Fellow soup lovers, I think I may have just successfully “soupified” another one of my favorite dishes.
Check out this jambalaya soup!!
Oh my goodness, I think I may actually love this dish even more as a soup. (<– Which, ahem, wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. Here’s lookin’ at you chicken enchilada soup, corned beef and cabbage soup, and chicken pot pie soup.) Like the others, this soup is packed with everything that we all love about jambalaya — all of those amazing and colorful veggies, cooked in a spicy tomato Cajun sauce, mixed with hearty Andouille sausage, chicken, and shrimp — but instead of being cooked in just a bed of rice, they’re simmered in a thick, flavorful, amazing tomato rice soup.
And oh my goodness, the result is mmm, mmm, good.
I will say that this soup takes a little extra time and effort to make than my usual 30-minute recipes. But this recipe makes a huge batch of soup, and the work is totally worth it.
To make the soup, simply saute up some chicken and Andouille sausage in a large stockpot until they’re mostly cooked through. (<– If you’re not into either of those, or the shrimp, feel free to just pick your favorite protein. You’ll need about 3 pounds of protein total.) Then add in your veggies, stir in some flour to thicken up the broth, add in the broth and rice and seasonings, and let the soup simmer on the stove until that rice is nice and tender. (Be sure to keep a close eye on this soup and stir it often so that the rice doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot!) Finally, just stir in your shrimp at the end and season everything with salt and pepper to taste…
…and voila! This vibrant, flavorful, and hearty soup will be yours to enjoy!
And I do mean hearty. Similar to a gumbo, this jambalaya soup is incredibly rich and filling, so a big pot of it will go a long way.
Feel free to also customize this soup to your desired level of spiciness, too. I love my jambalaya with a nice kick, so I usually include 2 jalapenos to bring some heat. But if you like a more mild jambalaya, feel free to just use a single (or half of a) jalapeno.
Also, different brands of Cajun seasoning tend to have different flavors, and varying levels of spiciness and saltiness. So if you’re cooking with one that is new to you, I’d start by adding in just 1 tablespoon of Cajun seasonings, and then you can always add in more at the end. I love that stuff. :)
All in all, a very successful “soupifying” mission. :) Hope you all enjoy this one as much as I do!
Jambalaya Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 pound Andouille sausage, thinly sliced into rounds
- 3 small bell peppers, cored and diced (I used a mix of colors)
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 small white onion, peeled and diced
- 1 jalapeño pepper*, seeded and finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup uncooked white or brown rice
- 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning** (add more/less to taste)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
- 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- salt and pepper
- (optional garnishes: chopped fresh parsley, thinly-sliced green onions, hot sauce)
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sausage, and sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, bell peppers, celery, onion, jalapeño, and stir to combine. Continue sautéing for 5-6 more minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent, stirring occasionally. Stir in the garlic, and sauté for 1 more minute until the garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally.
- Sprinkle the flour over the mixture, and stir to combine. Continue cooking for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
- Gradually stir in the chicken stock, then add the crushed tomatoes, rice, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves and dried thyme. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce the heat to medium-low, and continue simmering the soup for 15 more minutes — being sure to stir the soup occasionally (yes, more!) so that the rice doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot — until the rice is cooked and tender.
- Stir in the shrimp and continue cooking for 5 more minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked through (it should be pink and opaque, not gray).
- Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Then serve warm, topped with your desired garnishes if desired.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!This post contains affiliate links.
Made this for lunches this week and it got 2 thumbs up from both me & my fiance! He doesn’t like shrimp, so at the end of making the recipe it was easy to scoop his portions out into containers and then add the shrimp to the remaining soup and cook for a few minutes more. I also put in a few dashes of Tabasco, which added great flavor & kick!
We’re glad to hear that, Devan — thanks for giving the recipe a try! :)
This is a very good bowl of soup. I used about 1.5 Tbs of homemade Cajun seasoning (chowhound version), which made it a little too hot for my wife (or so she said when she started eating it) and almost hot enough for me. I served it with cornbread, and by the time she got to the bottom of the bowl, she decided she wanted more. We both ate way too much.
Thanks for sharing with us, Joe! We’re so glad you and your wife enjoyed this!
In the ingredient list, you should reverse the positions of the flour and stock.
We are gluten free….do you know a good sub for the flour? Thanks!
You could use a GF AP blend, or arrowroot powder, or you could try this: . We hope this helps! :)
Use gluten free roux.
This is absolutely my favorite new soup. It is sooooo good. I used wheat berries instead of the rice and ate the whole pot myself. I wish I knew what I could use instead of meat for my daughter who only eats fish… Anyone have any ideas?
We’re so glad to hear that, Becky! You could try putting some tempeh sausage (or something like that) in here?
This is so close to the Jambalaya I make and it is yummy, but mine is not a soup. My husband and I are the only family still at home. Does this freeze well?
Very cool, Kathy! We haven’t tried freezing this, so we’re not sure, but it’s with a try!
Awesome post!!
My husband cooked up a batch last weekend and it was amazing! Can’t get the andouille sausage on this side of the ocean, so we substituted Spanish chorizo. The chorizo went really well with the soup.
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
We’re so happy you guys enjoyed this, Karina! :)
This jambalaya was fabulous!!!!! I’ve tried several of your other recipes, and loved them all. We made this the other night, and it was definitely a hit! Everyone loved it!
We’re so happy it was a hit, Kelly! :)
This looks amazing! Which brand of cast iron did you use? :)
Le Creuset! Here’s an affiliate link to the stock pot if you’re interested — https://rstyle.me/~33IrK. :)