This recipe combines two of my favorites – pasta and jambalaya!

When I make jambalaya, it’s a long process making the roux and cooking the meats just right. But since everything in this dish is coated in a cheese sauce, I use the pre-cooked stuff to make it easier and faster.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 lb dried pasta (I used the bowties because they’re cute!)
• 1 lb pre-cooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 1 pkg sausage, sliced
• 1 pkg pre-cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Tony’s seasoning
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 can diced tomatoes (I like to use fire-roasted for the color and flavor)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Start by boiling the pasta, then drain and set aside, saving 1 cup of the pasta water for the sauce. While the pasta is boiling, chop up your vegetables.

In a large pan, saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic in butter or olive oil until tender. Then scoot the vegetables to one side of the pan and add the sliced sausage to the other side.

Once the sausage is cooked, stir in with the vegetables and add the chicken pieces, shrimp and Tony’s seasoning. Once everything is heated through, add in chicken stock and tomatoes.

Your kitchen should be smelling good by this point! Next add in the reserved pasta water, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, and stir until the cheese melts into a creamy sauce. Now just toss in the cooked pasta and you’re done!

If you don’t have a pan big enough to toss the pasta in with the sauce, just pour the sauce over the pasta in a separate dish.

This twist on classic jambalaya is so good and so easy! I hope y’all enjoy it as much as my family does!

Thanks y’all!

   – Nikki