Makes 10 servings (serving a crowd?)
- ¼ lb bacon, cut into 1 inch strips
- 1 lb Andouille sausage, cut into ¼-½ inch slices
- approximately ¼ cup peanut oil
- 2 lb chicken thighs, skinned, boned, defatted, and cut into 1 inch chunks (about 20oz if pretrimmed)
- 12 oz onions, chopped
- 1 large (12 oz) bell pepper, chopped
- 1 lb celery, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 Tablespoons Cajun spice (see notes)
- 2 Tablespoons sharp paprika
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 4 cups parboiled rice (see notes)
- 9 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 lb tomatoes, chopped (canned ok)
- 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 cup chopped scallion tops
Special equipment
- a very large (10 quart) dutch oven
Method
- This dish is assembled quickly, so it’s important to have your ingredients prepared. Makes sure all your meats and vegetables are properly chopped and ready to go. The onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic can be kept in the same bowl, and the dry spices can be reserved in another.
Over medium high heat, brown the bacon and the sausage in 2 Tablespoons of the peanut oil, stirring often to prevent burning. When they’ve lightly browned, add in the poultry bits and stir.
When the poultry has begun to brown, add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, spices and Worcestershire. Keep stirring until the onions have begun to sweat. If your sausage is particularly lean, you may need to add another two Tablespoons of peanut oil.
Add the rice and toss to coat each grain with some grease. This will help prevent the grains from sticking together. Add broth, tomatoes and shrimp, and bring to a boil. If you cover the pot, it will quicken the process, but you’ll want to open it up, check on it, and stir occasionally. Once it has come to a boil, reduce the heat to the minimum to keep it simmering, then cook for 15 minutes. Pull it off the heat, and let the residual heat keep steaming the rice for 5-8 minutes.
Stir and test the rice. If it needs a few more minutes, let it sit; else serve immediately. Scatter scallion greens on top of each plate’s mound.
Notes
- Like our Cassoulet, this recipe was engineered for a cauldron-sized recipe. Though not documented in this revision, because you have more control of the heat on a stovetop than atop a wood fire, you could pace out the assembly of your ingredients.
If you don’t already have a personal favorite commercial Cajun spicing like Tony Chachere’s, Slap Ya Mama, Cajun Chef Ryan’s, REX, Penzey’s, you can use: ↩
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
Why parboiled rice instead of long grain white rice? Parboiled has a slightly longer cooking time and will give you some leeway in adjusting the timing. Because the husks are steamed into the grains, it’s also more nutritious then white rice (although less than brown rice), but that’s not why we use it here.↩
Suggestions
- You can kick up the spicing by substituting cayenne for the pepper flakes, which some samplers preferred, but you risk spicing it beyond the reach of some patrons. If you keep the dish at the levels described here, you’ll satisify everyone.
By special request, we’ve come up with a porkless variation (the shrimp prevents it from being Kosher), and a vegan one. Both are of course gluten-free.
