Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a dish from New Orleans, Louisiana. It has origins from France and Spain. Jambalaya can be known for its spiciness, but you can control how much you add. I learned about this recipe from my Food Literacy class at Utah State University. It is a simple meal and gives you good practice for knife cuts, mise en place, cooking meats, and removing the chicken tendons from the tenderloins.

Recipe provided by Abby Sundell Family

PROCESS/MY EXPERIENCE

It was easy to manage my time with this recipe, especially since I prepared with Mise en Place before starting to cook the meal. This will save a lot of time and save you a lot of stress while cooking the meal. The cooking techniques aren’t overly complicated.

I loved how the Jambalaya turned out. It has a great flavor and has a good mix of meat, vegetables, and rice. It is something that you can have as a main dish and pair with many sides.

COST BREAKDOWN

Ingredient	Amount	AP Unit Cost	Recipe Ingredient Cost
Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage	8 oz	$3.98/14 oz	$2.28
Chicken Tenderloins	8 oz	$8.72/18 oz	$3.88
Oil	1-2 Tbsp	$2.28/8.5 fl oz or 1 Tbsp	$0.23
Onion	1 cup	$0.46/onion	$0.46
Celery	1/2 cup	$1.77/lb or 2.26 cups	$0.39
Green Pepper	1/2 cup	$0.77/pepper	$0.77
Garlic	1 tsp	$0.44/bulb or 10 cloves	$0.044
Tony Chachere’s Seasoning	1/2 tsp	$2.00/7 oz bottle or 42 tsp	$0.024
Cajun Seasoning	1 tsp	$3.86/5 oz bottle or 30 tsp	$0.13
Kitchen Bouquet	1 1/2 tsp	$2.73/4 oz bottle or 24 tsp	$0.17
Chicken Broth	1.67 cups	$1.33/32 oz or 4 cups	$0.56
Rice	1 cup	$1.46/32 oz bag or 4 cups	$0.37
Green Onions	2 green onions	$0.88/bunch or 8 onions	$0.22
Total Recipe Cost			$9.53
Cost per serving (4 servings)			$2.38

Some Budget Friendly Tips:

• Get white rice from the USU SNAC Food Pantry
• Buy generic brands. Ex. Great Value brand at Walmart. All these ingredients can be found at Walmart.
• It is smart to buy in bulk. You can buy extra vegetables and use them in other recipes.

KNIFE CUTS

Knife cuts are an important skill to have. This skill can be used for the rest of your life. In this recipe, the knife cuts I used were dice and chop. Dice is to cut something up into cubes. A small dice is ¼ in. x ¼ in. x ¼ in. A medium dice is

½ in. x ½ in. x ½ in. The chop cut does not have any set measurements. I had to chop the chicken tenderloins after they were cooked. I cut them into about ½ in.

MISE EN PLACE

I decided to teach about Mise en Place. Mise en place means to put everything in its place. This includes measuring out ingredients, chopping ingredients, and getting out any equipment you may need before you start cooking. This is important because it helps save a lot of time and it makes things way less chaotic in the kitchen. It allows you to focus on properly cooking the food instead of having to do the steps all at once.

REMOVING THE TENDON FROM THE CHICKEN TENDERLOINS

Chicken Tenderloins have a tendon that can be removed from the middle. This tendon doesn’t need to be removed. It can be left in and cooked, however, it is more pleasant to eat when the tendon is removed. A simple way to do this is to grab the tip of the white tendon at the end of the tenderloin using a paper towel.