Directions

• Fry bacon in a medium-sized skillet.  Remove bacon and reserve bacon drippings in the pan  
• Add onion, celery, garlic, and salt to the bacon grease; cook, stirring often, until tender
• Add the tomatoes, stock, vinegar, black pepper, thyme, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes to the vegetable mix
• Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes
• While the tomato mixture is cooking, add Andouille sausage to a large skillet and sear
• Remove sausage to a bowl and retain the sausage drippings in the pan
• In the large skillet with sausage drippings, melt butter over medium heat until melted
• Add the rice to the large skillet and cook, frequently stirring, until it is opaque, about 5 minutes.  Be careful not to burn the rice
• Add 5 cups of the tomato mixture to the rice; stir to combine and cover.  
• Cook covered over very low heat for 25 minutes.  Do Not Remove the Lid during the 25 minutes
• While the rice is cooking, add the cooked Andouille sausage to the pan with the remaining tomato mixture.  Simmer
• Add shrimp to the sausage and tomato mixture and cook shrimp until it just turns pink.
• Once the shrimp is pink, turn the heat down to low
• Once the 25 minutes is up on the rice, turn off the heat and let the rice stand for 5 more minutes  
• Remove bay leaves from the sausage and tomato mixture and pour the mixture over the cooked rice
• Thoroughly combine and recover
• Crumble the reserved bacon
• Allow to stand for 5 to 10 minutes then sprinkle crumbled bacon on the top