I'd make it in a large fry pan until you get to the part about "pour into a large roasting pan"....then I'd put it in the covered roaster.
for the sake of a dirty fry pan.....don't mess with what you know.
Linda C PS....do you really cook the pre cooked shrimp for an hour and a half????

Cajun Jambalaya expert here.........

Use "extra long" grain regular white rice if you can find it. Otherwise long grain is fine. (Parboiled rice will give it an off flavor, medium and short grain rice will come out sticky or gummy.) Cook as directed above then put into the covered roaster that is already preheated to 350. Above recipe is fine and will work in your roaster.

FYI, for small batches of Jambalaya like this one, I cook mine in a cast iron or cast aluminum (Magnalite) dutch oven or roaster. Cook as directed above; however, once you add the water.......continue to cook it on top of the stove using a medium high heat and "with stirring" every few minutes (no stirring will not make it get gummy) until the water level gets even with the top of the rice. Add your defrosted shrimp at this time. Then place the pot in your preheated kitchen oven, cover (no foil needed) and bake for 1 1/2 hours with a stir after 45 minutes. Rice will come out perfect every time..... I guaranteeee cher.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Caliloo, make sure you do a burn off of your roaster before doing any cooking in it. You sure don't want your Jambalaya ruined from any fumes from a new roaster. And you got a good deal on your roaster too.

Thansk Bryansda, I'm not sure I would have thought of that.

Linda, it is the only recipe I could find that had similar ingredients to the one I use (and haven't typed up yet) so I copied and pasted without reading completely. No, I add the pre-cooked shrimp about 5 minutes before I serve it to heat through.

Thanks Dan - Great advice! I will look for the extra long grain rice.

Alexa

The electric roaster *is* an oven so for that matter you could just put your pot in there and cook it just like in an oven. The advantage is that you can put the food into the electric roaster where you couldn't in a conventional oven.

You could saute and brown in the electric roaster too but using the stove would be more efficient IMO. Generally electric roasters will have vents in the lid so for a tight seal that most jambalaya recipes want, you may want to top the cookwell with foil or plug the vent holes.

Your instruction book should cover the burn off on it. One of mine took a long time to get rid of the smell, the other took a short time. Do this outside! Sometimes the fumes can be very repulsive. I'd do it first without the cookwell in the unit. Once the smell is gone put the cookwell in and give it a good heating up. Also, check the instructions but you probably should give the cookwell a coating of oil to season it.

Enjoy your electric roaster. They're fabulous appliances. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would buy a crockpot these days. It's like buying a washboard to wash clothes AFAIC.

I love mine too, I have the 18 quart and the 6 quart, and I do everything in mine that I do in the oven, even Boston Brown Bread and I've baked brownies in mine when my oven was on the fritz.

I roast the bones and vegetables for stock right in the roaster and then add the water and seasonings and let it go, everything done in one pot. I've posted pictures of roast chicken on WFD and the skin was as brown and crispy as I get in the oven. And mine has vents, but you can close them.

However, as cynic mentioned, it may be more efficient to do the browning on the stovetop. Not necessary, but perhaps quicker.

And, as cynic has suggested before, the small ones make great crockpots, my 6 quart even has a temperature setting for "slow cooking".

I use the big one several times per year and I'll roast the prime rib in it tomorrow. The small one gets used at least a couple of times a week, and Elery liked it so much he bought one for his house. Far more efficient than turning on the oven for roasting one small chicken for myself, or baking a small amount of beans all day.

I also do huge batches of apple butter and tomato sauce in mine for canning, just leave the lid ajar so that it cooks down, and because they heat up the sides too, you don't have the scorching issue or the spattering that I have on top of the stove.

Enjoy it, Alexa, I love mine.

Annie

I had seen the "Roaster Oven" discussions before on this forum and ended up buying both a 6 quart and a 12 quart Nesco convection roaster. The 12 quart is going to the camp.....the other in my kitchen. Roast chicken and Cornish hens come out so juicy in these ovens. And that convection fan helps get that skin extra crispy. I cook my birds sitting on an oval shaped aluminum steak plate and use a silicon tipped pizza pan gripper to remove from the hot oven. These roasters are much more versatile than a crock pot.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Thansk so much for all the info, I will be unpacking it tomorrow and investigating ffurther. It sounds like I made a good investment. It also sounds like it will be great when it is too hot to cook and I can plug it in outside to avoid heating up the kitchen any further.

You all are awesome and I really appreciate all the advice!

Alexa