Dude Food Tuesday: Cajun Rice dish aka Jambalaya Dude style
I really do love Cajun kitchen. It’s a delicious melting pot of herbs, spicy flavors and 100% pure ingredients. Something no dude in his own right can withstand.
It even is kind of macho to throw in all those different products in a pan and bring it to a great dish with the right mixture of herbs and spices.
When I make a Cajun dish (and, yep, you guessed: I’m just about to) it also gives me the feeling that I have wandered off to the swamps of America and I am making my meal on a woodfire next to a muddy water.
I am standing in my own kitchen but I think myself in that warm, moist and mosquito infested climate, crouching down next to a cast iron pot and stirring in my Louisian dish.
The most excellent fragrances rise up from the pot and expell the scent of humid and rotten leaves. The smell keeps even the mosquitos at bay. And though a dude fears practically nothing, I have two small fears. The first and most important being that my dish doesn’t turn out as perfectly seasoned and spicy. My second fear is that all those delicious aromas get the attention of the alligators that are hiding and lurking around me in the swampy waters.
Imagine that those large green meatgrinders think to themselves that I make this Cajun meal especially for them?
And that they start to think: “Hmm, that spicy dish smells nice, but that Dude thats stirring in the pot…juicy. It’s been a while since I had a tasty treat of dude.”
I am not aware of the green hazards that are closing in from all sides, salivating.
Slowly the Crocs sneak up from behind, and I am just minding my stew and stirring in the pot.
The only thing that has my attention are the right herbs I have to add to my rice and chicken.
And all of a sudden I hear an omioious: ‘Screech, scroing.’ What was that sound?
The fear grips my heart. I couldn’t be crocodiles, can it?
A voice from afar wakes me from my swamp fantasy: “What are you doing over there? Crouching in the kitchen?”
I look around and the then the imaginary swamps from New Orleans make way for my good old kitchen.
Behind me the Misses rolls into the kitchen in her wheelchair, curious to know what I am doing.
“Just making a jambalaya, dear. But of course in Dude style. You know the kind of dish that attracts the alligators.”
Most of the time when the Misses laughs, you don’t know if she laughs at you or are laughing about you. This time I was fairly certain it was the second.
“You just make a nice bowl of rice and it better be without any crocodiles.”
The Misses turns her wheelchair and heads back to the living: ‘Screech, scroing.’
“And when you’re done, please take a look at my chair. It sounds like the wheels have to be oiled or something.”
Let me tell you that a Dude has to appreciate that you can make this macho swamp recipes just in your own kitchen, without having to be some Crocodile Dundee or something.
The dish itself is more than macho without the hazars of American swamps.
But when I see that stamy bowl of rice I can’t help to imagine myself in a steamy swamp again
Cajun Rice with chicken
Ingredients
- 300 gr chicken fillet cut into cubes
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 pieces of celery cut into pieces
- 2 tsp smoked and powdered paprika piment
- 1 tsp cumin ground
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp thyme dried
- 2 red paprikas sliced into small pieces
- 1 l chickenstock
- 150 gr chorizo diced
- 3 spring onions sliced in small rings
- 2 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley
- 200 gr black beans
- 150 gr rice I like Basmati rice
- 1 tsp grinded black pepper
- 1 tsp coarse seasalt
- Heat some oil in a stir frying pan and stir fry the chicken with the seasalt, black pepper and 1 tsp of smoked paprika. Get the chicken out of the pan and set aside.
- Pour the rice in a frying pan and pour chickenstock on the rice until the stock is about one centimeter above the rice. Bring to a boil and then let the stock evaporate on low heat until you start to see small holes in the rice. Stir the rice with a spoon and then refill with chickenstock. Repeat this proces on low heat until the rice is done (it should be soft and not taste chalky).
- Bake the chorizo until crisp in another frying pan and the drain it on some kitchenpaper.
- Put the onion in the pan you used for the chicken and cook them until glaze. Add the celery, diced paprika, cumin, thyme, chili powder and the second tsp of smoked paprika and cook for stir fry for another 2 minutes. Then pour some chickenstock to the vegetables and let it simmer on low heat until the stock is evaporated. Add the chicken and black beans.
- Stir in the rice and chorizo with the vegetables and add salt n peppa to taste.
- Serve this Jamabalaya Dude style in a deep bowl and garnish with the spring onion and chopped parsely.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
4 comments on “Dude Food Tuesday: Cajun Rice dish aka Jambalaya Dude style”
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We never really cook any cajun dishes but I think this would be a good place to start! Sounds like my kinda food!
It’s real comfort food and all about the flavors (and getting them right). You’ll like it.
That looks so delicious! A great combination of flavours and ingredients.
Cheers,
Rosa
It is..