Skillet Jambalaya

A recipe from The Best 30-minute Recipe of Cook's Illustrated. If you can't find andouille, use tasso, chorizo or linguiça sausage. Serve with plenty of Tabasco. You can use your favorite Creole spice blend instead of Old Bay Seasoning.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1  lb extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined
•  salt & fresh ground pepper
• 1  tablespoon  vegetable oil
• 8  ounces andouille sausages, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1  onion, minced
• 1  red bell pepper, cored and chopped fine
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 1⁄2 cups  instant rice (see note for long-grain rice)
• 5  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 3⁄4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2  tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

Directions

1. Season shrimp with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add andouille, onion, bell pepper, Old Bay, and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in rice, garlic, and tomato paste and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Stir in broth and bring to simmer, scraping up browned bits. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
4. Scatter shrimp over rice and continue to cook, covered, until rice is tender and shrimp are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Off heat, let rice sit for 2 minutes. Stir in parsley, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
5. Note : If you don't have instant rice on hand or if you would like to use long-grain rice, follow this method :
6. Substitute 1 1/2 cups long-grain rice for instant rice and increase broth amount to 4 cups. Extend rice cooking time in step 3 to about 20 minutes, then add shrimp and continue with recipe as directed.
7. Test Kitchen Tip for Seasoning Shrimp : To save time, we thought we'd skip seasoning our shrimp prior to cooking, but tasters noticed a difference. For the best-tasting shrimp, season the raw shrimp with salt and pepper and let sit for 10 minutes before cooking.