Secrets to a Great Jambalaya

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what's your secret that makes it so good?

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Doing a search on here for pochejp's recipe.

Poche's Epic Jambalaya Post

Have a bottle of Kitchen Bouquet ready juuust incase your color doesn't turn out right.

Can you get good Smoked Sausage in MA?

Pay trout bandit to cook it. That is my secret.

1. Keep it simple. You don't really need anything more than: long grain rice, yellow onions, pork, sausage, water, and seasoning

2. Buy sausage from louisiana and have it shipped to you. Do the same for LeBlanc's seasoning. It's already in the perfect balance for jambalaya, so much so that it was banned from use at the Jambalaya Festival.

3. Use the jambalaya calculator for your cook times and amounts of ingredients

4. The most important step is the onions. Brown them as much as possible without burning them. This is where 90% of your flavor comes from. They will essentially get to the point where they're essentially "clear".

5. Use pork temple meat if you can get it, cubed boston butt if you can't. Just sear the meat to start off and take it out before browning the onions.

6. Keep it simple and stick with the formula and you will have a fantastic dish that is truly resplendant in its simplicity. Jambalaya is a dish that takes only a day to learn, but can never truly be mastered as every batch is completely unique.

Well i'll give my ideas of how to make a tasty jamb. You didn't mention what size pot you were cooking so i'll assume you're cooking a 6 quart jamb. If you can find pork temple meat get some. 3 to 4 lbs for that size pot. If not buy a boston butt pork roast and cut into 1" to 1.5" cubes size pieces. Try to leave a small piece of fat on each piece of the pork butt if thats what you use. I find by doing that it gives much taste and tenderness to the pork. I brown my pork first in about half a cup of vegetable oil. Let it fry in the oil until it sticks then stir. Let it stick again and repeat over and over. Now and then cool the grease off with a splash of water or stock. Brown the meat well. I brown it until its really brown. Like milk chocolate. It may seem hard when done but trust me when it gets boiled in the broth later it tenderizes nicely. After browned remove from the pot. Brown your sausage then. As Rat mentioned in the comments and I can't stress enough is DO NOT overcook your sausage. It is very easy to completely cook the taste out of smoked sausage. There is very little fat left after smoking and you want that for taste. Just blanche the sausage and remove them. Now dump the grease out. Just pour it out but retain the gratin in the pot and certainly don't scrape the bottom clean, you need that part. A little oil will remain and thats fine. Don't wipe it out. Now add onions and a splash of stock or broth. Canned or boxed chicken broth is way better than plain water. Yes its salty but you can adjust for that. Brown the onions until clear. Some here say thats where they get their browning from but I say bullshite. The browning comes from the meat gratin in the bottom of the pot. Now as you cook the onions deglaze the bottom with spashes of broth. When the onions are clear and soft cook all the liquid out and add the meat. Now add your broth/stock or whatever you are using. Just go 2 to 1 ratio liquid to rice for this size jamb. Use Mahatma extra long grain. Best there is for jambs in my opinion. Bring to a rolling boil and taste the liquid. Now season the mixture like you want and what fits the crown eating it. Make sure its a little salty to taste because the rice will absorb that to even it out. Get your pepper like you want and splash some Louisiana hot sauce in it too for a little extra zing. A good season all type blend will work. Not sure what you can find up in MA but those folks eat good up there i'm sure there is some thing good to use. Once the liquid mixture is boiling hard add your rice. Bring back to a good boil until the rice is jumping in the boil mixture and slightly starts to thicken. Now add green onions if you like now but I usually don't. It will not add taste just some garnish in my opinion. When its get to this point cover and turn fire down to 25% and don't lift that lid for anything for 35-40 min. When that time has past by lift lid and roll the rice from bottom to top all around. Smear the mixture flat to seal in the steam and reclose the lid. Turn OFF the fire. Let it sit for 25 min. It should be ready to eat at this point. Good luck. Enjoy. Oh and yes that takes me about 6 beers to complete.

Good Ingredients...
Andouille
Temple Meat
Good Stock
Don't use Parboiled Rice

So, we never got a follow up. How did your event go?