I confess I’ve never made it but have had it (though long ago). A quick check online gave me this, among many. These flavors sound good to me, but it could be ”housewifey,” too.

https://www.thekitchn.com/jambalaya-recipe-23153063

ETA - Maybe read the reviews. Sounds like it could require more liquid.

This may not be at all what you are looking for, it contains only shrimp as the protein, but other meats can be added if you wish. It comes from the Camillia Bean company, I signed up for regular emails because I grew all those pounds of beans, LOL.

Anyway, this one is a little time consuming and a tiny bit spicy, but good, comes from the Mosquito Supper Club in New Orleans, apparently.

Mosquito Supper Club Shrimp Jambalaya :: Recipes :: Camellia Brand

Annie

What does "housewifey" mean? Most jambalayas are house, with (g)mama's being the best. In my case, that's me- my mom is not a fan of creole or cajun food.

But you want to make sure you layer your flavors. Take time to toss your sausage and chicken in seasonings. Yes, andouille is already seasoned, but you are layering the seasoning in the fat. If you have bacon grease on hand, use it instead of oil for your cooking fat. Cook off your sausage and remove, then cook your chicken and remove. You are looking to get the drippings out and lock the juicy seasoning in. Then your trinity- green peppers, onion, celery. Garlic comes after, to kiss the veggies and not get bitter. Then your tomatoes, adding in more seasonings, worstershire, your meats. Simmer low and slow to let them mingle. If you are adding in okra, you add it with the meats. I like to use file powder sometimes instead since we aren't huge on okra. After your base is nice, add in rice and stock- I tend to do chicken most often, but have used turkey, corn, and seafood stocks. Your shrimp goes in at the end, just long enought to cook them if raw, or heat them if already cooked. Using raw is better IMO.

You can kick in alligator meat, crawfish, tasso (a spicy smoked ham), or firm white fish if you like. Rabbit and hunters sausages can be used too. For the chicken I prefer to use thigh meat, but you can use breast if you really don't like dark meat. If you cook a spring turkey or ham, you can add that in.

You can use premade cajun seasoning- just watch out for the salt because a lot of companies use it. You can make your own cajun mix if you like. I tend to add hot sauce on the table instead of in the jambalaya, but you can add it to your pot. I also tend to have a bowl of green onions and some chopped cilantro and/or parsley on the table to serve.

Ratios of stuff can depend. A meat lover is going to use more meat. You can use beans instead of meat- I like red beans, black beans, or big ole butter beans if I do this. Fold in some summer squash instead of shrimp. Eggplant or cubed winter squash can be good add-in's too.

I use Justin Wilson's recipe, but I increase the amount of bell pepper and add a jalapeño instead of cayenne.

Here's a video of him making it:

You want shrimp or crawfish? All jambalaya depends on the roux. A roux is one part oil to one part flour. It must be browned slowly on medium low heat until the color of a dirty copper penny. Stirring constantly with a wisk. It will take about 30 minutes.

I used to use all bacon drippings. Sometimes I use half bacon and half vegetable oil. One cup oil and one cup plain flour.

Then add the holy trinity, celery, onions, and bellpepper. Add spices. Add chicken or shrimp stock. Add seafood at the last. I will try to find a recipe.

ETA: Yoy can also make chicken.

Lars, that sounds right to me. I had a co-worker who used to bring gumbo to pot lucks at work to serve over rice. The jambalaya I remember had rice cooked in it. My friend’s gumbo didn’t appeal to me, but the jambalaya was good, as I recall.

Wow…Justin Wilson…long time ago!

I've looked in on this thread a few times (not accomplishing anything today--I have the yawns) with nothing to contribute, having eaten good jambalaya but never made any at all--but every time I start scrolling I hear "...crawfish pie, filé gumbo..." Danged earworms!

Both have a roux Lars. And yes it is served over rice. Gumbo has more liquid and okra, Jambayala is thicker. I never cook the rice in either. It is always cooked separate. I may live in north AL now, but grew up on the coast near Mobile.

@plllog, me too! 😂

Yeah, gumbo starts with a roux. I've had and made a lot of jambalaya, but never seen it with roux or without the rice cooked in it. But as I said previous, jambalaya is one of those house dishes, I guess some houses make and serve it like a gumbo. I'd probably try it that way if it was served to me like that... but I'm not as fond of gumbo because of the okra requirement in it. If I want to skip okra in jambalaya I can, but you can't escape okra in a dish called okra, lol.

A good shrimp or mushroom etouffe now... that is some roux+trinity+ stock and goodies that I will gladly take served over rice. I think I like the blonde roux of an etouffe more than the darker roux of a gumbo.

A quick online check pulled up this, but Sherry’s post sounds like there can be a roux for both. The following does say ”…usually doesn’t include a roux…” I was clueless except regarding okra…no thanks.

What is the difference between gumbo and jambalaya?

The two main differences between gumbo and jambalaya are the rice and the roux: Gumbo starts with a roux and is almost universally served over rice (but not too much rice that it detracts from the gumbo). Jambalaya usually doesn’t include a roux and the rice is cooked with the rest of the ingredients (instead of being an accompaniment).

The Rice

According to Johnson, the difference between gumbo and jambalaya boils down to this: “It all depends on how you treat the rice. Gumbo is somewhere between a stew or soup . . . and it’s almost universally served over a bit of cooked rice. Jambalaya is different; more like a paella. A composed rice dish where everything is cooked together. The broth is used to cook the rice.”

I wonder why your husband no longer thinks the recipe is as good as it once was? Is it possible that you've evolved it over the years....maybe cutting down the salt and using brown rice instead of white etc etc etc???? Just curious. As we get older, we tend to try and make thing healthier but then we sacrifice the taste that it once had.

BTW Lars, I loved Justin Wilson. My Mom and I used to watch it together when I was a kid. I do believe that he thought me how to cook! :)

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen is our goto for cajun food, that book has 4 jambalaya recipes - we have made the Chicken and Seafood Jambalaya back in the day !

I can photo the recipes if you like, but they seem to be readily available via google . I see he used margarine, so that would need to be updated :)

@arkansas girl, often as people age, their taste buds become dull and so there needs to be a stronger flavour to compensate.

"I wonder why your husband no longer thinks the recipe is as good as it once was? Is it possible that you've evolved it over the years....maybe cutting down the salt and using brown rice instead of white etc etc etc???? "

I think it's because his palate has evolved over the years.

I'll check out some of these links. The recipe I have has tomato in it. What I mean by "housewifey" is the 1990's Betty Crocker grocery store checkout booklets geared toward housewifes -- recipes with authentic-sounding names that were changed maybe not to a great degree, but enough to make them palatable to the masses with readily-available ingredients. Not to knock grocery store magazines, though -- I loved Fine Cooking and have gotten many terrific recipes from that magazine.

Beesneeds: Please post the mushroom etouffe recipe!

I know you asked for an authentic recipe but I have made this easy version many times so I can recommend this one.

Cheatin' Jambalaya
Makes 4 to 6 servings

Sara Moulton
Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Total preparation time: 15 minutes

In its authentic form this Cajun specialty is so wonderful that Hank Williams wrote a love song to it half a century ago. My version is much simpler than the classic. It does indeed boast many of the elements of the traditional jambalaya, but it's mainly a great way to use leftover rice – especially the kind left over from Chinese takeout. Of course, this recipe is equally delicious using freshly cooked Simple Boiled Rice, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, page 40.

1 cup sliced onion (from the salad bar)
1 cup sliced red bell pepper (from the salad bar)
1 cup sliced green bell pepper (from the salad bar)
1 cup sliced celery (from the salad bar)
1-pound slice fully cooked ham (about 1 1/4 pounds if it has fat and bone)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon packaged Creole or Cajun spice mix (see Tips)
1 cup canned chicken broth or Chicken Stock (see Episode 103)
2 cups cooked long-grain white rice
One 10-ounce package frozen corn
1/2 16-ounce jar hot pickled okra, optional garnish

If the onion, bell pepper, and celery are in large pieces, cut them into 1-inch pieces. Cut the ham into 1-inch pieces. Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat until hot. Reduce the heat to medium; add the vegetables and ham to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the flour and seasoning until vegetables are completely coated. Add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the rice and corn; cook until hot. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with pickled okra, if desired.

I don't really have a recipe. I just make it. Equal parts flour and fat, but you can get a bit more fat in there if you like it- I like to use bacon or porchetta grease. It's originally supposed to be butter because French, and I do use butter sometimes. But I like a fat with more porky flavor to it. I like to keep it to a blonde roux. Some folks like to go brown or even into noir with it. You do need to push it past white at least to develop toasty flavor in the flour. The further you cook your roux, the less thickening power it has. So if you like a darker roux, you may need to make more of it to start than you would a blonde roux.

The trinity- sweet pepper, celery, onion in equal parts. I like to ratio it so the mushrooms (or seafood) is double to triple the amount of trinity. Season your trinity. Cook it gently in the roux.

The mushrooms. I like to use meatier ones, like bellas, shitake, and oyster. A more typical etouffe will have you add them (or the seafood) to the latter part of the simmer to cook. I like to dry saute them past their liquid yield and back to hard au sec as the first thing I do. Remove the cooked mushrooms from the pan. Then start the roux. The mushroom fond flavors and darkens the roux a lot. But the mushroooms are concentrated flavorful and have seasoned the roux. Very fine mushrooms like enoki can be folded in later in the simmer like seafood would be.

Sooo.. there is a split here. Either we go one way and do the roux with stock to make the sauce for the mushrooms (or seafood). Or we add in tomatoes instead of stock and let it sauce up that way for our mushrooms (or seafood) to swim in. Both ways are good. Or.... with the tomato sauce if you go more creole with the seasonings, you can add in shrimp and veggies, and end up with shrimp creole.

If your sauce is more of a soup than a gravy... you need to thicken it up a bit. Use a beurre manie. Toast up a tablespoon or two of flour in a small pan. Let cool and knead with equal amount of butter to make a paste of the two. Pinch off bits of it and stir into the sauce. If you like to use a toasted roux a lot, you can make this and freeze it. Pull a puck and use it in the pan like you would a regular roux, or use it in it's "raw" form as a finishing thickener.

The difference came to me last night, my best thinking, lol.

Gumbo is a soup, Jambalaya is a stew, and Ettoffee is a sauce.

For me, gumbo has okra, filet, and several different kinds of seafood. Jambalaya has no okra and usually just one protein. Ettoffee is thick, but is more of a sauce or gravy and is just one protein, with no okra. All are served over white rice.

All have a roux, tomatoes, and the holy trinity. I use bay leaves, thyme, basil, oregano, and cayenne pepper.

I have cut out recipes, but do not use them. I just cook, like I just cook fried chicken with no recipe.

ETA: The oil to flour ratio is always one to one.

I think it should be noted that there are some differences in Creole vs Cajun versions of these foods. Creole tends to be more tomato driven, Cajun tends to be more stock driven. Creole tends to use butter more often as it's fat, Cajun tends more to oil or animal fats. Cajun seasonings tend to be pepper forward, Creole seasonings tend to add in more herbs to the pepper. Cajun tends to be a bit more file powder forward for thickening, Creole tends to use less as a flavoring agent more than it's thickening use. There's a lot of overlap and mingling of the two. Especially with house dishes.

If you have sasafrass growing in your yard, you can make your own file powder. It's ground sasafrass leaves. Native Americans were using it and introduced it to the newcomers.

If you really love gumbo, you can make the original- which is just stewed okra, no other thickeners like roux or file powder needed. So thick you can scoop it up with a bit of bread.

My maternal grandfather could have been Justin Wilson’s cousin. He looked just like him, although he did not talk like him. He was NO relation. He did not cook, but my grandmother did. I grew up eating all this, but no crawfish, I suspect she did not think it was worth cooking, lol. We always had shrimp, oysters, blue crab, and whatever fish available.

Thank-you for this lively discussion! None of these dishes are part of my cultural heritage, but we had a large number of people who had migated here from New Orleans when I was young, and they made such good food! My experience was more like what Beesneeds describes, especially with the Creole (more of them) and Cajun (some of them)—I'd experienced those differences, but it makes so much more sense that they were from different backgrounds! I've never had the tomato based kinds. I also really appreciate Sherry's home cooking versions, and how her particular heritage brings forth these dishes.

Interesting to me is the single protein idea. I've had dishes called jambalaya that did also remind me of paella, but without the socarrat, which had seafood, chicken and sausage. The spices were different from Spanish, either going spicy (not necessarily hot) or herby (now I understand why). I wonder if the mixed proteins were a use what you have thing or a fancy it up for company thing, or a different way of doing things in different families, or influenced by Spanish heritage… Again, thank-you for the points of discussion!

Mixed proteins were to stretch the food to feed however many showed up. If you had a crab or two, a few shrimp, and a few pieces of fish, they were thrown in. Maybe you had some sausage from last night and some leftover chicken, it all went in the pot.

Stretch it with vegetables and rice, well you could feed an army!

It sounds good but I have no experience eating the real thing. We walked to the creek to catch crawdads when I was a kid, but we never ate them. :)