Jamby Queen Kills

Who died and made me the Jambalaya Queen? Seriously, I’d like to know.  I have never been to New Orleans, don’t particularly care for crawfish and for dang sure don’t want it in a pie—oh, and I’ve never eaten file` gumbo. (Side note: for some crazy reason I do know that file` is made from the ground leaves of the sassafras tree, but what’s a sassafras tree?) Just because I can sing the chorus to Jambalaya and the only other famous Cajun song there is (Diggy Liggy Lo) should not qualify me to make kick ass jambalaya…but for some reason, I do.

Browning the Andouille sausage

      The first time I made it I read through about five recipes, closed the books and just winged it. I'm happy to report it didn’t suck. 

     Over the years my jambalaya reputation has preceded me and I’m still not sure what my secret is. Twice, The Big Guy and I have won tailgate party competitions doing Cajun cuisine.  For his part, he put on a white chefs jacket and stood over a pot of boiling peanut oil and watched a bird turn black while swigging Crown and ginger. I did the other stuff…read: EVERYTHING!  Besides the jamby, we (read: I) cooked up some deep fried alligator tail (tastes like chicken), sweet potato biscuits and pecan praline cheesecake. If that wasn't enough to guarantee us a win, we stoned the judges and voting public with Swamp Water.  Looked like anti-freeze, tasted like…hmmm…anti-freeze. Yeah we killed em!  But that's another deposition, ummm, I mean story. 

Simmering the tomatos, bay leaves and seasonings

     Anyhow, so last Thanksgiving I  made a batch—if you want to call it that, and it got totally out of control on me. By the time I had the whole thing put together it weighed about one hundred and forty pounds and filled up my big turkey roaster pan, which is about the size of a FEMA trailer and holds the equivalent of a 2.5 kids and a crack whore. 
     Fast forward:  The Big Guy wanted jambalaya on the 4th of July, which was when we  were having a BBQ for about 30 people.  I wasn’t sure I could make that small of a batch, but decided to write down the recipe as I was making it.  And yesssss, it killed!  Somebody must have died and made me Jamby Queen.   

The rice & shrimp join the party

 Go the the "Sides" tab at the top of this page to view my Killer Jambalaya