Jambalaya Pasta

Whenever we are in America, we always seem to end up in The Cheesecake factory.

There is a couple of things that is always a hit with me. Hubby 99% of the time orders the same dish and well our son just looks through this huge menu selection and then I think he just points at something.

The dish hubby always orders is their Pasta Jambalaya. He even mentioned it when we were out for dinner the other night.

 Well over the past month or so I have been looking at recipes to make Jambalaya and then I see all that rice I start to panic. Rice was never really my thing. (well until somebody told me how they made theirs and it was one way that actually worked for me) I even had problems with a rice cooker…seriously I did. When we lived in Japan people would say 'Use your rice cooker…this high on your fingers with water then add rice'  ~ come on people this high on your fingers with water….what sort of measurement is that. 

Anyway….all that rice, I know it will end up in a disaster….

1st, the rice will either be over cooked or undercooked

2nd, The saucepan will become a kind of drum where I throwing the spoon around so hard it will sound like Animal from the Muppets 

3rd, it will be hubby's fault because I wouldn't have made this if it wasn't for him!!!!!

4th, That pan will take some cleaning…..

Your getting drift here right :)

After looking at the recipe I was pretty confident I could make this. 

I think I might even eat it….You see green peppers aren't my thing …

I realized I didn't have the seasoning they were mentioning.

So I found a recipe to make my own ~ bonus I had all ingredients for the seasoning in the house :)

This recipe for this Jambalaya does call for fresh pasta…. I'm not using fresh for 2 reasons

1. I had packet pasta here ~ bonus

2. I DONT WANT TO USE FRESH!

Cajun Seasoning
You'll need

1 teaspoon  dried Thyme
1 teaspoon  dried oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tea spoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons smoked parika
2 teaspoons garlic powder

Add all into a a bowl 

Mix

Store in a jar
This will make enough for 2 meals

For the Jambalaya pasta 
you'll need

Chicken  ~ cut up into small bite size pieces
Prawns/Shrimp ( I only had cooked)
Roma tomatoes chopped up ~ about 1/2 cup
red, yellow and green peppers cut into thin stripes ~ about 1/2 cup
Red onion sliced ~ about 1/2 cup
clove of garlic grated
fresh parsley chopped
chicken stock 1 1/2 cups
Cajun spice mix
salt & pepper
oil
Pasta (I used linguini)

Heat some all in a pan
season the chicken with about 2 tablespoons of Cajun mix
making sure all the chicken is coated
place the chicken in the pan
Half cook the chicken
add the onions and peppers
add another 1 ~ 2 teaspoons of Cajun mix
season with salt and pepper (I used hardly any)
add the tomatoes and chicken stock
simmer for about 10 minutes
Add the shrimp just to warm through

serve over pasta

What you'll need

coat the chicken with the Cajun mix

heat the oil in a pan

Half cook the chicken

then add the onions

add the peppers
and mix

add the garlic
and mix well

add the tomatoes

add the stock

mix well and let simmer

chop the parsley 

add the shrimp

garnish with parsley
Enjoy!