Jambalaya

Jambalaya! Crawfish Pie! Filé gumbo!

For tonight I’m gonna see my cher amie-o!

I’ve been making jambalaya for years – but it’s been years since I made it. Sounds like a riddle. I wrote the recipe up in my Aunt Rowena’s Kitchen and Garden December 1992 recipe book. I used to use this big ol’ cast iron dutch oven that I can’t even remember where I got, but it’s sitting in the bottom of a cabinet waiting to be re-seasoned, and it’s in no shape to do jambalaya. I’m taking it to the Instant Pot – can it handle the goodness? I adapted my recipe based on looking at how other people were making jambalaya (and fer the love of god, no, jambalaya does not have tomatoes!)

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Instant Pot Jambalaya

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Ingredients

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 sausage, sliced (I prefer andouille but didn't find it today)
• 1 lb pork, cubed
• 1 c ham, chopped
• 1 1/2 onions, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 c green onions, finely chopped
• 1 T finely minced garlic
• 2 c rice
• 3 t Tony Chachere's seasoning
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1/4 t thyme
• 1/8 t ground cloves
• 2 c chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 T finely minced parsley
• 1/3 c green onions, chopped

Instructions

1

Rinse the rice! This is a key part of making rice in the Instant Pot. Set it aside.

2

Using the Saute function, put oil in the pot, and saute each of the meats separately, removing from the IP and putting aside for the next one.

3

Add to the pot the onions, bell pepper, celery, garlic - Saute until onion is translucent.

4

Add rice and seasonings; stir to coat; cook for a couple minutes

5

Add meats back in, stir.

6

Add chicken broth and bay leaves

7

Be sure there's a sealing ring in the IP lid; close the lid; turn steam release handle to Sealing

8

Use the Manual button, cook at high pressure 7 minutes.

9

Quick release. (arg - I hate quick releases!!)

10

Add in the parsley and green onions, close the top to let them heat up. This is also where you'd add shrimp if you were adding shrimp, but I don't put shrimp in my jambalaya.

True story: there’s a restaurant near my work that sells a dish they call jambalaya, and once I went there and a colleague asked me to bring her an order of jambalaya WITHOUT THE RICE. I was dumbfounded. I mean, jambalaya IS A RICE DISH. It’s based on rice. That’s like asking for mac and cheese without the the mac. And guess what, this restaurant is under the very mistaken impression that jambalaya = gumbo, because they actually make a soup and pour it on rice, call it “jambalaya” and sell it WITHOUT THE RICE when asked. That’s a crying shame, but it’s in Texas so it’s not against the law like it surely must be in Louisiana.