Jambalaya - Gonzales Style with pics.

Cooked a pork and sausage Jamb while watching the LSU Tigers beating Arkansas in baseball. I included process pics. This is how we cook Jambs in this area. I know everyone has their own method. This is mine. This is a 3 cup of rice Jamb. Feeds 8 to 10 with sides. I would like feedback. What would you do different? There are many good Jamb cooks on this board. Enjoy.

This recipe is for a 6 quart dutch oven.

Ok. First off I start with pork temple meat if available. If not I use Boston butt pork meat cut into cubes. I try to keep a small piece of fat on each piece as it adds great taste and is tender. Season the meat. I use about 3.5 lb.. pork for this. Chicken can be used but will not brown as well as pork. I use LeBlanc's but Tony's or whatever mix you have is fine. Salt and pepper and garlic is fine if thats all you have.







I brown the pork meat down really well in approx 3/4 cup of veg oil. I let the meat fry until it starts to stick, then stir. I do that over and over again, it sticks then stir, repeat. Sometimes a little water is needed to cool off the grease. The meat debris that sticks to the bottom of the pot (the gratin) will dictate your color of the rice/jamb. Season the meat each turn as you brown it.



After the pork is browned down to dark fry I remove completely from the pot.



I then brown down my sausage. Don't overcook the sausage and fry it too much. Just mildly brown it down, because to me that cooks all of the taste out of the sausage. I used LeBlanc's smoked sausage for this one. Its really good and locally made. I use 1 lb. for this size pot.



After I cook the sausage a little I remove from the pot. Drain the grease out of the pot at this time but dont lose the gratin. Then I add my onions, green onions, garlic with a splash of stock and cook till clear looking. This is when you scrape the bottom of the pot getting all the brown gratin from the pork. You will have to add small splashes of stock as you cook to not burn the trinity mix. This is when the color that the jambalaya starts to reveal it darkness. The browner the meat was cooked the darker the gratin will be making this mixture dark as well. I used three regular sized yellow onions diced into 1/4" size. One handfull of green onions diced too.






After those are cooked (clear looking) add all the meat back into the pot and mix well. Cook/boil all the remaining water/moisture out of the meat/trinity mixture at this time so the water measurements will be accurate.



At this time I add my broth/water. For this size Jamb I go with the standard 2 to 1 ratio of water to rice. So 3 cups of rice needs 6 cups broth/water. Also added three chicken bouillion cubes for added taste. I usually use broth instead of plain water. If you use plain water bouillion cubes at the least need to be used. One cube per cup of water.



After it comes to a rolling boil I start tasting the water. I like it a tad bit salty cause the rice will absorb the saltiness. I use black pepper, garlic pepper, and LeBlanc' s seasoning. Made here locally by Kim LeBlanc. Add one shot glasse of Louisiana Hot sauce.



Skim the remaining grease off the top. The boiling water will seperate it from the water/broth.




After I get the taste like I want and its on a hard rolling boil i'll add the rice. Never add rice until the water is boiling! I let it come back to a boil until the rice starts to expand and is "jumping out the pot". This is an expression we use due to the hard boiling liquid and the rice entrained in the liquid sometimes comes over the side. This is a very important time relevant to the "popping" of the rice. I let the rice get noticeably bigger/expanded before I cut heat and cover. You can tell is getting ready when the rice is thickening by stirring your spoon in the mixture. As it thickens it will get noticeably harder to stir. This can be achieved on a HARD boil and it is critical to the rice popping correctly.



After the rice has started to expand and is where I think its ready to cover I cut back on my heat to 20% and cover. Do not lift the lid for any reason for 25 min. If your lid does not seal really tight wrap a rag or towel around the lid seal. Be careful of the burner below if this is done. This will seal a pot off really well.



Cast iron pots hold heat really well as you can see. This is the lid temp while covered on lowest heat I can apply on my gas stove.




I let this cook for about 25 minutes for this size and then lift the lid and roll the rice. Don't stir. Roll it from bottom to top at 4 different spots. Re-cover and cut heat off.



Let sit for another 15 minutes and then un-cover and eat. Came out good. Rice popped open perfect. Hard to beat the Mahatma extra long grain.



Give me some feedback guys. I've been cooking Jambs like this for 25 years. Basically the same process for 5 and 10 gallon Jambs.













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