Slow Cooker Jambalaya, with chucks of chicken and andouille sausage and lots of shrimp, is a super flavorful one dish meal. Since Mardi Gras is just around the corner, my belly has been craving all those wonderful New Orleans foods.
It’s a southern favorite that does really well in a slow cooker.
I’m especially excited about Mardi Gras this year because guess what??!!
I’m going!!
(Note: This post was originally published January 9,2017.)
I haven’t been to Mardi Gras since I was a student at Tulane University and that was over 20 years ago. It’s going to be so much fun.
Jambalaya is one of my favorite foods from New Orleans. I love making this Crawfish Jambalaya, but for years I’ve been wanting to try a Slow Cooker Jambalaya. This was my first attempt, and I was really happy with how it turned out.
This Jambalaya has so many layers of flavors.
For some tomato flavor (I like a tomato-y Jambalaya), I used both diced tomatoes and tomato paste. For the liquid, I used a can of beef broth. You could use chicken broth instead, but I like the deeper flavor that beef broth has.
For flavoring, I of course started with the Holy Trinity– onion, green pepper, and celery. Then I added garlic, bay leaves, oregano, basil, Cajun seasoning, Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, and Worcestershire to round out the flavors.
Recipe Tips
To prevent a mushy mess, I cooked the rice separately but used the cooking liquid from the crock pot to cook it in so that the rice soaked up all that flavor that had been simmering away in the crock pot.
Don’t overcook the shrimp. The shrimp only need to go in the slow cooker for the last 30 minutes. Overcooked shrimp have a rubbery texture.
★★★★★
What readers are saying
Delicious!! My Husband has been wanting me to try and make Jambalaya since he went to Louisiana for a work trip. I have been nervous to attempt it until I found this recipe. He loved it!!
What Size Slow Cooker To Use?
A 6-quart slow cooker is the perfect size, but a slightly larger one will work too.
How Many People Does It Serve?
This recipe makes a big crock pot full of Jambalaya. Six very large servings or if you serve it with plenty of bread and maybe a salad, you could probably stretch it to 10.
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Storage
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days. Shrimp are highly perishable and I really don’t like to keep them for longer than 3 days.
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItMore Slow Cooker Recipes To Try
- Slow Cooker Mississippi Pork Chops
- Slow Cooker Low Country Boil
- Crock Pot Cubed Steak and Gravy
- Slow Cooker Cajun Chicken Alfredo with Sausage
More Jambalaya Recipes
- Crawfish Jambalaya
- Instant Pot Jambalaya
- Paul Prudhomme’s Chicken and Tasso Jambalaya
- Jambalaya Stuffed Peppers
- Spaghetti Squash Jambalaya
Slow Cooker Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can beef broth
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound Andouille sausage, or use kielbasa, cut into slices
- 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 1/2 cup white rice
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Combine 1st 12 ingredients in a 6-quart slow cookerand stir to combine.
- Add onion, green pepper, celery, garlic, sausage, and chicken. Stir to combine.
- Cover crock pot and cook on LOW 4 to 5 hours.
- Set a larger strainer/sieve over a large bowl and pour about 75% of liquid in the crock pot through strainer. You should have about 3 cups to cook the rice in. Add water to get 3 cups if necessary.
- Return all solids to crock pot. Stir in parsley and shrimp. Cover crock pot and cook on LOW 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring the 3 cups of liquid to a boil. Stir in rice and cook according to package directions.
- Add cooked rice to slow cooker and mix in. Serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Originally published January 9, 2017.
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I’m sensitive to spicy food, how can I adjust so it’s on the low-spice side for me (I find sriracha sauce hot) and also add spice to my husband’s before serving to suit his love of spicy. What level of spicy/hot is the base recipe?
This is really excellent. It was very easy to prep the night before, turn on around noon, and then prep the rice just before dinner. I will definitely be making it again.
What do you think the nutrition facts for this meal is? I need a low sodium diet. Is this recipe good for a low sodium diet?
You can add up the sodium from the ingredients list, but this would not be low sodium at all. Between the tomatoes, meat, and seasonings (salt, Tony Cachere’s), it probably pretty high in sodium. It is quite good, though.
You can buy low sodium canned tomatoes and low sodium beef broth..skip the salt and it’s probably pretty good. Just look at the ingredients with sodium and try to find something with low sodium. I always buy low sodium when it’s canned goods or soup broths.
Have you ever checked the sodium content of the boxed chicken/beef broth/stock? Omg, I made a pot roast and used Aldi’s brand beef stock w/o reading the label. I serving = 500 mg. of sodium. Everyone commented that it was very salty and I agreed. Now I only buy the low sodium kind. Spice blends also tend to be very high in sodium. This has taught me to READ LABELS:))
So I ended up cooking this on high for 4 to 5 hours instead of low, and it came out good. Probably a good thing that I did so because I used raw Andouille sausage, not cooked. I didn’t notice I needed cooked sausage until I read the comments. Maybe this clarification should be brought up in the recipe itself, to avoid confusion.
I am sure if the chicken will cook in 4-5 hours on low so would your sausage.
Smoked sausage is already cooked, you are reheating only
I made this yesterday for my picky family. Absolute hit! This is delicious. I used instant brown rice, added to the slow cooker the last 45 minutes. I had to leave it in the crock pot longer due to our schedule, so I had it on low for a total of 6.5 hours. I will definitely be making this again!
So happy your picky family loved it Tammy!
I want to freeze the leftovers? Thoughts?
I have fully cooked andouille is it supposed to be uncooked?
Andouille sausage comes already cooked. You have the right thing.
I made this recipe to entertain guests for a house-warming party/football game watch party and it was a big hit! I had to improve a little bit, because we have some friends with shellfish allergies … I doubled up on the kielbasa in lieu of the shrimp and it still turned out great. Thanks for sharing!
**Improvise … not “improve” !!
When do you add chicken.??
For those people asking about when to add the rice? Look on the package of rice… how long does it take to cook… 18 minutes? 22 minutes?? Add the rice, and wait the desired time to cook… if the rice is not done, cook longer. Hope this helps?
oops… I would ADD the rice, and possibly the shrimp together….
You need to add the rice to the crock pot when there is two hours cooking time left. I looked it up and made it myself and it really did take that long.
I felt that what you said was answering the question about how long to cook the rice in the crockpot….also there is a big difference when you are using instant rice (yuck) as opposed to regular rice. Personally, I would cook the rice 3/4 of the way the way I usually make my Uncle Ben’s rice, then add it to the crockpot.