Jambalaya Calculator Jambalaya
Makes 6 quarts, or 23 cups (or 15 small servings, 11 medium servings, 8 large servings)
4-1/2 pounds (4.56 lbs.) meat (chicken thighs, sausage, pork, ham, etc.)
Salt, pepper and/or favorite seasoning mix
Oil for browning
4-1/2 cups (1.82 pounds) long-grain rice
9 (9.12) cups water or stock
3 tablespoons soup base if using water instead of stock
1-1/3 teaspoons salt (1.4 teaspoons)
1-1/2 cups chopped onions (.4 pounds, 1.55 cups)
1-1/2 bell peppers, chopped (1.7 bell peppers)
7 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup (.2 cups) chopped parsley
4 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon (.9 teaspoon) cayenne
1/2 teaspoon (.5 teaspoon) black pepper
1/2 teaspoon (.5 teaspoon) white pepper
Slice the sausage and cut the meat into cubes. (Try to keep a small piece of fat on each piece as it tenderizes the meat and adds great taste.) Season meat pieces well with salt and pepper or your favorite seasoning mix.
Brown the pork down really well in oil. Let it fry till it sticks, then stir. Do that over and over. Sometimes a little water is needed to cool off the grease. The sticky part (gratin) on the bottom of the pot will dictate the color of the rice.
You can remove the browned meat from the pot, but many cooks choose to leave it in while browning the other meats. Add chicken and brown it well.
Next, mildly brown the sausage. Don't cook the sausage till fried dark brown because that tends to cooks all the taste out..
Drain the grease but don't lose the gratin. Then add the onions, green pepper, celery and garlic powder. Cook until clear-looking. This is when you scrape the bottom of the pot, getting all the brown gratin from the pork. This is where the color starts to come in.
After the vegetables are cooked, add the meat back to the pot and mix well. Cook all the liquid out at this time.
Add water or stock. After it comes to a boil, start tasting the liquid and add salt and other seasonings as needed. It needs to be a bit salty because the rice will absorb much of the saltiness.
Skim the remaining grease off the top. The boiling action will help separate it from the water/broth.
Add the green onions, then bring mixture back to a rolling boil. Add the rice. Break it up to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom. Let it boil until it starts to expand and "jump out the pot" (some will rise to the top of the liquid). This is a very important time relevant to the "popping" of the rice. Let the rice get noticeably bigger/expanded before you cut down on the heat and cover. This can be achieved on a HARD boil, which is critical to the rice pop.
When you think it's ready to cover, cut back on the heat and put the lid on. Do not lift the cover for any reason!
Let this cook for about 25 minutes or so. A longer cooking time may be needed for very large volumes of rice.
Then roll the rice. Don't stir. Roll it from bottom to top. When you turn it this time, don't scrape the bottom of the pot because one exposed burnt rice grain will ruin the pot. Re-cover and cut the heat off.
Let sit for another 15 minutes and then uncover and serve.
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