I love kielbasa. I’m like half-Polish, so I blame it on that. Also, game day meals at my parents house always consisted of this awesome meat on sub sandwiches, at least until Roethlis-burgers were invented!
I still love this meat, however it is new and different to my new husband. A sandwich of only this meat is too foreign for him just yet. So our current favorite way of enjoying my favorite meat is in Jambalaya! But, if you know me you know I need a class of water when I walk past cajun seasoning; I just do not like spicy food. So this idea would seem counterproductive. However, I found a really nice, calm/mellow recipe that we just love.
We started with using a box-rice dinner that I just had to add the meat too. But with a bit of extra chopping, I get some (real) vegetables and a spice combination that I control, which is crucial for this genre of food.
The original recipe was submitted to allrecipes by Grant Michael.
- 2 t olive oil
- 1-2 cup chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1/2 lb kielbasa, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1 t garlic powder
- 1/4 t cayenne pepper
- 1/2 t onion powder
- dash of salt and ground black pepper
- 2 cups uncooked white rice
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 t Worcestershire sauce
- 1 t hot pepper sauce
Saute first set of ingredients until onion is translucent (a few minutes). Then toss in rice and broth/stock and bay leaves. Bring to boil, reduce heat for simmer, continue simmer for 25 minutes (that’s how long I cook all of my rice, it is always perfect). Stir in sauces before serving.
I ususally have cooked chicken in my freezer and kielbasa is already cooked, so I just saute the vegetables with their spices for a few minutes, maybe toss the meat at the end with it all to heat it up (but the meat warms up in boiling water just fine). But bite-size is the best way to cook up a couple chicken breasts quickly. We used this amazing kielbasa that we found at our local warehouse store which had plenty of kick all in itself.
I actually left out the hot sauce (mainly because we don’t own any and I couldn’t see using it on other things) and it was still amazing. Well, for me. I would not recommend leaving this part out for the majority of families. But it helps for picky eaters and can be added on a plate by plate basis.
Some possible yummy additions include: red beans, shrimp, Cajun seasoning, or a can of diced tomatoes.