Easy Crockpot Jambalaya
This Easy Crockpot Jambalaya will have your tastebuds dancing! Full of meat, including garlic sausage, chorizo, smoked ham, and chicken, this slow cooker jambalaya is both flavorful and hearty! This crockpot jambalaya makes an excellent dish for a party – as it serves 10-12 large servings! As well, it actually gets better with age! Make this Monday for your family and it will keep and feed you almost until Friday!
New Orleans Classic
Being from Western Canada, I am indeed quite far away from the rich and history-heavy New Orleans, where Jambalaya originated. Yet I find myself craving it from time to time, but again, being from Western Canada there are little to no restaurants near by that serve up Jambalaya, or any delicious spicy southern cooking for that matter. So, of course, my solution had to be to come up with my own! This slow cooker version of jambalaya is cooked in the slow cooker, making it practically effortless, and has minimal prep work (other than cutting everything up), making it an excellent recipe for those of us who are constantly busy.
Great for a Large Party
As mentioned above, this recipe is good for those of us on-the-go. It’s very easy to cut everything up the night before, pack it all in a large Tupperware, then the next morning throw it all into slow-cooker and go! Even better, this recipe is huge, I’m talking it will feed 10-12 people VERY comfortably! As such, it is great for serving up a large number of guests, or as a weekday meal that will feed the family for 3-4 days. Aaaaand as an even bigger bonus, it is even better as a leftover! When it sits in the fridge, the rice absorbs even more of the liquid, marrying the ingredients together even more.
Shrimp & Sausage
Now I know that traditional Jambalaya has shrimp, however I am not a huge fan of it, so therefore I leave it out. But if you love you some shrimp, by all means add away! I would suggest to use about ½lb frozen cooked shrimp and add it in in the last 45 minutes of cooking. Speaking of traditional jambalaya, it also usually has andouille sausage in it. However, in Western Canada it is not an easy task to find andouille! So instead I substituted it with chorizo and smoked garlic sausage. I personally used smoked garlic turkey sausage, as a way to cut a few calories, and its awesome!
Adding in the Rice
The rice for this recipe goes into the slow cooker about 30 minutes before the cooking time is up. By adding the just shy-of-finished rice to the crockpot for that last bit of time, the rice absorbs a large amount of the liquid in slow-cooker, making it a better consistency! I cook the rice on my stovetop, as I normally would, but instead of using water I use chicken broth, as to create more flavor in it. I also tend to add in a little bit of the Cajun seasoning (say around 1tsp), cayenne (a dash), and oregano (a dash), to the rice when it is cooking. The purpose of this is just to keep the flavor profile and spice level consistent to the Jambalaya cooking in the slow cooker. I have found if I do not add the spices, the rice will definitely mellow out the spices in the Jambalaya, which can sometimes be a good thing! So, if you have found that you were a little heavy handed with the spices to begin with, adding the plain rice will help tremendously! Lastly, if you happened to forget to make the rice on time, and your slow-cooker has finished, just make the rice as usual, place it into the slow-cooker and turn the slow-cooker back on low for 45 minutes, it should come out perfectly!
Check your Slow Cooker Capacity
And as a last aside, as I mentioned this recipe is huge. I’m talking it fills my slow-cooker to the very brim. My slow cooker is the 8 qt size, therefore if your slow-cooker is smaller I would suggest that you scale back the recipe, and as such reduce cooking time by an hour.
Get the Recipe: Easy Crockpot Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast,, cubed
- 5.2 oz (150 g) Chorizo Sausage,, sliced (about ¼” – ½” thick)
- 5.2 oz (150 g) Smoked Garlic Sausage,, sliced (about ¼” – ½” thick)
- 10.5 oz (300 g) Smoked Ham,, cubed
- 4 Celery Ribs,, sliced
- 1 Green Pepper,, Diced medium
- 1 Yellow or Orange Pepper,, Diced medium
- 1 Yellow Onion,, diced
- 4 Garlic Cloves,, crushed or minced
- 1-2 tbsp Cajun Seasoning
- 1 tbsp Dried Oregano
- 1 tsp Dried Thyme
- 1/2 – 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 28 oz (796mL) Canned Diced Tomatoes
- 23 oz (680mL) Tomato Sauce
- 1 cup Chicken Broth
- 2 cups Long Grain Rice, , such as Basmati
- 4 cups Chicken Broth or Water, (to cook rice)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients, except rice and the 4 cups of chicken broth, to a slow-cooker. Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.
- About 45 minutes before the slow cooker is finished, in a medium-large size sauce-pan add rice and the 4 cups of chicken broth, and place over medium-high heat. When it begins to boil, stir it well to ensure no rice is sticking to the bottom, then turn the heat down to low, cover and cook for 12-15 minutes. When finished the rice should be just shy of finished.
- Add the rice to the slow cooker and mix it well to incorporate it, allow the rice to finish and absorb the slow cooker liquid for the last 30 minutes of cooking time on the slow cooker. Serve by itself or with sour cream or hot sauce!
