Jambalaya-ish

I made jambalaya this afternoon. Maybe it's not true jambalaya, but it's jambalaya-ish.

It's pretty plug-and-play, especially since I cheat and use a lot of shortcuts -- I put it together from whatever I have handy, throw it all into the rice cooker and let it go.

I don't really have a recipe, it's more like a procedure:

• Rice: Two cups of white rice into the rice cooker with the normal amount of water or chicken broth.


• Something Green: Usually a bundle of cilantro, diced (though this time, I used parsley), and also a bit of green onion


• Meat: I chop up a sausage-style meat product, usually a kielbasa.
  
  (On a side note, the turkey kielbasa says "pork and beef added" -- they might as well just call it "meat.")
  
  This time around, also I browned some chicken and added it in (which I don't usually do)


• Red: Half a jar or so of spaghetti sauce, until it gets to the right color


• Spices & Stuff: I have a fairly basic spice collection, and I tend to use the same combinations in everything (like my meatloaf): garlic and onion powder, cayenne pepper, chili powder, some sriracha sauce, basil, black and red pepper. Also, a bit of soy sauce and some olive oil.
  
  I also had some plum tomatoes and I minced some garlic and put it in.

That's about it, just dump it all in the rice cooker and press the button. With my rice cooker, I need to check it after the button pops, stir, and add a bit more water and press the button again, but that's about it.

It came out pretty good -- not as much heat as I would have liked, and could probably have used some more salt. Oh, and I should have seasoned the chicken before browning it. Sometimes the rice at the bottom gets mushy, but it wasn't too bad here.

About the only bad thing is that there's a lot of it -- I'll probably be eating it for dinner every night this week.

Tags: jambalaya, rice cooker