For my first cooking segment in the kitchen, I decided to make Jambalaya with some delicious Down Home Meats smoked Sausage.

Here's the recipe:

Gary Watson’s Jambalaya

1 quart water
1 box store-bought or 4 cups homemade chicken broth
4 chicken leg quarters
1 ½ pounds Down Home Brand smoked sausage
3 celery stalks
1 ½ medium onions
1 bell pepper
2-3 roma tomatoes (about 2 cups diced)
3 cloves of garlic
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 tbls dried parsley
1-2 tsp Louisiana Hot Sauce
3 cups rice
Salt & Pepper to taste

Start by dicing a whole onion, 2 celery stalks, the bell pepper (keep the top of the bell pepper for the broth), and two cloves of garlic and put them in a bowl. Chop the tomatoes and put them in a bowl.

In a large stock pot, combine the water and chicken broth. Add in the half onion (not chopped), the bell pepper top, a celery stalk cut in half, one smashed garlic clove, salt and pepper, and the chicken. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to med-low and simmer for 30-40 minutes. When the chicken is done, remove it from the pot and place on a rack to cool. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer and return it to the rinsed stock pot and keep on low heat.

Place a medium stock pot, Dutch oven, or large sauté pan on medium to med-high heat and add in the Down Home Sausage that has been cut into ¼ inch rounds. Cook the sausage for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the sausage is heated all the way through, add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. Cook for another five minutes, stirring constantly. Add the garlic, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and bay leaves. Cook for 5 minutes with the lid off, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are cooked through and have given off most of their juices.

Add the rice to the pot all at once and stir until the rice has soaked up most of the liquid in the pot, about 5 minutes. Start adding the broth that you made, two cups at a time, stirring after every addition. Once six cups of broth has been added, add ½ cup more broth, the dried parsley, and the Louisiana Hot Sauce. Stir well, cover and reduce the heat to med-low and cook for 20 minutes until the rice is almost done.

When the rice is almost done (there should still be liquid in the pot…if not, add a touch more broth) add in the chicken meat that you have cleaned from the leg quarters and roughly chopped. Stir until well mixed. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes until the rice is cooked and the liquid is soaked up.

Serve it up!

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