This is frickin delicious. Made it again tonight and decided it turned out so well I had to share.

It's a fairly well-established southern dish. I was residing in Louisiana for a while and developed some taste for this flavour-profile, but only started cooking it occasionally once I left.
I've made personal adjustments to bring a little something more to the taste, things I also consider when amping up stews, but nothing big.
Makes maybe 6 servings.


Roughly 1.5 cups long grain brown rice (classically white is insisted upon, but I prefer this)
2 celery stalks (chopped)
half a yellow onion (chopped)
half a bell pepper (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups chicken stock
Whatever the hell seasoning you want (creole/cajun blend and a bay leaf are common, you can just do salt/pepper & cayenne for kick, or keep it without any spice if the heat isn't your thing. I like to add some garden herbs.)
Shrimp, or (andouille) sausage, or chicken breast...one or two or all of them work.
And a little bit of oil.
Optional: 1 cup white wine. if you don't want to add this then probably best to throw in an additional cup of chicken stock.


If you're adding chicken and sausage, you'll want to pan-sear those to brown them and set aside.

Then to a large pot you want to add the celery, onion, bell pepper and garlic to about a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook until the garlic is fragrant and onion is tender. Add the tomato paste to this, give it a mix, let cook for another minute or two.
Next add the chicken stock (+/- wine) and rice. Bring to a boil. Cover and bring the heat to a low simmer.
Let that cook until the rice is nearly done (tender), before adding back the meats and cooking for another 10 minutes or so.

Now it's done. Garnish with chopped scallions and a slice of lemon for zest.

P.s. If you've put a bay leaf in there do not eat the bay leaf, you'll want to remove it from the pot.


...

Note: I don't eat a lot of meat, it is a 'traditional' addition for this but not necessary.
I prefer the above with shrimp and it is also delicious as a vegetarian dish.