Ah, Tahoe. What’s not to love about towering Ponderosa pine trees, a crunchy carpet of needles and Paul Bunyan-esque pinecones, a blue sky, and an emerald lake? Add to that a second-story balcony in a condo we were offered for free, and two weeks to dream, read, pray, think and sleep … now that’s a vacation.
Of course I brought my crock pot. That’s what I do. Call me cheap, but I just can’t bear to eat out all day long when I know how easy it is (and how much more affordable) to just pop something in the crock pot once every day or two.
So far on this trip, I’ve made Kalua Pig, which we had over rice, and Beef Stroganoff, which we had last night with our good friends, Pat and Kelly Propster (who were kind enough to drive all the way up from Carson City just to have dinner with us, watch the election results, and then pray like crazy. 😀 )
I’m planning to make Chili tomorrow, since the snow is expected to start falling then … Woo hooooooo!
And I’m thinking that at some point before we turn our car around and head back for home, I’m going to have to make a pot of this jambalaya. We only just had it two weeks ago, but it’s just too good to go in the back of the rotation.
If you’ve never tried making jambalaya in the crock pot, give this a go. It couldn’t be easier. (Note: where you see an “OR” is a place where I had to substitute something I had for something I didn’t. I usually prefer the item to the left of the “OR,” but this was still very good with the items to the right of the “OR.” 🙂
Crock Pot Jambalaya
- 4 chicken breasts, cut in bite-sized pieces
- 1 lb andouille sausage, cut in chunks, OR 24 pre-cooked jalapeno turkey meatballs
- 56 oz diced tomatoes
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 2 cups chopped red/green peppers OR mild chili peppers
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 heaping TBSP Cajun seasoning (I use Tony Chechere’s)
- 1 heaping TBSP dried oregano
- 2 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- salt: 1 tsp if using andouille sausage, 2 tsp if using turkey meatballs
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp Tabasco
- 4 bay leaves
- 1-2 lbs fully cooked, medium-sized shrimp
- 2 cups rice, uncooked
Put all ingredients EXCEPT shrimp in crock pot. Stir, cover, and cook on low for 7 hours or high for 4 hours.
See if the bandaid-ed boy needs a story.
At end of cooking time, remove 1-2 cups of excess liquid from crock pot (saving to cook rice) and add the shrimp to the crock pot. Cover and cook 30 minutes to heat shrimp.
Meanwhile, using the liquid from the jambalaya to replace equal parts water, cook the rice.
Serve jambalaya over rice.
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