Call it serendipity or call it dumb luck. When I stumbled across this recipe I was elated! I got it from my Aunt Nellie. My Aunt Nellie got the recipe from our great Aunt John. And, the one and I mean ONLY dish that Nellie could rock was jambalaya. She was never the greatest in the kitchen (my mom and Aunt Joe were the kitchen magicians), but she thought she was a beast in the kitchen and nobody ever told her she wasn’t because she was also kind of a bully.  My Aunt Nellie, who my older sister and I would visit in New Jersey in the summer when we were kids, lived with our great Aunt John, my granddaddy Bill’s older sister, from the age of 12 until she got married and moved to New Jersey at age 25.

Neither me nor my brothers and sisters ever set eyes on Aunt John. We don’t even know why she was named John but it was her given name. Aunt John was a young woman when she moved to New Orleans. We figured it was because she needed to get out of the Georgia woods or maybe she was run out of Georgia seeing that everyone that remembered her said she was a scoundrel but no one ever said what she did outside of stealing land from my granddaddy.

At one point, Aunt John attempted to open a restaurant with her first husband. Evil tendencies and family drama aside, a slamming pot of jambalaya was the one thing my Aunt Nellie learned from Aunt John and although now Aunt Nellie’s health is failing a bit, she was still able to pass that recipe along.  

Jambalaya is one of my all time favorite dishes. We never visited Louisiana and being born in the north, we never had it as kids except during our visits to Jersey. As great a cook as my mom was, she never cooked it and I never had it again until I was grown and then, only in restaurants. 

Now just let me say no one, not Aunt John or anybody else has a lock on the original jambalaya.  So, you’re not going to travel to the French Quarter of New Orleans or deep into the bayou and stumble across the old dude that created it, although you might find some old dude that says he did. What you will find are an endless number of jambalaya recipes, same with gumbo or etouffee. And just like me of course, everyone thinks theirs is the best.

Aunt John’s jambalaya is the creole version or red jambalaya. The Cajun version doesn’t have tomatoes but, just about anything that could have had a mother can be added; duck, bear, alligator; it’s all fair game. I think I prefer the creole version that I’m used to. It is a spicy, hearty dish with shrimp, chicken, andouille sausage with deep, soulful flavor.  Make it as spicy as you want. Aunt John’s was really spicy; as spicy as she was I guess. I had to tone it down. If you really like jambalaya though, you’ll love this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 TBSP olive oil
2 TSP salted butter
1 lb chicken, white and dark meat cut in small chunks
½ lb sliced andouille sausage
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 small onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, roasted and smashed
6-8 roma tomatoes, diced
1 16 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup fish stock
1 cup rice
2 TBSP creole seasoning
2 bay leaves
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP hot sauce
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne
½ tsp pepper
parsley for garnish

Heat 1 TBSP olive oil and 1 TBSP butter in hot heavy bottom pan or  dutch oven. Season chicken in 1 TBSP of creole seasoning and brown over medium high heat. Add andouille sausage and cook about 4-5 minutes  until browned. 

Add to pan onions, celery, green pepper and roasted garlic and cook until transparent.

Combine diced tomatoes, rice, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, 1 TBSP creole seasoning, salt and pepper and stir.  Add fish stock, chicken stock, tomato paste and bay leaves. Bring pot to a boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for 10 minutes.  

Add shrimp and continue to simmer for an additional 10 minutes or until rice is fully cooked.

Garnish with parsley.