Jambalaya

Ingredients

• 500 g boneless chicken thighs, in chunks
• 250 g andouille or cooking chorizo, sliced
• 300 g raw prawns
• 400 g long grain rice
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 3 celery sticks, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tbsp cajun seasoning
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 800 ml chicken stock
• 3 bay leaves
• 6 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Render the sausage

   Brown the andouille in a wide heavy pan and lift it out, leaving the fat behind.

   8 min

2. Brown the chicken

   Season and brown the chicken in that fat, then set aside with the sausage.

   10 min

3. The trinity

   Cook the onion, pepper and celery in the fat until soft and browning at the edges, then add the garlic. Onion, green pepper and celery in roughly 2:1:1 is the Cajun holy trinity, and it is the base of the dish.

   12 min

4. Toast the rice

   Stir in the cajun seasoning and the rice and toast for two minutes, then add the tomatoes, stock and bay. This is Creole jambalaya, with tomato; the Cajun version leaves it out and browns everything harder instead.

5. Simmer without stirring

   Return the chicken and sausage, bring to a boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 25 minutes without stirring. Stirring releases starch and turns jambalaya into risotto.

   25 min

6. Prawns at the end

   Scatter the prawns over the surface, replace the lid and give it 5 minutes off the heat — they cook through in the trapped steam. Fork through with the spring onions.

   5 min