Ninja Foodi Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a popular dish, which originated in Louisiana. It has multiple cultural influences, including African, Spanish and French. I gravitate towards it because I’m Lao and I’m a fan of spice and this dish delivers spices. I’ve made jambalaya countless times. Recently I got myself a Ninja Foodi and this was the first recipe that I developed for the Foodi. It’s great that you can sear and pressure cook all in one. Love it.

For this recipe, I chose to use chicken and andouille sausages. I haven’t thought about how to incorporate shellfish yet. If you figure it out let me know. I’m still completely happy with this and had nothing but approvals for my tasters.

My notes:

• Filé powder – is a powder made of the sassafras leaves that is also common in Creole and Cajun cooking. If you have filé powder you can add maybe a half a teaspoon or so. That’s optional. It’s not an ingredient that is readily available here and certainly not available in my locked-down pantry, so I did not include in my recipe. But you can add it if you want. Sassafras. Isn’t that a fun word?
• Natural Release – when I was looking at recipes for the Foodi, I found that there are some home cooks that are confused by this. I saw a few recipes that states not to “natural release,” but rather hold the pressure by not switching the valve to quick release. This is a natural release. If you’ve played with the valve on a Ninja Foodi, you’ll notice that it moves easily by design. I’m going to use my educated guess and say that’s design so the pressure can naturally release even when you have it set towards the sealed side. So natural release is letting that pressure release naturally without adjusting the valve. You then quick release any remaining pressure. Ninja tells you so in their Quick Start Guide.

Ninja Foodi Jambalaya

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes, including pressure build time
Serves 6

1 boneless skinless chicken breast (cubed)
½ lb andouille sausages (sliced)
1 small onion (diced)
1 stalk celery (sliced)
1 green bell pepper (diced)
2-3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons Cajun or Creole seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cup long grain white rice
2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
A few dashes of hot sauce
2 tablespoons canola oil
Green onions for garnish

• Select Sear/Sauté and set to High. Allow to preheat for 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, add oil and chicken. Cook stirring occasionally for 2-3 minutes until no longer pink and cooked. You can easily cut a cooked piece of chicken with a spatula.
• Add sausages and cook for 30 seconds to a minute more. The add onion, celery, bell pepper garlic and cook for an additional minute until onions are translucent.
• Add rice, seasoning, salt, tomatoes, bay leaf, a few dashes of hot sauce and finally chicken broth. Stir contents.
• Assemble pressure cooker lid, with pressure cooker valve in sealed position.
• Select Pressure and High. Set time to 3 minutes. Select start to begin.
• When pressure cooking is complete allow pressure to naturally release (aka don’t touch it) for 10 minutes and then quick release any remaining pressure.
• Carefully remove pressure lid. Take out bay leaf and gently fluff the rice. Garnish with green onions.
• Enjoy!