When I made my Shrimp Scampi a couple weeks ago I knew I’d be craving jambalaya come Mardi Gras, and while I was too busy the week of Fat Tuesday to make one of my signature dishes, I was happy to have the shrimp stock I made conveniently frozen and ready to add to this dish. I didn’t want to use my beautiful jumbo shrimp in this dish, but the flavor of the shrimp was still intense!!

Whenever Woodmans has a sale on Daisy Brand Chicken Sausage I always stock up to freeze it, especially when it’s the Andouille Smoked Sauage. Perfectly spiced with the lightness of chicken sausage — seriously, does it get any better?

Here’s how tonight’s Jambalaya came together so you can try it for yourself. Want a shortcut version? Try my Fat Cat Tuesday Jambalaya from the archives!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups seafood stock, chicken broth or water
• 1 Knorr Chipotle Bouillon Cube (a bit of powdered chipotle or chili powder works too); leave out if you don’t want your jambalaya spicy)
• Juice from 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 cup brown rice

Start the broth, juice and bouillon on a back burner. When boiling, add the rice and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and let this go while you get the rest going. Pay attention to when you started this!

• 2 Links Andouille Chicken Sausage, diced (a regular smoked sausage works too)
• 1 chicken breast, diced
• 1/2 medium onion or one small onion, chopped
• 1 red or green pepper, diced
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced (or 1 tbsp jarred garlic)
• 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn
• 1 can tomatoes (add the juice to the rice)
• Penzey’s Cajun Seasoning (generously, to taste)
• Dash of Penzey’s Gumbo Filé.

Add the onion and garlic to a deep sauté pan (I love my Pampered Chef Flat-bottomed Wok for this) with a little bit of olive oil and sauté until the onions start to sweat. Toss in the chicken breast and sausage and a few shakes of Cajun Seasoning and cook until the chicken is white on the outside.

Add the tomatoes and some more seasoning and toss until everything is coated. Add the rice and the cooking liquid and toss to combine. Reduce heat to low and cover, checking to stir and taste every 10 minutes. Add more cajun seasoning to taste, a little each time.

You’ll want the rice to go about a total of 45 minutes, so continue cooking until your rice has hit 45 minutes.  When it’s nearly done, add the roasted corn.

These enormous shrimp were so cheap it was amazing they were still fresh and delicious, but their seafood’s never done us wrong. Shrimp scampi is actually incredibly easy to make. I like cooking it with the shells because there’s so much flavor in the shells.

To make shrimp scampi, all you need is butter and a little fresh garlic (though a little Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic can make a great substitute!). Here are some QUICK TIPS for making awesome shrimp scampi:

• Don’t forget to devein your shrimp! And yes, you CAN devein your shrimp with the shell on!
• Be generous with the butter! For ten of these jumbo badboys I used about 3/4 stick of butter
• …and the garlic!! Three huge cloves of garlic and a squeeze of lemon juice rounded out the flavor
• Keep the shells on! Makes them harder to eat, but
  • the shells hold in flavor and add flavor to the butter sauce
  • you can save the shells to make a delicious stock!

I served this over some leftover Chinese takeout rice with a little bit of roasted corn. I tossed the browned butter and garlic with the rice for an outstanding flavor!

Also, a handful of shrimp shells goes a LONG way! I saved these garlic-soaked babies and tossed them in a quart of water to boil for about an hour and a half with a carrot and half an onion to make an amazing seafood stock that I froze to use later (perhaps in a delicious Jambalaya?).