Cajun rice or “dirty rice” is a traditional Cajun rice pilaf and a beloved Louisiana classic. This Cajun Dirty Rice is my spin on traditional Cajun rice and it’s turbo charged with flavor. Serve it as a kicked-up side any day of the week with a generous drizzle of hot sauce on the side.
Traditional Dirty Rice
Traditional dirty rice uses chopped chicken livers which gives it a distinctive flavor and a dark color dubbing it “dirty” rice. It typically starts with a trinity of diced bell pepper, celery and onion but as with any recipe, variations always depend on the cooks preference. My family loves Cajun food, but chicken livers? Not so much. I developed this version to suit their taste and it is a regular rotation on our menu now.
What Goes Well With Dirty Rice?
- I love serving Cajun Dirty Rice with chicken either barbecued or grilled, chicken tenders, or pork tenderloin rubbed with a sweet bourbon seasoning.
- It’s hearty enough to serve as a main dish if you’re so inclined, and guaranteed to put smiles on the faces of those you’re feeding.
- You may also enjoy these rice recipes in the MSSK recipe index Creole Andouille Rice Brunch Bake, Teriyaki Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms and Peas, Italian Rice Pilaf.
- You may also like this recipe for One Skillet Beef Meatballs and Rice with Peas.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Cajun Dirty Rice
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 lb bulk breakfast sausage [*see cook's note]
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1 small green bell pepper diced
- 1 small red bell pepper diced
- 1 medium sweet onion diced
- 1 rib celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- salt & black pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 cups long grain rice [such as Uncle Ben's Converted Rice]
- 5 cups low sodium chicken stock or water
- 2 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning adjust to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley or cilantro
Instructions
- In a large stove top saucepan, over medium-high heat, sauté the sausage until no pink remains. Drain excess fat reserving 3 Tbsp in the pan.
- Deglaze the pan with Worcestershire sauce scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the diced veggies and garlic. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Cook for 5-7 minutes until the veggies begin to soften and brown.
- Add the rice. Stir the rice and cook for 1-2 minutes until it begins to brown.
- Add the chicken stock, creole seasoning and bay leaves. Lower the temperature and simmer over medium-low heat covered for 25 minutes.
- Cook until the rice is fully tender and the broth has been absorbed.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped parsley. Keep covered until serving.
Notes
If you'd like to add liver to the rice, 4 oz of chopped chicken livers will do nicely. Cook along with the ground sausage then proceed with the recipe as written.
Tried this recipe?Mention @melissassk or tag #melissassk!
Hi, thanks for stopping by to visit my website My name is Melissa, I’m a busy Mom, author, recipe developer, photographer, food writer and blogger. I’m passionate about creating delicious dishes to share with family and friends!
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Linda says
Wow, I’ve never had dirty rice. And I do like chicken livers! Will give this a try, thanks Melissa:)
Melissa says
That’s cool Linda, let me know when you get a chance to make it. 🙂
Anonymous says
What can be substituted for the sausage and chicken liver?
Melissa says
You don’t have to use chicken livers at all. If you’d like to lighten up the dish use ground turkey or chicken sausage instead. You could also use ground beef.
Colleen says
I was going to post that you can use ground meat. I’m Cajun and this recipe is the closest I’ve seen that is spot on to our dirty rice!
Melissa says
I consider that high praise Colleen, thanks so much!
Anita M Butler says
This gives me an idea. We have a family favorite we call Chinese Casserole. It is raw rice, ground turkey, onion, carrots, brown sugar and cream of mushroom, soy sauce, & water that is baked for an hour at 350. I’m wondering if using your skillet method might work just ask well and be quicker.
Melissa says
Hi Anita, that sounds delightful! Great question, sometimes dishes that use cream soups need the baking process to develop the flavor. Sounds like a great experiment. ☺
Pam Abshire G. says
We actually have a quick & easy recipe that calls for cream soup that is baked in the oven.
Shana Bryant says
I tried this dish on Monday and my family loved it, the flavor is amazing! The only substitution I made was, I used beef broth instead of chicken. Going in my dinner rotation, thanks!
Melissa says
Wonderful, thank you for taking the time to let me know.
Robert Hiller says
Dirty Rice was always a favorite in Culinary School.. Any time we made it we had to take a plate out to the receptionist or suffer her wrath. :-).
Melissa says
How funny, I share her love of dirty rice.
Joelle says
I tried this last week, soo delicious! One recommendation to add the veggies at the end, when there was about 10 min left otherwise they become too soft.
Melissa says
Glad you enjoyed!
BJ says
We have made this several time and love the flavor but the rice turns out sticky. Any tips to avoid this?
Melissa says
Use a good long grain brand of rice. All rice isn’t equal so, that’s key.
Mira George says
Made this with turkey sausage and it was delicious!
Stacey says
This was amazing will definitely make this again this is a must try
Melissa says
Thanks so much!
ME Michie says
This was sooo delicious. My picky eaters loved it!!!
Melissa says
Thanks so much!
Angela says
Great recipe and delicious
Melissa says
Thank you!