If you love Jambalaya that’s a little bit spicy but without the burn of traditional Jambalaya, then you’ll want to try my Jambalaya recipe.
Some members of our family like hot spicy recipes and some of us like the spiciness without the heat. So the recipe for Jambalaya that I’m sharing with you today is middle of the road spicy that you can serve if your family has a mix of tastes like mine does.
For those in the family who want a bit more heat, there’s always a bottle of hot sauce on the table. For those who need to cut the heat a bit further, there’s sour cream to top the Jambalaya with.
In addition to the spices, the type of sausage you choose will determine the level of heat in the final recipe. Traditionally andouille sausage is used but if you want a really mild version, use something like a country sausage. When making this recipe, I wasn’t able to find andouille sausage so I substituted with chorizo sausage.
How to Make Jambalaya
- 1 to 1 ½ lb country sausage
- 20 to 30 medium sized shrimp, peeled
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- ½ green pepper, diced
- 1 tbsp minced garlic (if you don’t have minced garlic, use 1 tsp garlic powder)
- 2 – 6 oz cans tomato paste
- 4 c beef broth
- 1 – 14 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp sweet basil
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp white pepper (if you don’t have white pepper, double amount of black pepper),
- ½ tsp cayenne.
- 1 tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 ½ c long grain rice
Chop the onion, celery and peppers. This is what’s known as mirepoix in Cajun and Creole cuisine. It’s also known as the “holy trinity.”
I used fresh peppers but if you have some chopped and ready in the freezer feel free to use those.
Add the mirepoix to a heavy stock pot with a bit of some kind of fat. Bacon fat works well for this recipe.
I made the Jambalaya in my ceramic coated cast iron Dutch oven.
While the mirepoix is cooking, slice the sausage meat.
Once the onions are translucent and the celery and pepper cooked, add the tomato sauce.
Cook on a medium low heat until the tomato sauce has browned a bit.
What you’re doing here is allowing the sugar in the tomato paste to start to caramelize. This deepens the flavour and the colour but you do have to stir it constantly over medium heat so that it doesn’t burn. It will take a few minutes until the tomato paste turns a darker red colour.
Stir occasionally to keep the mixture from burning. In the meantime, measure out your spices.
When the tomato and mirepoix mixture has turned that darker red, add the spices and stir them in. Adding them at this point will prevent them from floating to the top once the liquid is added.
Stir in the beef broth, canned tomatoes and Worchestershire sauce.
Add the sausage and rice. Give everything another good stir.
Cook over very low heat until the rice is cooked. If the Jambalaya thickens too much before the rice is done, simply add a 1/4 cup or so more water at a time.
This may take up to an hour. Don’t try to cook it too fast or over higher heat. The rice with stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
10 to 15 minutes before you’re ready to serve dinner, add the shrimp.
When the shrimp turn pink, the Jambalaya is ready.
I like to serve Jambalaya with a green salad and either homemade or good quality bread from a local bakery.
Doesn’t that look delicious!
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Please note: This recipe was originally published on Super Mom – No Cape! in March 2009. It has been completely updated with new photos and recipe instructions.
