Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

1/2 lb smoked pork sausage
3 chicken breasts cut in 1 inch pieces
1 diced yellow onion
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 pinch dried thyme
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 dashes crushed red pepper flakes
3 cups chicken stock (must be stock not broth!!)
1 1/2 cup long grain white rice
1 tsp dried parsley

In a large pot, brown the sausage then add the chicken breast pieces. Brown and scrape meat from the bottom of the pot to prevent sticking & burning.

Add the diced onion and garlic, and saute for approximately 15 mins. Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan to remove "graton" which is where the jambalaya gets it's colour from.

Add the thyme, basil, pepper, and red pepper flakes and simmer for 10 min over low heat to sweat the spices, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Make sure to keep scraping the bottom of the pan to pick up more "graton"!

Add the rice and bring mixture back to a boil, stirring for about 5 mins. Then add the parsley, cover and simmer over medium/low heat for 20-25 minutes. Do not lift up cover until it is done!

Yield: ~8 servings

Source: My "fondue pal" Allie! She got the recipe from her sister, thanks guys!

Thoughts: Okay, first let me say I was having brain problems today. When Allie sent me the recipe, she suggested I halve it because it makes a whole lot. What a great idea, I thought! Well me, being stupid, only halved, like, half of the ingredients haha *facepalm* I halved everything but the sausage and spices...so as you can imagine, it was very sausage heavy and very spice-infused! Oh, I also didn't use any fresh spices...I had most of them dry already, and fresh spices are so darn expensive, considering I probably wouldn't use the remainder. Someday I will have an herb garden! (That requires me learning how to garden too...) Okay, onto the final product! The taste was actually really good, considering how badly I messed it up! It was also less soupy than other jambalayas I've had, and I'm not sure if that's because the extra ingredients soaked it all up, but maybe the next time I make this I'll add a little more stock to thicken it up a bit. Final verdict: it was really good, and would probably be much better if made properly :)

Bonus Thoughts: What you see there in the background is Creamy Corn Casserole, take 2! I tried it this time with only 3 tbsp of butter and 1 egg, got it all mixed and in the oven, then realized I had forgotten the sour cream! WTH! It had only been in the oven for about 10 minutes and it was still soft enough so I took it out, mixed the sour cream in, then put it back in the oven. I think I may have cooked it for about 55 mins total, but the taking out and cooling down of the casserole with the addition of the cold sour cream probably only translated to less actual cooking time, and one of the points of re-making it was to cook it for longer. Well, it did seem a bit underdone, but by the time I cut into it the oven had already cooled down. Stay tuned for Creamy Corn Casserole, take 3 in the not so near future :)

Rating: 4