Chicken, Ham, and Sausage Jambalaya

First, cover your chicken in a stock pot with water (remove innards and neck, please). Add celery stalks, roughly chopped, and leaves, the quartered onion, and as many cloves of roughly chopped garlic as you can stand. Boil for about 45 minutes to an hour until chicken is cooked.

Remove chicken and set aside to cool. Strain the broth and reserve five cups of it.

Now, cook your rice in the broth by bringing to boil in a heavy pot, then setting to simmer (about 25 minutes).

While rice is cooking, brown all your meats in the Dutch oven. I like to use a combination of andouille and alligator sausage, but some folks will get sick if you tell them they're eating alligator (so don't, or just use andouille). If you cannot find andouille where you live, just about any smoked sausage will do.

Remove the browned meats and set aside. Remove all the chicken you can from the cooked bird, reserve the wishbone for later, and cut any big pieces into bite-sized chunks.

Now, add the butter to your Dutch oven and scrape up into the butter any of the brown bits left by the meat. Once the butter is melted, add your chopped onion, pepper, and parsley and saute until soft. Then add the rest of the meats and minced garlic, tomato paste, and the rest of the ingredients and stir to disperse the paste.

Once your rice is cooked, you then add this in and cook on "low" for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how long you have until dinner. Periodically stir from the bottom.

This yummy goodness also keeps in a slow-cooker set on low for potlucks.