Meaty Slow-Cooked Jambalaya

Week 358. Winter 2023. I am 40 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like soup and bread and this is my life. This is the life I built.

The clinic was busy this week — spring puppies and summer emergencies and the constant, comforting cycle of animals who need care and humans who love them enough to bring them in.

Mason is 12 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 10 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made chicken noodle soup this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

I did make chicken noodle soup this week — that quiet, faithful pot of broth and noodles — but what I keep coming back to is the jambalaya I made the weekend before, the one that cooked low and slow all afternoon while Mason had his nose in a book and Lily came in smelling like horses and hay. It’s the kind of recipe that doesn’t ask anything of you while it works, which is exactly what I needed. The house filled up with something deep and smoky and savory, and I thought: yes, this is it. This is what ordinary and grateful smells like.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 6 hrs | Total Time: 6 hrs 20 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 lb smoked andouille sausage, sliced into rounds
1/2 lb raw medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (added in last 30 minutes)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
2 cups long-grain white rice, cooked separately for serving
Sliced green onions and fresh parsley, for garnish

Instructions

Layer the slow cooker. Place chicken pieces and sausage slices in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Add diced onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic on top.
Add the liquids and seasoning. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices, tomato paste, and chicken broth. Stir in Cajun seasoning, thyme, smoked paprika, black pepper, and cayenne if using. Stir gently to combine.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours, until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
Add the shrimp. In the last 30 minutes of cooking, stir in the shrimp. Cover and cook until shrimp are pink and just cooked through. Do not overcook.
Taste and adjust. Taste the jambalaya and add additional Cajun seasoning or salt as needed.
Serve. Spoon over cooked white rice and garnish with sliced green onions and fresh parsley.

Nutrition (per serving)

Meaty Slow-Cooked Jambalaya — The Soup That Holds Everything Together