Jambalaya for a crowd: chicken thighs, andouille, the onion, pepper and celery trinity and long-grain rice cooked together in one big pot on a propane burner, feeding 12 to 15 in about 1 hour 45 minutes. Chop at home and cook it in the lot at Tiger Stadium, where grills, smokers and fryers are fine if they're contained, attended and 10 feet from buildings with an extinguisher nearby.
Feeds: 12 to 15 · Hands-on: about 1 hour · Total: about 30 min at home, plus about 1 hour 15 min at the lot
Home gear: zip bags and containers for the prepped trinity and meat
Pack for the lot
- Chicken, sealed, at the bottom of the cooler
- Andouille, sliced
- Trinity and garlic
- Spice jar and bay leaves
- Rice and the chicken stock (8 cups)
- Oil
- Green onions and hot sauce
- A heavy 12- to 16-quart pot with a tight lid
- Propane burner on a stand, regulator hose and a full tank
- Long wooden spoon or paddle
- Instant-read thermometer
- Fire extinguisher (required at LSU)
- Heat-proof gloves
- Bowls, spoons and a ladle
Lot notes
- The Tiger Stadium rule: grills, smokers and fryers are fine if they're contained, attended and 10 feet from buildings with an extinguisher nearby, while ground fires are out. The guide's rules allow contained grills, smokers, fryers and Blackstones no bigger than a 55-gallon drum, and ban bonfires, fire pits, burn barrels and Cajun cookers that make a ground fire. A propane burner on its own stand keeps the flame contained, and never leave it unattended.
- Andouille: most andouille you'll find is a precooked smoked sausage, so it only needs browning here. If yours is labeled fresh or uncooked, cook it to 160°F.
- Holding hot: keep the lid on and the burner on its lowest setting, and stir up from the bottom every 15 minutes so the rice doesn't scorch. Keep it at 140°F or above. Off the heat, serve it within 2 hours, or 1 hour when it's above 90°F.
- Fuel: a high-output burner goes through propane fast. Bring a full 20 lb tank, and a spare if you're cooking more than one pot over a long weekend.
- Cleanup: let the pot cool before you scrape it. Leftovers go into shallow containers on ice right away, and they reheat to 165°F the next day.
Can you make jambalaya ahead for a tailgate?
Yes. Cook it at home, spread it in shallow pans to cool fast and refrigerate it, then reheat it in the pot with a splash of stock, stirring often, until it reaches 165°F. The chopping can also be done a day ahead.
How do you keep jambalaya hot at a tailgate?
Leave it in the covered pot over the burner's lowest flame and stir it up from the bottom every 15 minutes. It needs to stay at 140°F or above.
How much do you need for 20 people?
Make 1½ batches: 4½ lb chicken thighs, 3 lb andouille, 6 cups rice and 12 cups stock, with 3 onions, 3 peppers and 6 celery ribs. That needs a 20-quart pot, or split it into 2 smaller pots on 2 burners, since a very deep pot of rice cooks unevenly.
Can you cook jambalaya at Tiger Stadium?
Yes. LSU allows grills, smokers and fryers if they're contained, attended and 10 feet from buildings with an extinguisher nearby, and the guide's own advice for the lots is that fryers, smokers and big pots are all fair game as long as the fire stays contained. Ground fires are out.
Cajun or Creole jambalaya?
This is the brown, Cajun-style pot common around Baton Rouge, with no tomatoes. For a red, Creole-style pot, add a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes with the stock and cut the stock by 1 cup.