I hear my New Orleans friends cringing and I’m sure this isn’t exactly authentic, but it’s really good. It’s simple and easy and my kids like it (bonus!) and comforting and warm.
It’s also a dice-and-dump recipe. My favorite kind of recipe for the slow cooker.
The original version of this recipe had you cook the rice in the same cooker as the sauce. Which is fabulous if you’re eating it all at once. For leftovers…not so much. Mushy second-day food, and we’ve already established that I don’t do mush. So I fiddled with it. I reduced the overall liquid in this, cooked the rice on the stove, and served the rice/chicken mixture over the rice. Awesome, and it keeps really well for a second or third day.
Frozen shrimp is great in this. I always have a few pounds in the freezer, and it’s super simple to pull it out and dump it in. Just don’t do it until an hour or so before you’re going to eat, or they’ll curl up into nothing. And feel free to leave the green peppers out if you don’t like them. No worries.
Give this one a shot. You’ll need:
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 large onion, diced
1 cup chicken broth
1 14.5 oz diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 a 6 oz can tomato paste (1/3 cup)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 pound chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
8 oz peeled shrimp
3/4 cup chopped green pepper
Cooked rice, white or brown
Spray your slow cooker with nonstick spray. Dump in everything but the shrimp, peppers, and rice. Stir well. Cook on low 6-8 hours.
An hour before dinner, stir in the shrimp and peppers. Serve over rice.
Mmmm, sounds yummy and easy. We love jambalaya at our house. We also add in sausage.