Slow Cooker Jambalaya

This is one of our new favorite recipes!  It is hearty and healthy and full of protein.  Hugh likes it because it includes shrimp.  ;)  In creating the recipe, I did some searching online for crockpot jambalaya recipes, but there aren't many out there, and there were none that I could find that actually used raw, healthy ingredients.  So after a few trials, I think this is the recipe that I will stick with (give or take based on what's in my pantry).

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup small red beans (dry, raw)
• 2/3 cup navy beans (dry, raw)
• 2/3 cup black beans (dry, raw)
• 3 cups chicken stock* (frozen or thawed)
• 3.5 cups water (just make sure you have between 6 and 7 cups of liquid, whether stock or water)
• 1.5 cups brown rice (uncooked)
• large (28 oz) can diced tomatoes** (undrained)
• 2 cups chopped onion***
• 1-2 chicken breasts (raw)
• 12 oz bag frozen shrimp (medium, raw, tail-off, peeled, de-veined)
• 3-5 heaping tablespoons creole seasoning****
• shredded cheddar cheese (optional)*****

Directions:

1. Sort, rinse, and then soak beans overnight (meaning you have to start this the night before)
2. Add stock, water, rice, tomatoes, and onion to 5-6 qt crockpot and store in fridge overnight
3. Go to bed and wake up  :)
4. Rinse beans, **boil on stove for 10 minutes** and then add them to crockpot, & stir  (red beans (and kidney beans) could have a toxin in them which you must boil to remove.  Better safe than sorry!!)
5. Place chicken breasts on top
6. Cook in crockpot (with lid) on high 4-5 hours OR low for 8-9 hours
7. Do fun stuff... that's why slow cookers were invented afterall, right?
8. With 30 minutes to spare 'til dinner, remove chicken breasts and stir in shrimp and seasoning
9. Shred chicken, stir back into crockpot, and serve with cheese if desired
10. If it's a little soupy at first, let it stand uncovered, and it will thicken.

Notes:
*I freeze my extra stock when I make my homemade chicken noodle soup.
**You can use fresh tomatoes, but it's not cost-effective for me since I don't have a garden.  Be sure to blanche them and remove the skin though!
***I use the frozen bag of chopped onion, celery, & bell peppers that my mom introduced me to a while back... it's my 'no more tears' solution!
****Two words, one name: Tony Chachere's.  One of my college friends from Louisiana told me that it was the only kind of creole seasoning worth keeping on the spice rack. I've lived by his advice.  ;)
*****Hugh likes shredded cheddar on any&every thing that's warm and stir-able.


Price Per Serving:
1.50  Beans (3 types, 1/3 bag each, ~1.50 per bag)
free   Chicken stock
0.50  Brown rice (1/3 of 32 oz bag, ~1.50 per bag)
1.30  Diced tomatoes (28 oz can)
2.00  Chicken breast (1 breast out of 5 from a frozen Harvestland box, ~$10 per box)
5.00  Shrimp (12 oz frozen bag)
1.40  Onions (1/5 of 5 lb bag, $7 per bag)
-----------
11.70  TOTAL

We get 8-10 servings from this recipe, but I'm going to use 9 in this calculation because that's how many we scored this last time I made it.

$1.30 per serving  ($.075 per serving if you leave out the shrimp & only use 1 chicken breast)

Pretty multi-colored beans

Soaking the beans

This is what my crockpot looks like when I put it in the fridge overnight

Crockpot when ready to turn on 

(stock is still a little frozen, beans stirred in, chicken on top)

I forgot to snag a picture when it was ready last time, so I'll try to add a picture of the final product the next time I make it.

Enjoy!!