Slow Cooker Jambalaya, with chucks of chicken and andouille sausage and lots of shrimp, is a super flavorful one dish meal. Since Mardi Gras is just around the corner, my belly has been craving all those wonderful New Orleans foods.
It’s a southern favorite that does really well in a slow cooker.
I’m especially excited about Mardi Gras this year because guess what??!!
I’m going!!
I haven’t been to Mardi Gras since I was a student at Tulane University and that was over 20 years ago. It’s going to be so much fun.
Jambalaya is one of my favorite foods from New Orleans. I love making this Crawfish Jambalaya, but for years I’ve been wanting to try a Slow Cooker Jambalaya. This was my first attempt, and I was really happy with how it turned out.
This Jambalaya has so many layers of flavors.
For some tomato flavor (I like a tomato-y Jambalaya), I used both diced tomatoes and tomato paste. For the liquid, I used a can of beef broth. You could use chicken broth instead, but I like the deeper flavor that beef broth has.
For flavoring, I of course started with the Holy Trinity- onion, green pepper, and celery. Then I added garlic, bay leaves, oregano, basil, Cajun seasoning, Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, and Worcestershire to round out the flavors.
Recipe Tips
To prevent a mushy mess, I cooked the rice separately but used the cooking liquid from the crock pot to cook it in so that the rice soaked up all that flavor that had been simmering away in the crock pot.
This recipe makes a big crock pot full of Jambalaya. Six very large servings or if you serve it with plenty of bread and maybe a salad, you could probably stretch it to 10.
Slow Cooker Jambalaya
Slow Cooker Jambalaya, with chucks of chicken and andouille sausage and lots of shrimp, is a super flavorful one dish meal.
Ingredients
- ▢1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- ▢1 (14.5-ounce) can beef broth
- ▢1 (8-ounce) can tomato paste
- ▢2 bay leaves
- ▢2 teaspoons dried basil
- ▢1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- ▢1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
- ▢1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- ▢1/2 teaspoon salt
- ▢1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ▢1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ▢1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- ▢1 medium onion, chopped
- ▢1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- ▢2 celery ribs, chopped
- ▢4 cloves garlic, minced
- ▢1 pound Andouille sausage or use kielbasa, cut into slices
- ▢2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- ▢1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ▢1 1/2 cup white rice
- ▢1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Combine 1st 12 ingredients in a 6-quart slow cookerand stir to combine.
- Add onion, green pepper, celery, garlic, sausage, and chicken. Stir to combine.
- Cover crock pot and cook on LOW 4 to 5 hours.
- Set a larger strainer/sieve over a large bowl and pour about 75% of liquid in the crock pot through strainer. You should have about 3 cups to cook the rice in. Add water to get 3 cups if necessary.
- Return all solids to crock pot. Stir in parsley and shrimp. Cover crock pot and cook on LOW 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring the 3 cups of liquid to a boil. Stir in rice and cook according to package directions.
- Add cooked rice to slow cooker and mix in. Serve.
Nutrition
Calories: 575kcal
Slow Cooker Jambalaya with chicken, sausage, and shrimp.