Jambalaya

If you are in need of a quick, easy and delicious recipe to brighten up a weekday dinner or serve to a group of friends look no further than Jambalaya. I have had Jambalaya a few times but never made it myself and we ended up with some spare chorizo so I thought why not give it a go!

To serve four people (with generous portions) you will need:

• celery
• onion
• 2 x garlic cloves
• tin of tomatoes
• 350ml chicken stock
• four skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• king prawns
• red pepper
• chorizo (the more the merrier)
• olive oil
• Cajun seasoning
• paprika
• bay leaf
• spring onion
• sea salt and black pepper
• 250g long grain rice

All recipe's differ but I made it easy for myself. I chopped up the chicken and chorizo along with the red pepper, celery, spring onion and onion and stir fried in a big pan on a medium heat in a little olive oil. At this point I also threw in the king prawns and two crushed garlic cloves. Once everything was browned and smelling delicious I added three spoonful's of Cajun seasoning, one of paprika, a bay leaf some salt and pepper (adjust quantities as per your own taste). Once mixed in I added the rice, the chicken stock and a tin of tomatoes.

I put the heat on the pan, turned the temperature right down and allowed the whole concoction to simmer for 20-25 minutes. The result was perfectly cooked fluffy rice filled with delicious ingredients and full of flavour. The washing up was minimal and the preparation time was less than ten minutes. You could easily make this in advance of having friends over and heat up at dinner time. Equally this is a great dish for lunchtime leftovers the following day.

If you want to impress without the hassle I would definitely recommend giving this one a go!