Wild Rice Jambalaya with Turkey Kielbasa

I had the opportunity to make dinner for the family today, so I decided to go ahead and do the challenge recipe. I wanted to make a healthier version of the jambalaya, so I decided to use shrimp, chicken breast, and turkey polska kielbasa sausage as meats in this dish. I noticed that the turkey sausage only had about 1/3 of the fat of any of the other sausages available and so it seemed the likely candidate. I also decided to use a mix of whole brown and wild rices as the base for the more health-conscious alternative to the white rice.

I used the following ingredients:

* 28 jumbo shrimp (precooked)

* 1/2 pound of chicken breast (cut into small pieces)

* 2 tablespoons of  Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning

* 4 Tbsp Olive Oil

* 1/2 cup chopped onion

* 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

* 1/2 cup chopped celery

* 8 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)

* 1 cup of diced tomatoes

* 6 bay leaves

* 2 tsp worcestershire sauce

* 1 tsp Tapatío hot sauce

* 1 1/2 cups brown/wild rice mix

*  3 1/2 cups chicken stock

* 10 oz turkey polska kielbasa sausage

I prepared the dish per Emeril’s recipe except that I precooked this rice in broth for about 30 minutes prior to using it in his recipe (for a total cook time of about 55 minutes) to account for the rice being whole grain.

I thought the dish had good flavors, was nice and spicy, and was hearty. My only complaints were that it was too salty and that the shrimp was slightly overcooked. In retrospect I realized I forgot to double the amount of chicken stock in the original recipe and this is the likely culprit of the salty flavor, since there was less liquid in the dish to dilute the salt.  As for the shrimp, I probably should have tossed them in the mix during the last 3 minutes or so since they were previously cooked. Everyone who had this for dinner said it was tasty, with one adult reporting it salty and the kids reporting it too spicy. Remember fellow Taste-Buds, I reduced the amount of hot sauce in this by half and it was still reported as eye-wateringly spicy by all who tried it (I thought it was just right though).