Creole Fried-Rice

I admit it. I completely lost the original Southern Living recipe for this, and instead made it up this past week. But it's still good, so I'm sharing it anyway. Perhaps like all things Creole, it's a bit of a "kitchen sink" recipe, so I'll tell you how we make it, and other potential variations for you (to the best of my memory!)

Creole Fried-Rice

1lb chicken tenders, grilled, diced
1/2 lb kielbasa (we have discovered turkey kielbasa works well), grilled, sliced
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled
NOTE you can use any combo of the above based on your preference. For example, I'm not much of a shrimp eater thanks to a bad experience in Mexico, so we combine the sausage and the chicken.

1 can chicken broth (reduced sodium)
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 small to medium yellow onion, diced
2 cups rice or 1 cup quinoa
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Tabasco
Creole seasoning
Olive oil
**Other add-ins include sliced okra or fresh jalapenos

Prepare rice or quinoa according to directions, substituting chicken broth for water. While rice/quinoa is cooking, grill chicken or sausage on outdoor grill or George Foreman. Or if preferred, you can use one large skillet. I'll reiterate that you should adapt this recipe for your preferences. Brown the onion and garlic in a large skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil. If cooking chicken or shrimp in the same pan, add those in at the same time with hefty few shakes of Creole seasoning (I'm pretty generous with my seasoning). Once meat is cooked and/or onions and garlic are soft, add in sausage, previously grilled chicken if applicable, and diced peppers with additional shakes of Creole seasoning. The general rule of thumb I invented is: whenever you're adding meat to the skillet, add more seasoning. Stir for a few minutes until everything is heated through and peppers begin to cook. Add rice or quinoa with several dashes of Tabasco, and stir all-together in the skillet until you hear the rice or quinoa sizzling. Serve immediately.

So as you can tell, there's not really any strict way of putting this together, but if you dump and pour all of the ingredients and somehow everything gets cooked, it's delicious! As if Southern Living would print something that wasn't right? I just read my Fall issue this morning and am now dying to decorate chocolate moon-pies with jack-o-lantern faces. I think I'll give them out at work during October. In reality, as much as I hate the fact that Fall leads to into the season I HATE and refuse to name--I can't hold that against Fall now can I? So with that, I think I'll go find some mums for the porch. OH I will also try to start taking pictures of my recipes. You know me--always in such a hurry to eat!