil. Once boiling I added 3/4 cup of white rice and turned to simmer. I simmered for 40 minutes. I then added in 1 lb of peeled cooked shrimp and 1 lb of smoked sausages cut into diagonal slices and let that heat up. I then seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

I let simmer more, I was waiting for all the liquid to disappear but there was liquid left and it looked a little more like a dry soup than what I thought a jambalaya was supposed to look like which was more of a rice casserole type dish.

It was yummy in the tummy, spicy enough to make my nose run, flavorful enough for me not to mind that my nose was running and it was extremely filling and satisfying. I enjoyed it. Not something that will go on our menu on a regular basis but it was sure fun to actually try something new. I tried getting a picture but it just looked like a big mess so I opted not to post a photo, but hopefully you can picture it in your mind and perhaps it will make your taste buds start to tingle so you will want to attempt making this dish as well.

suddenly I am hankering a glass of sweet tea, and maybe some sweet potato pie for dessert.  Southern kind of grows on you.