Add this one pan lower-carb jambalaya to your dinner rotation for a filling, high protein meal. Made all in the same pan for easy clean up!

Chicken and sausage jambalaya with green onions in one pan with a spatula.

Jambalaya is a delicious Louisiana-styled dish that is a bit spicy, loaded with meat and veggies, and cooked together with rice. It is a hearty, filling, savory meal.

Ingredients

Chicken breast: This is traditionally made with chicken thighs or other higher fat chicken to add that extra flavor, but I opt for chicken breast as it’s a very lean source of protein and make this dish more macro-friendly.
Andouille sausage: I like the Marketside ones. While I like to keep this lower in fat, I can’t sacrifice andouille sausage flavor. The fats from the andouille sausage are plenty to cook everything up in, without any extra oils or butter. This, paired with the chicken breast keep the dish lower fat and high in protein.
The “holy trinity”: This is what they call the 3 veggies in Louisiana or cajun dishes. Onions, bell peppers, and celery.
Garlic, salt, pepper, and bay leaves: To season and flavor.
Diced tomatoes: You can use any size diced tomatoes, but I like petite so I don’t get any big random chunks of tomato in there.
Cauliflower rice + white rice: To keep this lower carb, I like to mix frozen riced cauliflower with white rice. It tricks your mind into thinking that it’s all rice, since the cauliflower rice looks so similar. Packs in some extra veggies and volume without you even knowing ;) I buy the frozen riced cauliflower to save time.
Chicken broth: To cook the rice and add flavor.
Garlic, salt, pepper, and bay leaves: To season and flavor.
Cajun seasoning: You can make your own, or use pre-made cajun seasoning. I love McCormick. It does have a little kick to it, but it’s not too bad (coming from the wimp of wimps when it comes to spice).
Green onion: To garnish.

How To Make It

Chop your ingredients: Dice the chicken breast and chop sausage into thin rounds, then set that aside. On a clean cutting board (you can grab a different one, or wash the one used for meat – because raw chicken freaks me out) chop up onions, bell pepper, and celery and set aside. Now it’s ready to go when we start cooking.
Cook the meat: Grab a large deep skillet (I use a deep 12-inch one) and spray with cooking spray. Cook the chicken and sausage on medium high heat – season with a pinch of salt + pepper – until chicken is fully cooked (about 5 minutes). Remove meat from the pan, leaving any juices so the veggies can soak up all that flavor.
Cook the veggies: In the same pan, cook the veggies and garlic until soft and fragrant (about 3 minutes). Add undrained diced tomatoes, frozen cauliflower rice, regular rice, and chicken broth. Stir everything together.
Season + simmer: Season with cajun seasoning, throw in the bay leaves, cover and reduce heat to low-medium. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Toss is all together: Add back in the chicken and sausage, and season with a tad more salt. Don’t forget to fish out the bay leaves. Garnish with green onions!

Jambalaya Video

Notes On Rice

I strongly encourage you to weigh the rice if you have a food scale. Rice can be very surprising when comparing weight to how it actually measures out in a measuring cup. I find that 1/2 cup in a measuring cup doesn’t usually weigh what 1/2 cup says on the nutrition label. For best texture results and accurate nutrition info, weighed rice is most accurate.

Customize

You can easily tailor this one pan lower-carb jambalaya to fit your preferences if you’d like! Here are some ideas:

Change up the protein: Other protein options include chicken tenderloins, chicken thighs, ground chicken, and really any other flavor of sausage you love. You could even use chicken sausage or turkey sausage.

Add seafood: Many traditional jambalaya recipes use shrimp.

Make it spicer: Add a bit of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for more of a kick.

Swap peppers: For more color, you could use red, orange, or yellow peppers instead of just green.

How To Store

After cooling, store in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove.

Let me know if you guys try this one out! As always, be sure to leave a comment and review and let me know what other high protein meal ideas you’d love to see :) Hope everyone has an amazing week!