Baked Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya Egg Rolls

Hey there—remember back in the day when I made St. Patty’s Day Egg Rolls?  Well, that little venture got a lot of gears turning, so that I just started making baked egg rolls with just about anything.  There’s the Southwest Egg Rolls, and at some point I’ll finish my post about the Sushi Egg Rolls (I forgot to take a photo of the finished product before we ate them all, which means I need to make them again!).

Really, my egg roll recipes are typically born out of necessity.  Because when you buy egg roll wrappers, there’s 20 in a pack.  And as much as I love them, we really can’t eat more than 8 between the two of us in a sitting.  Which means you still have 12 wrappers laying around, mocking you—“okay Captain Kitchen Improv, now what are you going to do with US????”  And oddly enough, I’ve never just said, “well, I have some pork & cabbage…guess I’ll just make normal egg rolls with you.”  Because that’s not how I roll. And I prefer to make baked rolls, because they’re just WAY better for you, and as long as you give a nice light spritz of olive oil on the wrapper, they still get a really satisfying crunch.
As we move through this post, you’re going to notice something---between the prep photos & the final product photos, it looks as though my jambalaya stuffing has magically changed color.  It hasn’t.  But the first time I made these, I was using my Crock Pot Jambalaya recipe, and then the second time I made them with my Chef Folse recipe.  You can choose either, depending upon your preference, time allotted, etc.  Or you can even cheat & buy some Zatarain’s jambalaya mix.  You can also mix it up & use seafood instead of chicken or sausage (or even venison).  Totes up to you.
PS—this is an awesome way to use up leftovers, if you’ve made a pot of jambalaya the night before.  And these are perfect for any upcoming SuperBowl parties you might have!

INGREDIENTS: (makes 8 egg rolls)
8 egg roll wrappers (you should find these in the produce section, usually near the tofu.  My Wal-Mart stocks them near the shredded cabbage/bagged lettuce & veggies)
about 3-4 cups of jambalaya (it can be cold or hot)
water
Olive Oil mister

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 425F.
Lay a wrapper on a clean, dry surface with a corner toward you.  Spoon about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of jambalaya onto the wrapper, not quite in the middle.

Roll the point that’s closest to you over the filling, gently squishing a bit so the filling is uniform in thickness. 
Now fold in the sides, and then roll over once toward the far point.  Now wet the far point with the water, and then finish rolling it up.

Spray a cookie sheet with olive oil, add the rolls, and then lightly spray each of the rolls with olive oil (you can use a brush to get good coverage).  This will help them to brown all over.

Bake for 10 minutes on each side (20 minutes total) so you get a good crust/seal on them. Then booyah—you’re done!

Now: dipping sauces.  They REALLY don’t need one.  But it’s an egg roll—so you sorta feel inclined to dip it.  I tried Cajun mustard, but it was a no-go: just WAY overpowered the flavor of the jambalaya.  However, you could try a remoulade with it…or ranch goes with about anything.  If you get creative & find a great sauce to go with these, please leave me a note! Enjoy!

Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya: Cookoff Worthy Contender?

Last weekend the Hubs & I went to the Sertoma Cajun Cookoff here in Springfield.  My awesome friend Tara got us two free tickets and I was just itching to see what was there.  I’ve thought about entering, but I wanted to check out my potential competition first.

I’m used the the Sertoma Club’s annual Chili Cookoff, which is MUCH bigger with hundreds of booths.  So I was surprised to see only about 20 booths at the Cajun Cookoff. All the same, there was a wide variety of choices, from Bananas Foster Crepes to “Cajun Mac & Cheese” to tiny crawfish pies, gumbo, jambalaya…and a few of those “errrrr” entries where they make something that’s halfway between gumbo & jambalaya and you’re NOT really sure which they were aiming for.
    
Clockwise from Top Left: Mini Crawfish Pie (yum); little-too-buttery shrimp & lobster…something (“gumbo” is my assumption, but y’all know how I feel about tomato-based gumbo); burnt roux gumbo (remember kids: if you’re making a roux from scratch, aim for the color of peanut butter, not coffee); a REALLY tasty chicken gumbo topped with fried okra; and too-blonde roux plus crunchy-rice chicken & sausage jambalaya…that for some reason also smelled like weed.  For reals.
It got me wondering:  If I enter, WHAT would  I enter?  There were no etouffees…but then again, I don’t have a “go to” etouffee recipe, and I don’t really want to deal with a full day of people asking me what “E-toofy” is.  There were only a few gumbos—but that chicken gumbo up there is a CONTENDER, I don’t think my recipe would beat it.  But I’m pretty sure I could beat the crunchy rice jambalaya…because after all, I have John Folse & his bible on my side.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cubed
• 1 tsp Cajun seasoning
• 1 lb sliced andouille sausage
• 1 Tbsp dry roux (or liquid roux) - optional
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1 cup onions, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1/8 cup minced garlic
• 3.5 cups chicken stock/broth
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• salt & pepper to taste
• hot sauce, to taste
• 2 cups uncooked instant brown rice

DIRECTIONS:
In a large (5-6 qt) pot [cast iron, if you have it], brown your chicken in the olive oil.  Then stir in the andouille, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10-15 minutes.

On top of that, add the dry roux, onions, celery, bell pepper & garlic.  Continue cooking until the veggies are all well caramelized.  Then add the chicken stock/broth/whatever, bring to a boil, the reduce to simmer for 15 minutes.  Now add the mushrooms, green onions, parsley, and stir well, and season to taste w/ S&P and hot sauce. 

Then add the brown rice, bring to a rolling boil, and then reduce heat to low, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes or until the rice is done.
Once everything’s cooked, remove from heat, stir and then re-cover to keep the steam in the pot until time to serve. Check flavors & season again to taste.

Makes about 8 servings. 

NutriFacts:
Calories 371.3
  Total Fat 17.2 g
  Saturated Fat 5.5 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.4 g
  Cholesterol 54.4 mg
  Sodium 1,106.6 mg
  Potassium 289.4 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 36.8 g
  Dietary Fiber 3.4 g
  Sugars 1.8 g
  Protein 18.6 g

Twelve Point Jambalaya (Deer & Andouille, Crockpot)

So…apparently it’s deer season. I miss out on this information these days, because my hubs doesn’t hunt, and I sure enough don’t hunt (I make it a point to not wake up before the sun does), and I don’t work in an office full of hunters anymore.  Down in Louisiana (The Sportsman’s Paradise), you saw deer season coming.  Your usually clean-shaven coworkers started coming to work with a face full of scruff that over the course of a few weeks developed into a rather bushy beard.  You would find them congregating around the proverbial water cooler talking about their rifles, their ammo, their hunting leases, what they’ve been spotting on their remote cameras near their deer stands.

O, noble deer…we wish to eat you.

And then, one day, you show up to work at the normal time… and only the females are there.  Until about 9-10 am, and then all the guys start straggling in.  Sometimes with camo & safety orange gear still in tow.
Nowadays I only know it’s deer season when random photos of dead deer start showing up on Facebook.

This recipe is dedicated to my friend Clayton, who will likely be needing it soon.

Now, even though I don’t hunt, we have friends who do, and these friends are kind enough to share some wild game with us.  Which gets me excited, because it means I can bust out the John Folse wild game cookbook.  And in honor of deer season, we have delicious Deer & Andouille Jambalaya.  I altered this from a “Dove & Andouille” recipe & was really happy with it.

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb ground or cubed deer meat
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 lb sliced andouille sausage
1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup onions, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1/8 cup minced garlic
3.5 cups chicken stock/broth*
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt & pepper to taste
hot sauce, to taste
2 cups uncooked rice/barley**
*Due to the necessity for some Kitchen Improv, we replaced the chicken stock with 1 can condensed Cream of Chicken soup + 2 cups water, and were actually really impressed with the result.  It gave the jambalaya a really nice creamy texture, almost like risotto.
** More Kitchen Improv- we were running short on rice so I did 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup pearled barley.  Still delicious.

DIRECTIONS:
In a large skillet or saucepan, brown your deer meat in the olive oil.  Then stir in the andouille, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Add your uncooked rice/barley to the Crockpot.  On top of that, add the meat, onions, celery, bell pepper & garlic.  Then add the chicken stock/broth/whatever, mushrooms, green onions, parsley, and stir well.

Cover, and let cook on High for 3-4 hours or Low for 5-6 hours until the rice is cooked and the stocked is absorbed.

Makes about 8 servings.  And to all you hunters out there: Stay safe, and feel free to drop off a couple pounds of ground meat at our house.
NUTRIFACTS:
Calories 384.6
  Total Fat 16.9 g
  Saturated Fat 5.3 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 3.1 g
  Cholesterol 88.5 mg
  Sodium 695.7 mg
  Potassium 566.4 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 31.0 g
  Dietary Fiber 5.2 g
  Sugars 0.9 g
  Protein 26.7 g

Product Review: Blue Runner Jambalaya Base

 

During my last excursion down to Louisiana, I noticed that Blue Runner (creator of the oh-so-yummy “this can’t possibly be from a can” canned ready-to-serve Red Beans & Navy Beans) now offer sauce bases for making jambalaya, shrimp creole, gumbo, & etouffee.

It’s a rather large can & was at Dorignac’s in Metairie for $3, so I said “why not” and snagged it along with my other Louisiana contraband (seriously, I hope there’s no law against smuggling foods across state lines.  I weigh my bags before I leave my house to make sure I’m at least 10-15 lbs under the bag weight limit, since I always know I’m coming back with a stockpile of my favorites):

(Ignore that Pumpkin Dunkin Donuts coffee—I could probably get that in Missouri, but I saw it on the shelf while I was picking up my Community Coffee & couldn’t resist.  Oh, and for the record, I CAN get CC’s coffee in Missouri, but it’s about $2 cheaper in Louisiana.)

So when my husband & I offered to host our weekly church group meeting at our house a couple weekends ago, I figured that would be as good a time as any to test out the jambalaya base on my guinea pigs err…friends!

The instructions were simple: Open can, pour into large pot, add 1 lb pre-cooked chicken & 1 package smoked sausage, along with 2.5 cups of uncooked rice.  Stir, bring to boil, then let simmer for 20-30 minutes.

And so we did.  I used spicy smoked sausage, and cooked up some chicken breasts (I seasoned the chicken with cajun seasoning prior to cooking), cut them up into bite size pieces, and then tossed everything in.  I was a little skeptical of the sauce base, as it had a slight vinegar-y odor and just seemed so…canned.  You know how canned soup just has a very “canned” look & taste to it?  That made me a little nervous, but fortune favors the bold, so I strode on. 

All the trinity veggies and garlic are already included in the can.  So all you have to add is the meat & rice.  (though, I had some dried green pepper I needed to use up, so I threw that in there as well—but that was more out of “spring cleaning” than necessity. There’s a good bit of veggies in the sauce.)

Then I hit another road block—brown rice.  I threw 2.5 cups of uncooked brown rice into the pot, not white rice.  I started cooking about an hour before people were scheduled to arrive, so I figured that was plenty of time to allow for the additional cook time that brown rice requires…man, was I wrong.  When people started showing up, the rice was still totally crunchy.  Thankfully, our friends are very understanding (and had brought munchies) so we hung out & snacked in the kitchen while I hovered over my stockpot, using all my kitchen wiles to force the rice to cook faster.  I turned up the heat & periodically added a little extra water, stirring every few minutes. 

After a total cook time of about 1.5 hrs, the rice was finally fully cooked & we started serving.  We had 10 people eating total, and everyone got at least one moderately sized serving.  And it was delicious.  The flavors were fantastic.  I think I added a little bit of hot sauce and some extra cajun seasoning, but aside from that, all the seasoning in the sauce was perfect on its own.  Our guests really loved it too (though only two of them aside from me had ever had authentic jambalaya—but they both said it definitely tasted like Louisianan).

(Stock photo—I was so busy entertaining guests that I forgot to take a pic.)

So there you go.  If you happen to stumble upon a large blue can of jambalaya base from Blue Runner, it’s worth a try.  And if I would have used instant or parboiled brown rice, I’m sure it would have cooked up in the regular 20-30 minute time frame that the can recommends.

 

For the record, my first 2012 work trip to Louisiana is next week!  And this time, my hubby actually gets to come with me!!! (We had a free companion ticket that had to be used before May, and my boss OK’d it so long as there wasn’t any additional costs to the company.)  My hubs has only been to Louisiana once (for spring break about 10 years ago) so I’m really looking forward to him meeting my friends and trying all the fantastic food with me!

We’ll be posting restaurant reviews & photos, so keep your eyes peeled!  (Not literally.  That’s gross.)

Crockpot Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

So obviously I haven't been terribly regular with this blog. My apologies indeed. But hopefully there's someone out there who still gets a little excited when they see Feauxcajun pop up on their Friends List.

So... how've you been? Alls good wit'cha mom & dem? Okay. Me...I got married this year. Thus the insanity which prevented me from doing much cooking at all, aside from making about 500 cream cheese mints in the shape of little blue & green roses & leaves.

But things are finally starting to calm down a wee bit, acclimating to sharing a space with another human being (and our dog), and having a smaller kitchen (less than excited about that bit).

But I was all to excited to take our new Crockpot for a test drive on some feauxCajun food!

CROCK POT JAMBALAYA!!!


(FYI, this is a stock image, because we devoured the jambalaya so fast that I never had a chance to take a picture. But this IS what the end product should look like, just so you have a point of reference during your cooking.)

In all honesty, this was possibly the best batch of jambalaya I've ever made. It's a creole style (aka, tomato base), but the crockpot just got the rice SOO perfect & full of flavor.

Ingredients

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
1 pound lean smoked turkey sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds and then halved (I like to do this just so every bite is guaranteed to have some sausage in it)
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice (I used the garlic & oregano variety, because it's nice to add in flavor wherever you can, and sometimes straight-up canned diced tomatoes just end up being too sweet.)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tbsp hot sauce
3 c. brown rice, uncooked (we used minute rice to speed things up, and I HIGHLY recommend this method)

Directions

1. In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, green bell pepper, celery, and broth. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, and thyme. Stir well.

2. Cover, and cook 7 to 8 hours on Low, or 3 to 4 hours on High.

3. Stir in the rice during the last hour of cook time (or the last 30-45 minutes of cook time if you're using quick rice). If you are lucky enough to have a hubs who works out of his home, he can help you with this step so that everything is ready and your kitchen smells like Cajun Heaven by the time you get home from work. This is also a good time to taste test, and add additional seasonings to your preference

Makes about 12 servings.

---

Nutrifacts:

Calories 198.1
Total Fat 4.7 g
Saturated Fat 1.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Cholesterol 45.2 mg
Sodium 726.4 mg
Potassium 229.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 21.0 g
Dietary Fiber 1.5 g
Sugars 1.4 g
Protein 16.3 g
Vitamin A 4.3 %
Vitamin B-12 2.4 %
Vitamin B-6 12.0 %
Vitamin C 7.8 %
Vitamin D 0.0 %
Vitamin E 0.8 %
Calcium 4.0 %
Copper 6.1 %
Folate 1.9 %
Iron 8.0 %
Magnesium 8.8 %
Manganese 4.3 %
Niacin 27.1 %
Pantothenic Acid 3.5 %
Phosphorus 8.1 %
Riboflavin 2.8 %
Selenium 10.0 %
Thiamin 5.8 %
Zinc 5.5 %