Jambalaya Fest At My House Yesterday

Alright, so just found out a couple of days ago that the OFFICIAL Jambaaya Fest was this weekend in Gonzales LA. Funny because all this week I had planned to make a jambalaya here at home this weekend. So I decided to use my small 5 gal. cast iron jambalaya rig and cook outside and have my own Jambalaya Fest. Cold beer included! Yeah this looks like a bunch of jambalaya but it won't last. Especially since I share it with friends and relatives.

Started out with cooking some homemade bacon and a cold beer. This wasn't one of my favorites but it was given to me as a birthday variety of beer. Kind of tasted like soap. Lol.......



Here's the setup I used.



That bacon smelled soooo..... good!



Bacon done I removed it and browned/cooked the pork which was a couple or two or three pounds of pork loin(I know the butt is better but this was from a whole pork loin I had to cook). I also cooked down the sausage a bit(no picture)and remove that to cook down the onions. Added some diced tasso to allow that flavor to dispearse throughout the stock



Sweating down the onions and added two cans of Rotel. I KNOW! No Tomatoes according to many but believe me this gives it a nice kick.



Pork stock was added and my seasonings.



Let that come to a light boil and then added the chicken. I smoked the chicken thighs to a temp of about 150* and removed them, let cool and cut into nice chunks.



Again let that come to a light boil and then added the pork and sausage.



Again let the temp come up to a light boil and added the rice.



Thirty five minutes later it was done!



I like to get a little meat in every bite when I make jambalaya.