A black pot of Cajun Pork Jambalaya is a defining Cajun recipe that speaks the language of Louisiana. But as is the case with many Louisiana dishes, there are two distinctly different styles of jambalaya in Louisiana–Creole and Cajun.
A black pot of rural Cajun pork jambalaya is a traditional Cajun recipe. (All photos credit: George Graham)
Perhaps, it is this Cajun recipe that most defines the two culinary cultures. The point is that Creole jambalaya includes tomatoes while traditional Cajun pork jambalaya does not. On the other hand, a Cajun recipe for jambalaya has a smoky, spicy flavor that originates from readily available smokehouse meats along with access to fresh-killed poultry or the bounty of the swamp. These are the building blocks of a tasty jambalaya and improvisation results in innovative combinations that become classics.
I’ve discovered that one key to great Cajun pork jambalaya is to sauté and brown all of the ingredients–meats and vegetables–in a cast-iron pot. This is what gives a Cajun recipe for jambalaya its bronze color and rich flavor. In addition, I like to deglaze the pot with beer before adding the stock and long-grain rice.
But to become a jambalaya master, it is important to start first with a basic rural Cajun pork jambalaya. In all Cajun cooking, this is a dish you will always see at a traditional French Acadian boucherie–the slaughtering of a whole hog. Armed with fresh pork, a variety of smoked sausages along with vegetables, herbs and spices, this Cajun recipe will introduce you to the fundamental principles. Soon you will be ready to jump into jambalaya cooking to explore the delicious depth of Cajun cooking.
- 4 strips of smoked bacon, chopped
- 2 cups diced onion
- 2 cups diced celery
- 2 cups diced green bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 cups sliced smoked pork sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup sliced andouille sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup diced tasso
- 1 cup diced ham
- ½ cup beer
- 1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 cup diced green onion tops
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
- Dash of hot sauce
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cups uncooked Louisiana long-grain white rice, such as Supreme
- 4 cups chicken stock
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- In a large, heavy cast-iron pot with a heavy lid over medium-high heat, fry the bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon, chop into pieces and save for later.
- Add the onions, celery, and bell pepper to the bacon drippings. Cook until translucent and add the garlic. Cook for another 2 minutes and then remove the vegetables to a platter.
- In the same pot, add the sausages, tasso, and ham. Continue to sauté until the meats turn brown, about 5 to 10 minutes. Deglaze the pot by pouring in the beer and scraping the bits from the bottom of the pot while stirring.
- Add the bacon pieces, all of the browned vegetables, parsley, and green onions. Add the cayenne and a couple of shakes of hot sauce along with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Add the rice to the pot and stir until evenly distributed. Add the stock and stir again.
- Here is the important point of jambalaya cooking – cover the pot and place in the hot oven for 1 hour. Open a cold beer and forget about it. Do not stir or even raise the lid on the pot for the first hour. In that hour, all the flavors are coming together, and the rice is gently cooking.
- At the end of 1 hour, take a peek, but do not stir (or it will become sticky and starchy). Make sure most of the stock has been absorbed and take a taste to see if the rice is cooked to at least al dente. If so, turn off the oven, cover the pot and let it continue cooking in the carryover heat of the oven for another 20 minutes.
- When your guests are seated, remove the pot from the oven and place in the middle of the table. Uncover and dig in. Oh, and be sure to have lots of French bread and ice-cold beer.
Cajun Pork jambalaya — a recipe that defines Cajun cooking.
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Will the rice cook properly if I use a 9-qt cast iron pot? It seems larger than the one pictured.
Sallie – Yes, but be sure to cover with a heavy lid and seal in the steam. All the best.
My Grandmother used to make jambalaya with pork short ribs and a lite roux. Do you have a recipe for this? Johnny Murray
Johnny – I do not have that particular recipe, but if you follow my Cajun Pork Jambalaya and substitute pork ribs, you should come close. But rest assured, nothing will ever duplicate the love that went into your grandmother’s black iron pot. All the best.
Just made this and it was delicious, but not nearly as brown as yours. Any idea where I went wrong?
Hey Katy – Browning the meats adds flavor and color to the dish. Try browning a little longer next time. All the best.
My girlfriend, from high school, and her family were from Louisiana close to New Orleans and her mom would make her jambalaya with salt pork and bacon, sometimes sausage. I remember it being just a few ingredients (always tried to get her to teach me the recipe, too big of a secret) but it was so good. This recipe kind of reminds me of that.
Can this recipe be doubled or tripled?
Phylis – Yes, this is easily scalable, but the cooking time will be longer. All the best.
George, how do I scale this recipe? Making it tomorrow for my son’s birthday party and just realized I needed to adjust cooking time (and possibly temp)!
Cole- Scaling a recipe up to make more does not take anymore time or temp to cook. If you want to double the recipe then add more meat and vegetables along with more stock and rice. The seasoning should stay the same, and the cooking time and temp should be approximately the same. If it needs more cooking time, then check it in 15 minute stages. I hope this helps.
Spent 35 years in south Louisiana and Mississippi; now back in Oklahoma. Sure miss those Cajun and Creole dishes. Make them here but not getting shrimp from the docks just ain’t quite the same. LOL
Ain’t it the truth about that Gulf coast shrimp fresh from the docks!!! I sure miss that myself!!
I am a born Louisiana native and lived there for more than the first decade of my life. To quote my Cajun heritage,(imagine a true Cajun coonie accent as you read) Ooooweee, sha, this Jambalaya recipe looks like the real deal… I garrrruuuunteee! Lol! On a serious note, there are few things to none at all that are better than a good bowl of authentic Cajun Jambalaya! This recipe definitely incorporates some of the basic necessities when making a real jambalaya: a cast iron skillet/pot, and brown up that meat to lock in the juices before you finish it off with a slow cook! 100 % necessary to attain that juicy, tender, fall apart on the fork as you take a bite of meat. I have long since moved away from my Louisiana roots and now reside in land-locked Colorado. The only things I miss about living further down south is being near the ocean (my happy place), being able to get good authentic andouille sausage, and being able to easily get good seafood like shrimp (would be a fabulous addition to this jambalaya recipe) and my favorite seafood on earth … crabs…. oh how I miss those things! I will save this recipe as a starting point next time I decide to cook up a pot of jambalaya for my family. Thanks for actually posting a legitimate jambalaya recipe and not a bland rice dish that happens to have sausage in it. Big thumbs up here.
Can I ask one question regarding the recipe? Do you know if any adjustments to cook time or temperature will need to be made for high altitudes? Here in Colorado where I live we are at a mile high altitude, which is a whole lot higher than where I came from at below sea level in Louisiana. Often times adjustments must be made for the altitude. Are you aware of adjustments need to be made for this recipe? Would hate to mess up the cooking process of the rice by scooping into it before it’s actually cooked properly.
Hey Dana-
Thanks for the great comments and kind words. As for altitude and cooking time, this is mostly adjusted for very precise cooking in pastries and baking rather than a hearty dish like jambalaya. This recipe is very forgiving on cooking time and no adjustments are needed. Please give us an update report on your Mile-High Jambalaya, and let us know how it turns out. All the best to my Rocky Mountain friend.
I just wanted to say thank you, so much! My family has a 2 year old with an extremely discerning pallet, so much so that she won’t even eat a chicken breast. I can make your recipe verbatim (with just dialing back the heat a bit) and for once, my wife and I don’t have to worry about whether or not she’ll eat dinner. And since it’s just the three of us, we’ll easily get three meals out of each batch. In these times, it’s so appreciated that we have one less thing to worry about.
Best regards,
Matt
George, just made this over the weekend at Toledo Bend. Traded pork for chicken and (shhhhhssh) added two cans of diced tomatoes. Turned out great and was a crowd-pleaser. The oven method is great, thanks so much. Best regards and thanks for a great site.
PS: Buy his cookbook; It’s the most authentic I’ve found on “normal day to day” Cajun cooking. Great resource.
Hey Jason- Thanks so much for the kind words and your endorsement of my cookbook. All the best to you, and please post your comments again.
Hey George, It appears that the recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc. Can it be cut in half? Assuming this would reduce the cooking time?
Robert- Everything can be adjusted up or down with ingredients, but there are certain principles at work in cooking time. For example, it takes just a long to cook a lot of rice as it does for half as much. So, I would adjust the amount of ingredients but leave the cooking time the same. As long as you do not stir the pot (it will turn mushy), it is difficult to overcook this jambalaya. Best to you.
George, Thanks so much for your thoughts. Your reasoning sounds right on. Making this Jambalaya this holiday weekend. You have a good holiday weekend!
Loved it. I cook it here in the UK and sometimes add langusteins.
Hi! This recipe has become a family favorite with this winter storm in LA. I made this recipe with any type of Cajun sausage I had in the freezer; this time I even added chicken jalapeño, pork and beef sausage. I also used sausage stuffed, bone-in pork chops, and instead of tasso, I used cubed ham. And instead of chicken, I used smoked turkey leg meat. It was delicious! True warmth & comfort food. Thank you George.
Thanks Guilliot!
Please define hot oven.
What temperature?
Patricia- See Step #1: Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
My kids were studying the Acadian expulsion from eastern Canada at school, and at home, we explored Cajun culture a bit more and ended up trying this recipe. Everyone loved it, and it has become a family favorite and regular birthday meal choice. This afternoon I’m going to try it on the BBQ, because we are dealing with a heatwave in western Canada and running the oven is a bit hot 🙂 Thank you for posting this recipe!
This was really good! My husband is always asking me to make jambalaya, but I really don’t want to fuss with the preparation of the shrimp. This was perfect for us! I added more spices and garlic as well as cut the kielbasa into larger pieces. It was great!
I love your recipes and the stories that accompany them. And, your cookbook, Acadiana Table, is fantastic! My friend was on a duck hunt with you and the guys pictured in the cookbook. As for this recipe: I’m interested in the 1:1 ratio of rice to liquid. Do you have anything to say about how or why this works in this recipe? Thanks for all your great recipes and cooking advice!
Hey Leslie – Thanks for the kind words. As for the ratio, I arrive at my recipes through trial and error, and it usually takes more than one attempt. Give this one a try and see if it works for you. All the best.
I just returned from a trip to New Orleans, not having been there in 40 years. Picked up some authentic andouille sausage and tasso ham and used it with this recipe. This was a really good technique, the flavor was outstanding and the color perfect. The only challenge I had is that it came out a little dry, and it stuck to the cast-iron pot. However, the rice was perfectly separate with each individual kernel, so no mush, whatsoever. I am trying to understand what I might have done wrong, and the only thing I can think of is I brought the rice and stock to a boil before I put it into the oven. Should I have not done that? Do you just place it in the oven after you add the stock? No boiling? I am so used to bringing the rice and stock to a boil before I put it on a low simmer when I cook rice on the stove top.
Tony – I’m not sure what happened, but next time do not boil the rice ahead and add more stock to the recipe. All the best.
Have anyone heard of making Jambalaya with pork neckbones from scratch? Good.
I read your recipe with some interest and a little amusement. I am Louisiana born and raised. My Dad, a share cropper rice farmer as a boy and young man, taught me to cook, beginning when I was 8 years old. Everything I know about southern Louisiana Cajun and Creole cooking I learned from him. I grew up knowing that Jambalaya was an end of the week dish that we used to clear the fridge of left overs from the week. We always looked forward to Jambalaya Friday or Saturday night. We never made Jambalaya as a stand alone meal beginning with fresh meats. as a married woman, I do now make Jambalaya as a stand alone meal because with just my husband and me, we don’t cook every night. I find that Jambalaya tastes best when using left over rice. It is all in how you season and the quality of the stock used in the Jambalaya. My Dad never, ever, used any type of alcohol in his nightly meal cooking. He felt that they worked so heard that they all needed the nutrition of the homemade stocks and not alcohol in meals. I never got used to using alcohol in cooking meals. Tried it, don’t care for the after taste. Not ALL Louisianan’s drink heavily or cook with beer wine or other alcohols. Also, I do not cook with Cayenne pepper. I do cook with a quality hot pepper sauce. Just for flavor, not for heat. I can’t tell you how many people I have cooked for that expressed surprise and delight when eating my food. They were surprised that it was not so pepper hot, that I it disguised the true flavor of a good cooked Cajun or Creole meal.
If you are concerned about starchy rice, rinse the rice before you begin to cook it. I began cooking with rice straight from the field. Consequently, I had to clean the rice before I cooked it. That included making sure there was no rocks, hulls, sticks, or dirt in the rice. Then I rinsed and drained it several times, then cooked it in whatever recipe I had going. I never had to worry about sticky rice, even though I was using broken grain rice most of the time. It was what we had.
I noticed that it was emphasized not to crack the lid open on the pot once in the oven. That is a basic tenet of cooking successful rice from the get-go. Once you get the rice to a boil, turn it down to simmer, cover and do not peek for at least 20 minutes! That’s how my Dad taught me.
On another note, if we went to another’s home for dinner and they cooked with a lot of red pepper, my Dad had told me that that was an indication that they had never been taught the basics of flavoring with herbs and spices. Hot peppered food does not equate well flavored food or tasty food. In fact, cayenne pepper kills the ability of the taste buds to distinguish the different subtle flavors of herbs and some spices.
Also, Gramdma had said that if anyone used cayenne pepper on cooked food at the table, it was telling the cook that they did not like the taste of the cook’s food. It is a direct insult. No one ever used cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes on Grandma’s food, according to my Dad. Use of hot sauce was not frowned upon, as it was the hot sauce she cooked with. The same goes on my table. I have been cooking for 62 years and my Dad has been gone for more than 30 years. He gave me a gift worth more than I can place a value upon. To be able to prepare authentic Cajun and Creole cuisines in the old and original methods. I rarely see some of the dishes I learned from my Dad. All of the dishes were passed down from his Mother, who passed away before I was born.
Virginia- I love this. Your food memories are tantalizing and informative. The detail for which you describe your family’s heritage of cooking points to how important the kitchen is to Cajun family culture. Thanks for sharing.
I loved reading your thoughts on Cajun cooking. Would you share some of your family recipes?
If I wanted to add some oysters and shrimp to this dish, at what stage should I do it? If the jambalaya can’t be stirred after the lid goes on… it seems like the seafood would be rubbery if adding it before putting it in the oven to cook.l for a hour or so.
McKee- This is one of those casserole-type dishes where seafood cooks long and slow, releasing its flavor into the dish. The moisture inside the jambalaya will keep the seafood from drying out. Go ahead and add the seafood at the same time as you add the rice and liquid. The flavors will meld into the pot with dramatic results. Let us know how it works.
This is my favorite base recipe, and what taught me how to make a dang good jambalaya, thank you so much!
I’m from CenLa, so while I have some Cajun roots, they are a little shallow, and there’s a lack of good Cajun fertilizer even only an hour or so north of I-10. So, I need a little help learning.
I wanted to add that for my setup, it comes out a little dry by the end of my second bowl—no matter if it’s all thighs- and that rich, dark, from-scratch, 36-hour chicken bone broth, or maybe I just eat it too fast and need to drink more sweet tea with it. Or it may be that my family doesn’t keep the lid on it or leaves the spoon in the heavy cast-iron Dutch oven so the steam escapes.
So, all this to say: A stick of butter in the pot (when I remember it) or a pat in my bowl helps a lot. Or, my boys have come to love it with a little cream of chicken (canned soup) mixed in (scratch cream of chicken is so much better!).
I’ve used this recipe almost enough to where it has given me the foundation to not have to refer back to it every time, and while the ancestors speak to me for the seasoning sometimes, this is perfect. Thank you for sharing what you know and helping a native Louisiana girl cook a little more like real Louisiana.
Tracey- So glad you have discovered my jambalaya recipe, and equally delighted that you have the confidence to experiment and explore new flavors using this base recipe. That is what cooking is all about. I sometimes call my kitchen, my “laboratory.” That’s when it gets exciting. Happy cooking to you and your family.
Good morning George , just one simple question! I am planning to prepare the Jambalaya this weekend and was gathering ingredients, your list shows 4 cups of stock for 4 cups of rice. Am I missing something. I always thought the ratio was 2:1 stock to rice! Thanks
Hey Paul-
Try the recipe as written; you will see that all of the added ingredients (beer, bacon drippings, meat juices, etc) will add enough steam for a well-balanced and perfectly cooked rice. By adding 2:1 ratio, you risk having a soupy jamabalaya. All the best.
Hi! I’ve made this recipe before and it’s soooo good!
What size pot do you recommend to double and or tripling the recipe? Does the cooking time stay the same?
Hey Desiree – I usually pull out my 12-quart Magnalite dutch oven for a job like this. Use any large pot; cast iron cookware is ideal. The cook-time should be relatively the same since with a heavy lid on the pot, the rice will steam and cook evenly. Follow the recipe, but taste the rice at the end of cooking, and if necessary, cover the pot and cook a little longer. All the best.
Thanks for your quick response! I was making my grocery list to get the ingredients and for some reason I was thinking the last time I made it it called for parboiled rice. Just checking before I run to the store.
Desiree-
Not parboiled but uncooked long grain white rice. This is the oven method (not stovetop), and the rice will cook evenly and soak up all the delicious flavors. All the best.
Making my first jambalaya ever which is crazy based on my affinity for it. I am planning to use pork butt, but I know jambalaya is considered a one-pot dish. Should I presmoke the butt to 165 degrees then cut in cubes or will it get tender enough to just cube it raw and add it as is?
Randy- My recipe calls for cooked smoked sausages, so your thought process of smoking the pork butt and cubing it is valid. The extra step will add flavor and ensure tenderness. All the best.
I followed the recipe. and it tastes great, but I would only do 3 cups of rice and not 4 cups. It yielded too much rice, and I had to add liquid an hour in after checking it. Also, I would recommend adding some browning liquid for color!
Hey Lindsey- The ratio of rice is certainly to your taste, and I applaud your suggestions.Thanks.