Zatarain's Reduced Sodium Jambalaya Rice Mix

Today was one of those days. I had already spent several hours in the kitchen making a special Greek dessert and a new batch of my Low Sodium Buttery Spread. As the dinner hour approached, my enthusiasm for cooking weakened. Earlier in the day I had picked up some chicken leg quarters (thigh & leg) at the grocery store. Also this morning, as I was straightening out my pantry, I noticed a rice mix box. So, I thought, "Why not put them together and call it dinner?" And that's exactly what I did.

I removed all the excess fat & skin from the chicken pieces before sauteeing them in olive oil in a large frying pan. Once both sides of the chicken pieces were well browned, I added the rice mix & water.

Usually rice mixes are prohibitively high in salt content. But this was a new mix from Zatarain's. It was the Reduced Sodium Jambalaya Mix. In the pre-CHF days, I used the regular mix and found it quite tasty. The reduced sodium version promised 25% less sodium than the original jambalaya mix. I compared the two versions, and the low sodium version is indeed 25% less salty. But it still weighed in at 360 mg. sodium per cup of prepared mix. Not horrible, but I knew I could do better. To the rice mix I added 1/2 cup Minute Instant Brown Rice, an extra 1/2 cup of water, and one packet of Herb-Ox Sodium Free Chicken Bouillon. That effectively lowered the sodium content.

I covered the frying pan and let everything simmer together until the rice was tender. Even with the additional rice, the dish was quite flavorful. And easy...