Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

My husband is allowing me to blog one of his meals tonight. This is a recipe that my husband got from a co-worker years ago. The original recipe was different and over the years it has morphed into what we make today. It's not your traditional jambalaya, but it is a very tasty one-pot meal. Here at home we usually serve it with tortilla chips, when my husband makes it at work he usually serves cornbread.

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

• 2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken (can be a whole chicken or boneless, skinless breasts)
• 2 cups water
• 1 pound ground sausage
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 16 ounce cans stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 hot pepper, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the chicken in the water along with salt and pepper. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove chicken, strain broth. If using a whole chicken, remove meat from bones and skin. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. If using chicken breasts you may want to add some bouillon to the water to make a more flavorful broth.

In the same pot, brown the sausage. Drain fat. Add in the chicken, broth and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

For the best flavor, use the same pot for all steps of the recipe.

Sausage Bean Casserole

I found this recipe in KMay's blog and since we are big fans of beans and sausage we had to give it a try. I've made quite a few recipes from this blog and haven't been disappointed yet. I made a few adjustments to the recipe to suit our tastes. It's an extremely easy dish to make, only dirties one pot, and tastes great as leftovers.

Sausage Bean Casserole

• 1 cup chopped onion (about one medium onion)
• 1 lb ground sausage
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 14 ounce can chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 16 ounce cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 2 cups frozen chopped spinach

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown sausage, add onion and saute until soft. Add garlic, saute 2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, scraping pan to loosen brown bits. Stir in brown sugar, tomato paste, thyme, pepper, beans and bay leaf. Add red pepper and spinach. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, remove lid and bake for 15 minutes.

Cabbage Sausage Soup

A coworker gave me this recipe years ago when we had the world's largest cabbage to use up that we had bought at the farmer's market. It looked like the recipe came from a local fundraiser type cookbook, so I can't site a source here.

This recipe could easily be made vegetarian by omitting the sausage and it would still be a delicious soup. But I prefer to make it with my favorite sausage, Bob Evans Zesty Hot.

Cabbage Sausage Soup

• 2 cups sliced carrots
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 pound ground sausage
• 4 cups shredded cabbage
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 14.5 oz can whole tomatoes
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 bay leaf

Combine carrots, onions and sausage in a frying pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sausage is browned and vegetables are crisply tender. Pour off fat. In a soup pot, combine remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Stir in sausage and veggies. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until stew is thickened.

Cabbage Roll Casserole

First off, I'm going to apologize again for the picture. I promise it looks more appetizing than this in person, but when it gets dark in Michigan at 5:30 at night, it's tough to get a decent shot.

On to your regularly scheduled blog post . . .

I had cabbbage rolls for the first time a few years ago and decided I needed to try to make them at home. Then I got to thinking about all the work involved and changed my mind. So I hit up Recipezaar and found this. With just a few tiny adjustments I got to my current recipe.

I usually use my favorite Bob Evan's Spicy Hot Sausage, but this time we had some sausage we bought from a fundraiser so we used that instead. I also usually use regular green cabbage, but switched in Nappa cabbage instead. I think that if I were to use Nappa again I would eliminate the water and reduce the oven time, as it was a bit soupier than normal.

Cabbage Roll Casserole

• 1 pound ground sausage or beef
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 quart stewed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 6 cups cabbage, shredded
• 1 cup water
• salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat in a sauce pan. Add onion and garlic, saute until tender. Add tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil, add rice. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Place half of cabbage in a greased casserole dish, cover with half of rice mixture. Repeat layers. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour.

Split Pea Sausage Soup

Bob Evans Hot sausage. Almost without fail, if I have a recipe that calls for any type of sausage, I will switch it to Bob Evans Hot sausage. It's the kind that comes in a one pound roll of ground sausage, and the hot variety is in the red package. It adds such good flavor to everything I use it in.

So many years ago when I was looking for a pea soup recipe and found one that called for cut up link sausage of some sort, I used my beloved Bob Evans Hot instead. And for 8+ years now I have never made pea soup any other way. I'm not sure exactly where I got this recipe, only that it was online, so if it looks familiar to anyone please let me know so I can give credit to the original.

Also, a little product rave. I am in love with mini saltine crackers. They are so good and so cute, and they get a cheapy like me to spring for name brand instead of generic (I'll even buy the store brand sausage if I don't have a Bob Evans coupon).

Split Pea and Spicy Sausage Soup

• 1 16 ounce package dry split peas
• 10 cups water
• 1 pound ground sausage
• 5 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 1/2 cups chopped carrot
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 onion, chopped

Brown sausage. Combine all ingredients. Cook in a slow cooker on high for 4 to 5 hours, or simmer in a stock pot over low heat for 2 to 3 hours, stirring often.