- Jambalaya. This is a seven-year recipe that y'all are tasting, okay? I was first introduced
to this Cajun style jambalaya at Nicholls State University when I was enrolled at the John Folse
Culinary Institute. It is nice, it is rich, it is... I don't wanna say "creamy," but it has a
beautiful gravy consistency from the moisture from the chicken, the sausage, and the rice coming all
together. And it's just a beautiful one-pot dish. And if it wasn't for all of these Cajun Creoles
and West Africans... The Yaya, the African, which means "rice," you know, bringing this dish
together. I don't know if the world would really appreciate jambalaya because it is the off cousins
of jollof rice. So let's dig into this pot. When it comes to cooking Cajun Creole cuisine,
there's gonna be three main ingredients that you're gonna always find in it: onion, celery,
and bell pepper. And since on my Blaze grill I had a rotisserie machine. I decided, "Why not
roast my chicken?" Now, any rotisserie chicken will always taste 10 times better by placing
aromatics inside of it. So I was thinking, "Well, if I'm gonna put my trinity inside of the dish,
why not stuff my trinity inside of the chicken and let all of those roasted deliciousness from
the onion, celery, and bell pepper perfume my chicken?" And while my chicken is on a rotisserie,
just self-basting itself with that Cajun Creole seasoning on the top and just getting all nice
and tender, it eliminated me doing the extra step of grilling the chicken and taking the
chance of drying it out. But this way I knew that I was gonna start with a beautiful chicken baste.
So we've talked about it. Now, let's see it actually happen.
So one trick I want you to always remember is to put your wings behind your yardbird,
all right? Just do that for heaven's sake, okay? It's gonna help ease the seasoning of the chicken.
But what we're gonna also do is we're gonna take a little bit of trinity and stuff this bad boy. Now,
traditionally, if we was doing, like, some roasted chicken in the oven, we'd clean out all these
little fat cavities right here, but fat is flavor, and we're about to stick this on a rotisserie pit,
so we want all of that fat to generate beautiful basting on its own. So the first thing I'm gonna
do is I'm just gonna hit the inside cavity with a little bit of Cajun seasoning. Yes, that's right.
If you're gonna put your mouth on it, you're gonna put some seasoning on it, all right?
So now we're just gonna go ahead on and stuff him with a little celery, some bell pepper,
and an onion. And let's see what else I can get up. I'll get one more celery in there, okay? Now,
let the seasoning begin. You just wanna season nice and high, evenly and all over this chicken.
And make sure you get all in the crevices, okay? You wanna make sure this chicken has no excuse
to come out bland. But we're going to put enough seasoning in anyway, so don't worry about that.
So you get you some butcher twine. I guess this is almost about two feet. There's no real rule.
Just don't do five feet, okay? And what you wanna do is you wanna tie the legs together.
I like to criss-cross them, like they're laying on the lazy Susan.
And then just get one end that's a little bit longer than the other. Can you see? And then just
criss-cross and then just tie it until you get tired of tying it. That's kinda how I do it. And
all this is gonna do is just keep the chicken nice and packed, so it'll roast nice and evenly on the
roasting spit. We don't want it kind of just... We want it to be nice and tight as we cook it, okay?
Cut off the excess.
And he's ready. So now all we're gonna do is just shove this chicken right on and pass all
of the cavity. Ah, yes sir. Now, let's clamp them together to make sure they don't move.
And then just twist. Give it a little test shake. And let's put this on the grill.
So now, we got this nice and secure in our beautiful Blaze grill. Now, let's cut on
this rotisserie. So we're gonna let this cook for about one hour, but I'm definitely gonna check it
at 45 minutes to make sure it's golden brown. And then we'll begin basting it with butter.
Now, after this chicken is cooking for about an hour, we can't just stop building the flavors
there, so we're gonna brush this chicken with some butter, and this butter is not gonna only
help add a golden brown deliciousness to it, but it's gonna start to seep into our meat and get
added flavor into it. So that's just another secret of adding another layer of flavor to
your chicken. So we're gonna do this three more times, and then this chicken is gonna be ready.
Another advantage of using this rotisserie chicken is, traditionally, I only like to use
dark meat for it because of its flavor profile, but then I also know people who traditionally only
like to use white meat because they don't like all that extra fat. This way, we get a combination of
both flavors, so we're getting three different types of meats. We're getting our sausage,
we're getting our dark meat, and we're getting our white meat. All of these flavors are contributing
to the deliciousness that is in this pot. Well, if I'm on the grill and I got smoked sausage,
I might as well try to pull as much grill flavor as possible. So that's why I decided to go ahead
on and grill my sausage, all right? Now, we're gonna cook it again, but I'm trying to make
sure I get as much grill flavor into this dish as possible because once we put the lid on it, ain't
nothing else going in it. So what's in that pot is gonna be in that pot. So this just another step to
add more depths of flavor to this jambalaya. We don't eat Andouille sausage every single
day with every single meal down here in Cajun Creole, so if you cannot find Andouille sausage,
take a deep breath and buy the smoked sausage that's available in your local grocery store.
So we've preheated our cast-iron right over the heat. Gonna add a little oil.
And our shredded chicken.
We're gonna add about a teaspoon of seasoning, our Cajun seasoning. And now,
we're just gonna cook this for a couple of minutes until the chicken gets a little color on it.
That's the sound you wanna hear. Now, we're not trying to brown it so it's fried chicken,
but we are just trying to get some of this... What you see left on the bottom of the skillet.
That's what we're aiming for. So now, we're gonna take this out. Now we're gonna add some more oil,
and we're gonna fry our sausage. So what we want... We wanna get some color on this sausage
so we can continue to build our base on the bottom. And this'll cook for a couple of minutes.
That's the sound of love-making you wanna hear. Mm-mm-mm.
Now, you can do one of two things. You can keep cooking this so it can keep frying,
or you can do what I'm about to do. Take this out, so we don't overcook our proteins.
So we put half of the onion into the chicken, and the other half of the onion,
bell pepper, and celery, we left raw so we can fry it up.
However, we took the ones out of the cavity, chopped it up, add it in.
Add a little seasoning. We're gonna cook this until it's translucent,
so it can pick up all of that fine that the chicken and sausage left behind.
So it's important to scrape the bottom of the pot to pick up all of that flavor.
Now, we're gonna add our rice.
And we're gonna stir it to make sure it gets coated with all of this good fat. The
main reason why I enjoy using a brown parboiled rice is because jambalaya has a particular look
and a particular texture. The brown rice is gonna ensure that you're getting a good jambalaya color
without overcooking the fine from your sausage and your chicken, which will yield a dry meat. Also,
you don't have to cheat and use a kitchen bouquet just so you can get this brown color.
But using the brown rice will definitely have a tougher grain on it, so you won't overcook the
rice. You'll still get that perfect rice consistency that has a little bite to it,
but you know that it's cooked and creamy when you bite into it. See how evenly coated the rice is
with the oil? That's what you're looking for. Now, we dump. Now we'll add our chicken and sausage.
We're going to add our garlic. Thyme.
And bay leaf. Cajun Creole seasoning, And some cayenne.
Always overseason your jambalaya because the rice is gonna act like a sponge and soak up
every ounce of flavor you thought you put in here. So always overseason your rice.
We're gonna add some Worcestershire sauce.
And some chicken stock and beef stock. Give it a good stir,
Bring it up to a boil.
Cover. And slide it off the heat, so it cooks indirectly. The main reason why I love
indirect cooking is because I can turn my grill into a stove and an oven at the exact same time.
So that's why I decided to cook my vegetables and brown my meats directly over the heat. And that's
why, when it was time for me to cook my rice, I covered it and slid it over to the cool side
and closed it. Now, I just took my grill from a grill to an oven. And this is very important,
especially with the jambalaya. You want it to have a nice, steady, low fire because, once again,
we're cooking it in a cast iron, so it's already retaining all of that heat in it,
and this retention of heat is gonna let this cook perfectly for 35 minutes. And your grill should be
between 375 and 400 degrees for this to come out 35 to 40 minutes. Perfect.
A very important technique that a lot of people miss when it comes to cooking rice is the fluffing
stage. This allows the rice to begin to aerate and begin to just do this wonderful magic that
nobody really knows, but this allows it to fluff. And fluffing just means that all of those kernels
that was nice and compact, now, they begin to open up and create this beautiful creamy rice texture
in your mouth. And that's a very pivotal thing to do in any rice dish that you make. Do not
just take any rice dish and take it from the stovetop to the dinner table. Fluff it,
cover it for a few minutes, and let it retain this natural heat and then serve it. And I'm
telling you, if you... If you break all rules and don't listen to me, make the dish twice and
try it both ways, and I guarantee you'll notice the difference. We're gonna add some green onions.
Save some for garnish. And then we're just gonna fluff it.
Get it all in there, mm-hmm. Aw yeah. Look at how prett-ay this is. Now, we're gonna cover it
for about another 10 minutes, just so those green onions can cook down,
and then it's time to eat. You don't have to shut your grill.
There's a inside phrase in New Orleans that people don't say, we follow it with action, and that's
that we eat to live. It doesn't matter if your momma's having a wedding. It doesn't matter if
your momma's having a divorce party. It doesn't matter if it's Mardi Gras. It doesn't matter if
Prince just died and we need to get together and have a second line to celebrate Prince's life.
Everybody is gonna find a reason to come together, cook something good, cook something delicious,
and have a party. It's just something in the lifeblood in this bayou. Maybe it's because
we're below sea level, and we don't know no better, but it is something special about
this city that it doesn't matter what's going on. We're gonna find a reason to celebrate. Mm!
Damn, that's good. Nice, spicy, tender, crunchy, moist
deliciousness. This will make Thibodaux and them down on the Cajun bayou nice and happy.
Damn!