Smoked Chicken, Pork & Andouille Jambalaya

Apr 28 2016

I love Cajun and Creole style foods but I can’t remember the last time I made Jambalaya. There are a lot of versions out there to try. It is usually made with seafood, chicken or pork; or any combination of these. The other common additions are onions, garlic, sweet peppers, celery, parsley, rice and some stock and that is usually chicken stock.

I found a recipe I liked from Chef John Folse, a well-known Louisiana Chef. It was for a chicken, pork and Andouille Jambalaya. My butcher just lately started making fresh Andouille sausage. It is probably not as hot as a Louisiana style but better than any store bought I can get around here; and it is fresh without all the preservatives.

I bought a package of chicken thighs; Miller Brothers Amish chicken from IN. I got 4 bone in CS ribs, pork butt, from my butcher. I had a pound of the Andouille froze that I forgot to thaw out. I decided to smoke all the meat first for the Jambalaya to give it a flavor boost.

Wednesday before I did chicken stacks for supper I smoked the meat for my Jambalaya. I seasoned the CS ribs and chicken thighs with some Penzey’s Cajun seasoning. I got them along with the frozen Andouille on the Traeger at 195 deg. for an hour and then went to 225 the last hour. The Andouille was done in about 1 ½ hours and the chicken and pork went to 2 hours. After cooling they all went in plastic bags and in the fridge overnight.

My wife went on a bus trip today so it was just me and the dog! After lunch I went through Sandman’s carry out and got some good beer! You need beer to cook!  I put a heaping cup of Uncle Ben’s rice in my rice cooker to use; when it was done it went in the fridge. I cut up the Andouille, pork and chicken. I removed the skin from 3 of the breasts and nuked it in the microwave until crisp to add it too. I just used two of the CS ribs and some flap meat from ribs I had cooked for the pork.

I wanted to reduce the recipe to about ¾ so I made some adjustments. I cooked it in my 5 quart CI Dutch oven on my glass top stove. By the time I had the rice done and the meat prepped it was 2:30 and time for my daily call to my 94 yr. old mother.

After I talked to Mom I prepped all my veggies and started to cook. First up was browning the pork in a ¼ cup of oil, I used grape seed oil, and then adding the chicken and Andouille sausage. I removed most of the grease and then started adding the veggies and cooking per recipe.

All in and on the last half hour with the lid on; I knew it was going to come out a little wetter than it should so the last 15 minutes I removed the lid to cook down some. It was a little wetter than most Jambalayas I have seen. I had a hard roll and toasted it and topped with butter.

I think it was about 6:30 when I finished and had a big bowl of the Jambalaya. I added some Cholula hot sauce and that was delicious if I do say so myself.

Next time I would cook 1 ½ cups of rice to use along with the quart of chicken stock I used; but then after the leftovers set in the fridge overnight the rice will soak up most of the liquid.

Click Here for link to recipe

Smoking the meat

Andouille sliced

Pork cut up

Chicken shredded

The veggies

Browning the pork

Chicken and Andouille added

Onions, garlic, celery and peppers added

Chicken stock added

Mushrooms, green onions and parsley added

Rice added

Simmered 30 min. ready to serve

My supper