This is a hearty meal that can feed many. A spicy recipe to warm you up on cool evenings.Jambalaya is a spicy Cajun/Creole dish which quite literally means ‘throw some things together’. A mix of rice, chicken, chorizo, spices, peppers and tomatoes. Cooked for hours over the fire the rice absorbs the other flavours and creates the best Jambalaya you will ever cook.

We cooked this over the campfire at Welsummer, in Harrietsham, Kent, and ended up sharing it with other campers as they were drawn by the smell of our meal cooking.

Method

1. Add a drop of olive oil to the Dutch Oven and add the chicken, cook until browned off.
2. Once the chicken is browned off, add the onion and garlic, stirring until it starts to turn golden.
3. Add the courgette and cook for 5 minutes until softening.
4. Now add the red and green peppers and cook until starting to soften.
5. Stir in the chorizo and cook for 5 minutes with the vegetable and chicken mixture.
6. Add the rice to the pan and stir in to the contents of the pan. Cook for five minutes until the rice absorbs the juices from the pan.
7. Give another stir and make sure that there is nothing sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then add the tomato puree, the chopped tomatoes, tin tomatoes, the wine and all the spices.
8. Once you have mixed this all together top up with water until all of the contents are covered.
9. Stir thoroughly and place lid on the Dutch Oven.
10. This should now take 2 hours to cook, but you will need to keep stirring, and adding more water until the rice is cooked through.
11. Once the rice is cooked, take off the lid and allow the mixture to thicken, making sure that nothing burns at the bottom of the Dutch Oven.