Sausage & Pork Jambalaya
Sausage and pork jambalaya: authentic Cajun one-pot rice cooked with pork shoulder, smoked sausage, onions, and shallots. The real-deal Louisiana method with a crusty bottom and deeply spiced broth.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
35 minREADY
1 hrsCajun Sausage and Pork Jambalaya
This sausage and pork jambalaya is built the way Louisiana home cooks actually make it, which means it’s different from every jambalaya mix you’ve opened. The secret is a deeply rendered pork and sausage base, a careful skim of rendered fat, and rice that gets dumped in all at once and steamed under cover to absorb every drop of spiced broth.
Browning the pork shoulder first and then adding smoked sausage builds the foundational flavor. That rendered fat and the fond at the bottom of the pot is jambalaya’s soul. The recipe’s careful step of skimming the grease, reserving it, and replacing the volume with water is old-school Cajun technique. You lose the excess fat but keep the flavor.
Seasoning harder and spicier than you want the finished product is the key move. Rice is an absorbent blank canvas. Whatever you season the broth with is diluted by a factor of three once the rice soaks it up.
The rice cooking is the make-or-break step. Stir vigorously while the broth is still loose, then cover and leave the rice alone to steam. Lifting the lid too often releases steam and makes the rice uneven. Wipe the lid dry each time to keep water from dripping back and creating gummy spots.
Pro Tips
- Use long-grain white rice, not converted or brown; converted rice resists absorbing the broth flavor and brown rice takes too long.
- Andouille sausage is the traditional choice; its smoky garlic heat defines the dish. Kielbasa works in a pinch.
- A tablespoon of Kitchen Bouquet is a genuine Cajun trick for that deep brown color; no shame in using it.
- The finished jambalaya should have a slightly crusty bottom layer called “gratin"; it’s the best part.
Variations
- Add diced green bell pepper and celery with the onion to hit the full Cajun holy trinity.
- Stir in shrimp during the last 3 minutes of cooking for surf-and-turf jambalaya.
- Finish with sliced scallions and a dash of Tabasco or Crystal hot sauce at the table for Louisiana authenticity.
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the pork in a large pot with a small amount of water on the bottom to prevent sticking.
Cover, stir occasionally.
Add Onions, and continue to sauté. When onions are transparent, add sausage, and continue to sauté.
When the meats are cooked, add the brown gravy and cook a few more minutes.
Allow the water to heat, then turn off the heat and cover.
Allow the grease to rise to the top.
Skim off the grease with a large spoon.
Conserve the grease. After skimming the grease, add an amount of water equal to the amount of grease to replace the liquid lost.
Bring to almost boiling, and add your seasonings.
You can use whatever seasonings you want, but the key is that it should be saltier and hotter now than you want the finished product.
Heat the spices a few minutes, and taste.
Add more spices until you are happy with the outcome.
At this point you can add the shallots.
One optional step is to add a small amount of Kitchen Bouquet to give the Jambalaya a rich brown color.
Bring to a rolling boil.
Add the rice all at once and stir.
Continue with high heat and stirring often until the mixture becomes milky with the rice.
Reduce the heat slightly, and cover.
Now you only want to open and stir the rice occasionally, as the rice is steaming.
When removing the cover, do not allow the water to drip back into the pot.
Wipe the lid before returning the lid to the pot.
Stir quickly, but be sure to scrape the bottom to prevent sticking.
This is really the tricky part.
As the liquid drys up, you need to reduce the heat even further and allow the rice to finish steaming.
Stir every few minutes, scraping bottom.
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