City Jambalaya

My daughter loves andouille sausage.  Usually I put it in gumbo for her.  I was trying to think of a dish I could make during the week since my gumbo recipe takes 4 hours to make.  I haven't made jambalaya in years but had in the past, trying a variety of different recipes.  I decided to come up with my own recipe based on what I liked in past recipes.  I remembered that most of the recipes I have made did not have tomato in them but the dish I tried in New Orleans did.  It turns out most "city" jambalaya recipes have tomato and "country" ones don't.  I decided to go with tomatoes because I was not going to be cooking everything as long as the past country recipes recommended and I thought it would help add flavor quick.  This turned out very tasty and everyone kept coming in to tell me how good it smelled, wanting to know when we could eat!

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

12 oz of andouille sausage, sliced into rounds

1 lb of thin sliced boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes

1 tbsp of butter

1 cup of basmati rice

1 tbsp creole seasoning

2 cups of chicken stock

1 1/4 cups of strained tomatoes

1/2 tsp salt

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup of parsley, minced

3 scallions, sliced

Pour a small amount of olive oil in the bottom of a large dutch oven and heat over medium heat.  Add in the onion, green pepper and celery and sauté for about 5-8 minutes until just beginning to soften.  Add in the sausage and cook for 5 more minutes until the sausage begins to release some of it's fat.  Make a well in the middle of the pan and add in the chicken, stirring until the pink is gone on all sides but not cooked through.  Add in the butter and then the rice.  Stir to coat the and sauté the rice for about 2 minutes.  Add in the creole seasoning and stir for 1 more minute.  Pour in the stock, tomatoes, salt and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 35 minutes or until the rice is tender and almost all of the liquid is absorbed (dish should be moist, not dry).  Stir in the parsley and scallions and serve.