Steel-Cut Oats Jambalaya

Cooking Light Carb-Conscious Cookbook, p. 61

Cooking spray

1 lb. skinless boneless chicken thigs, cut into ½-in. pieces

1 ¼ tsp. kosher salt, divided

8 oz. andouille sausage, thinly sliced

2 Tbsp. canola oil

2 cups chopped white onion

1 cup diced celery

1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper

8 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

¾ tsp. dried oregano

½ tsp. ground red pepper

2 bay leaves

1 cup uncooked quick-cooking steel-cut oats

2 ½ cups unsalted chicken stock

1 (14.5-oz.) can unsalted diced tomatoes, undrained

12 oz. peeled and deveined medium shrimp

½ cup sliced green onions

Festive veggies.

Hooray for chicken andouille!

Heat a Dutch Oven over medium high. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan, and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt; cook 4 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Add sausage; saute 2 minutes. Remove mixture from pan.

Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add white onion, celery, bell peppers, and garlic; saute 8 minutes or until tender, scraping pan occasionally to loosen browned bits. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon salt paprika, the next 4 ingredients (through bay leaves); saute 1 minute. Add oats; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add stock and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 4 minutes. Return chicken mixture to pan, and add shrimp, cook 5 minutes or until shrimp and oats are done and mixture thickens. 

I can't figure out if bay leaves actually do anything, but here it is anyway.

Sprinkle with green onions.

Well it looks like jambalaya, mostly, so that's good.

My Rating: 4/5 "I was picturing this looking like a bowl of breakfast oatmeal with sausage and vegetables in it. (Like regular jambalaya looks like rice with stuff in it, you know?) Instead it was much soupier than expected. The oats didn't add much texture; if I didn't know there were in there I might have mistaken them for one of the sauteed vegetables. Now in the end this had great flavor and I was happy for the taste of Louisiana, but the oats were... unusual."