I’m usually incredibly intimidated by a recipe with a large number of different ingredients. But this recipe didn’t because, as with most crock pot recipes, after chopping and dicing, you kinda dump everything in the pot and cook the shit out of it. So don’t let the number of ingredients fool you.

Makes 11 servings

1 can (14-1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained You can also use canned whole tomatoes chopped by yourself, if that’s what you have, as my teacher did.
1 can (14-1/2 oz) beef or chicken broth My teacher and I both used chicken broth.
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste I mistakenly bought tomato sauce, but luckily I had frozen tomato paste (I used like a 1 tsp out of the whole can a few weeks ago)
2 medium green peppers I’m having hard time determining how big is big or medium or small because all these veggies in the store look gigantic in size.
1 medium onion Again, the same trouble about the size.
3 celery ribs In case you don’t know, one celery rib refers to one stick of celery.
5 garlic cloves, minced Hehehe… Me loves me garlic… I used more… hehehe…
***You can put the following 5 seasonings all together in a small bowl so that it’s easy to mix them in later***
3 teaspoons dried parsley flakes I don’t like parsely taste and my body rejects it as well, so I dropped this completely.
2 teaspoons dried basil I forgot to buy it yesterday when I went shopping, so I had to make a special trip.
1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano I bought this yesterday, but turns out I already have it. Oops.
3/4 to 1-1/4 teaspoons salt to taste The original recipe calls for 1 and 1/4 tsp, but my teacher thought it would be too salty, so she only put a little less than 1 tsp and she said it was perfect. I put 1 tsp.
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper to taste The original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp, but my teacher is not too fond of spicy food, so she put 1/4 tsp. I put 3/4 tsp.
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce If you don’t like spicy food, you can drop this completely just as my teacher did. But if you love it as I do put a little more… hehe
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts About 2 big chicken breasts.
1 pound smoked sausage My teacher used polish sausage she already had. I bought Hillshire smoked sausage.
1/2 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined My teacher had some shrimp that were already cooked, deveined and peeled in the freezer, so she used them instead. And I bought cooked shrimp after reading that cause it obviously is less work to use shrimp already cooked.
Hot cooked rice To eat jambalaya with.

****Cooking Trick #1: When you know you’ll have to do a lot of chopping, and cutting, and you don’t want to use lots of chopping boards and knives, start by doing the veggies, ending with the onion and the garlic, then do the meat.

****Cooking Trick #2: When you cut up a green pepper, to chop it, always remove the top, the white part and also the seeds. The white and the seeds are bitter tasting.

Chop celery, green peppers and onion into medium sized bits. Not too finely or too big.
The recipe calls for the garlic to be minced, well it simply means it will be chopped. Again not too finely or too big.
Cut the sausage into two halves or four quarters lengthwise, according to your preference. Then cut them into about 1/4-inch slices.
Remove fat from chicken breasts and cut them into 1 inch cubes.
In a 5-qt. slow cooker, combine the tomatoes, broth and tomato paste. Mix well.
Stir in the green peppers, onion, celery, garlic and seasonings. Mix well.
Stir in chicken and sausage. Mix well.
Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, then add the shrimps, and cook for between 15-30 minutes, depending on if you are using raw or cooked shrimps. If they are raw, cook until shrimp turn pink.
At the same time start cooking the rice.

Not much to add about the instructions since I, surprisingly, didn’t make any booboo, and I’m kinda tired (see the previous post). Mine is still cooking, and I need to add the shrimp in about 5 minutes.

Edited to add…

Dudes and dudettes, you really gotta try this. It’s my new favorite food!