Cajun-Style Crawfish And Andouille Sausage Jambalaya Recipe

A melting pot of culture, Louisiana has been home to Spanish, African, French, and Native dishes that intertwined to become what we know today as Cajun and Creole cuisine. Jambalaya is possibly the best example of this, revealing its unique history with every rice-filled spoonful. Made with rich meat, local seafood, and plenty of bell peppers, the family-style pot of rice is reminiscent of both African Jollof rice and Spanish paella, with influences from Native spices and French technique.

Still a heavily French city, New Orleans' Creole jambalaya includes tomatoes, once an important element of cosmopolitan French cuisine. Cajun jambalaya, on the other hand, is known for being more rustic, with less focus on the new French cooking techniques and more emphasis on rich, hearty flavor. Likely the original jambalaya before tomatoes were readily available, Cajun versions make use of the ingredients local to rural Louisiana, like smoked meats and salty crawfish. Developer Michelle McGlinn shares below a recipe for a spicy Cajun-style jambalaya complete with crawfish, Andouille sausage, and rice that cooks slowly in the rich fats of both — the secret to deeply savory Cajun flavor.

Though jambalaya is carb and protein heavy, it wouldn't be complete without its long list of produce, too. To make this recipe, you'll need red, yellow, and green bell peppers, as well as onion, garlic, celery, and parsley. You'll also need a few seasonings, like thyme, oregano, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and Cajun or Creole seasoning (We like Tony Chachere's, but you can use your favorite blend or make your own). From there, you'll just need long-grain white rice, chicken stock, butter, Andouille sausage, and crawfish.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Melt butter in a Dutch oven or large oven-safe pot over medium heat.

Add andouille sausage and crawfish and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until deeply browned. The sausage and crawfish should have rendered enough fat to cook the vegetables in.

Add the peppers, celery, and onion to the pot and cook until softened, about 10 minutes longer.

Add the garlic and stir to combine.

Add the seasonings, bay leaves, salt, and pepper, then add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer.

Add the rice and stir to submerge. Cover the pot and place in the oven.

Bake without touching for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked. When rice has fully absorbed the liquid and is tender, remove the pot from the oven and fluff with a spoon.

Garnish with parsley to serve.

Crawfish are like a shrimp and lobster combined, though they aren't technically a cross between the two (can you imagine?). Essentially miniature, freshwater lobsters, crawfish are little bites of earthy, meaty shellfish most typically found in the bayous of Louisiana — hence the frequent use of them in Cajun cuisine. Because crawfish are meant to be eaten in a similar manner to crab or lobster, you'll most often see them at crawfish boils where you are encouraged to use your hands to break the shells apart.

Crawfish can be hard to find outside of Louisiana, though. First, they have a season: Technically crawfish are caught from November to July, though the season is often much shorter if temperatures are too low. They're also meant to be sold live, which means that outside of Louisiana, they can be challenging to find (and in some states, illegal). Before ditching the crawfish, check the freezer aisles, where the shellfish may be sold cooked and frozen. If you still aren't having any luck, switch to shrimp — if you can find head-on, tail-on, you'll have the closest match.

It may seem over-engineered to throw the pot in the oven when it was bubbling just fine on the stove, but there's a reason to switch it: The heat of the stove is directly underneath the pot, which can cause the rice on the bottom to stick and burn. In the oven, you can cook the jambalaya without stirring because the rice will cook evenly in the all-around heat. Stirring can lead to mushy rice, and in jambalaya it's important to keep the rice fluffy and tender.

If you can't use the oven — say, you don't have an oven-safe pot — simply keep the pot on the stove and stir just once, about ⅔ of the way through cooking. This will keep the ingredients from sticking and burning on the bottom, but will prevent the rice from becoming mushy. With whichever cooking method you choose, remember to keep the lid on to encourage steaming.