Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

I'm back!

Spent a week with Charles in Boston.  Had a great time, I really love that area.  Told myself I would update, but I didn't.  Oops.

Today's recipe is one I've had saved for over a year, and last night, I finally decided to make it.  I frequent a site called Reddit (Frequent?  Ha, it's really an addiction to a time sink!), and I give all the credit to user sardonicsalmon for posting his in-law's grandmother's recipe for chicken jambalaya.

Be warned, you can feed a small village with this recipe.  But, it freezes well, so do what you will!  It also takes up a large chunk of time to prepare, so it's a great all-day weekend food-project.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, giblets removed (mine was about 3 lbs.)
2 quarts, or more, of water
5-6 hot Italian/cajun/andouille sausage (whatever you can find)
6 (yes, 6) medium onions, diced
3 green bell peppers, diced
3 red bell peppers, diced
6 stalks of celery, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 serrano chiles (or jalapenos, or chipotles), minced
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1 T. thyme leaves
2 t. marjoram
Hot sauce to taste
1 T. salt
1 t. black pepper
2 cups of rice (not instant; I used a wild rice blend per the recommendation of a commenter)

Instructions:

You can do this in one pot or two.  Use a heavy-bottomed stock pot or a dutch oven, but whatever you use, make sure it has a heavy lid.

Take your chicken and place it in a large pot, pour the water over it (enough water to cover it) and bring to a boil over high heat.  Turn down your heat and simmer until the chicken meat is falling off the bones (about 30-45 minutes).  Remove, allow to cool a bit, and pull all the meat off, chopping into bite-sized pieces.  Place the chicken bones, skin, etc. back into the pot and continue boiling to create your chicken stock.  After about an hour, remove the chicken parts, strain the mixture, and cook down until it is about 1/3 of the original amount of stock.  Make sure you have enough to cook the rice per package instructions (about 4-5 cups).

You can empty out the pot and reserve the stock in a bowl, or use another pot now.

Place sausages, whole, in the pot and brown over medium-high heat.  Make sure it's fatty sausage so that you render out some grease.  When just cooked through, remove the sausage and reserve, slicing it into bite-sized pieces.

Add in all the chopped veggies (onions, peppers, garlic, chiles, celery) and turn the heat down to medium-low.  Cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are cooked down a bit and translucent (no browning, though).   It looks like a lot, but as the original poster said, it will reduce by half, at least.

Add in the herbs, salt, pepper, and hot sauce.  Stir and cook about 5 more minutes, taste, and correct seasoning.

Add in the meats and rice.  Stir in your stock.  My veggies had let out a lot of water, and I ended up only using a few cups of my chicken stock to cook the rice properly.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to LOW and place the lid on the pot.  Cook for 50 minutes, no stirring, no bothering.  It won't burn.

When done, remove from heat, and allow to sit for about 10 minutes with the lid on.  Serve!

This is fantastic, and I hear it's even better leftover.  Enjoy, everyone!