MawMaw Shirley’s Monday Jambalaya -- The Recipe That Resets the Week

End of August and school is fully in session, which means the household has switched from summer mode to school mode with the efficiency of a thermostat clicking on. Mama's work calls are scheduled around our schedule. Daddy gets up earlier to have his coffee before the chaos starts. Kayla needs reminding about her backpack every morning, which has been true since second grade. I have never once forgotten my backpack. This is documentation, not bragging.

The week was ordinary in the best sense — full of the small things that make up a real life. Algebra homework that took longer than it should have because I kept second-guessing the graphing. Mama helped after dinner. She was a math coder before medical coding and she can still do things in her head that I need paper for. "Write everything down," she said, guiding my pencil to the coordinate I had been mentally spinning. "Get it out of your head and onto the page. Your head is for thinking, not for storage." I wrote that down too, in the notebook I keep for things that turn out to be about more than the immediate subject.

Monday was jambalaya, because that is the rule. MawMaw Shirley's rule, Mama's rule, and one day it will be my rule. Sausage, chicken, the trinity, tomatoes, rice all cooked together in one pot. The whole house smells like it by the time Daddy gets home from the warehouse. I can see something in him relax when he walks in the door on Mondays. Some tightness that the week accumulates, unlocked by that smell. Food is capable of doing that — bypassing the conscious mind and going straight to something older and more necessary.

I have been thinking about food and medicine lately. I am going to be a doctor — I have known this since I was eight and read a book about the immune system. But MawMaw feeds people when they cannot be fixed. Mama feeds me before explaining why I was wrong about the graph. Daddy needs jambalaya on Monday to reset. That is medicine. It just does not have a prescription pad.

So here it is—the Monday recipe. The one Daddy can smell from the driveway, the one MawMaw Shirley handed down to Mama, the one that will be mine someday. It is not complicated, which I think is part of why it works. You chop, you brown, you stir, and the house fills up with something that says the week is going to be fine. If food is medicine, this is the prescription for every Monday that ever needed resetting.

MawMaw Shirley’s Monday Jambalaya

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 12 ounces andouille sausage, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cups long-grain white rice
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 3 green onions, sliced, for garnish

Instructions

1. Brown the sausage. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the andouille slices and cook until browned on both sides, about 4 minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. Sear the chicken. Season the chicken pieces with half the Cajun seasoning. In the same pot, cook the chicken until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside with the sausage.
3. Cook the trinity. Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally and scraping up any browned bits, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
4. Build the jambalaya. Stir in the diced tomatoes, rice, chicken broth, remaining Cajun seasoning, smoked paprika, thyme, garlic powder, cayenne, and bay leaves. Return the chicken and sausage to the pot. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
5. Simmer low and slow. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes without lifting the lid, until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed.
6. Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves, fluff with a fork, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve topped with sliced green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 520 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 56g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 980mg