After experimenting with three or four different Southern Louisiana recipes, I developed my own Cajun pastalaya recipe. Since I’ve never timed myself, the prep and cooking times may be inaccurate. I hope you enjoy it! Serve alongside crusty bread.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
- 1 cup finely chopped celery
- 1 large sweet onion (such as Vidalia®), finely chopped
- 1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (such as San Marzano®)
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon Creole seasoning (such as Tony Chachere’s®)
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (Optional)
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 (16 ounce) package penne pasta
- 1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ bunch fresh thyme, chopped
- ½ bunch fresh oregano, chopped
- ½ bunch fresh basil, chopped
- ¼ cup chopped green onions
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage and cook for 2 minutes. Add celery, onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cook until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink inside and juices run clear, 5 to 7 minutes more. Add tomatoes, paprika, Creole seasoning, and cayenne pepper; bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add broth to the pot and return to a simmer. Add penne and simmer for 8 minutes. Add shrimp. Continue to simmer, stirring constantly, until pasta is tender but firm to the bite and shrimp are cooked through, about 7 minutes more.
- Stir in cream. Stir in thyme, oregano, and basil. Cook until just heated through, 3 to 5 minutes more. Serve topped with green onions and Parmesan cheese.
- You can substitute 5 fresh tomatoes, chopped, for the crushed tomatoes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 640 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 54 g |
| Cholesterol | 185 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 37 g |
| Saturated Fat | 13 g |
| Sodium | 1218 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
An amazing recipe – that makes a TON! But oh so delicious!! Used both red and green bell pepper, used homemade Creole Seasoning from this site (which has some heat) so I omitted the cayenne. The contributor confesses cook times might be off – and I agree. Took almost 12ish min for my pasta to be semi-cooked, and I had to add another 3/4c water halfway through. To prevent shrimp from getting rubbery/over cooked – added when the pasta only had a few min left of cook time. Used dried herbs and a TSP each. Overall, this was a HUGE hit and both husband and I loved! If you can be flexible with cook times – this, as written, is a FANTASTIC recipe!! Thanks for sharing!! For once, I’m excited for leftovers!!
Delicious, and a fun take on jambalaya. Quite a bit of prep, so do this when you have more time to cook.
Very good flavor! I doubled the recipe since I am freezing some and I used dried herbs. I will use fresh herbs next time. I could not find a good conversion for 1 bunch of fresh herbs to dried. If anyone else used dried herbs, please comment on the amount you used. Since I doubled the recipe, I used 2 Tablespoons of each.