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
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. See also Creole Andouille Rice Brunch Bake, Teriyaki Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms and Peas, Italian Rice Pilaf, Kielbasa and Shrimp Rice Casserole, One Skillet Beef Meatballs and Rice with Peas.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Cajun Dirty Rice
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
Linda says
July 12, 2013 at 8:40 pmWow, I’ve never had dirty rice. And I do like chicken livers! Will give this a try, thanks Melissa:)
Melissa says
July 13, 2013 at 12:05 amThat’s cool Linda, let me know when you get a chance to make it. 🙂
Anonymous says
July 17, 2013 at 5:45 pmWhat can be substituted for the sausage and chicken liver?
Melissa says
July 17, 2013 at 8:11 pmYou 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
March 15, 2019 at 4:32 amI 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
March 15, 2019 at 7:31 amI consider that high praise Colleen, thanks so much!
Anita M Butler says
November 15, 2013 at 4:13 amThis 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
November 15, 2013 at 12:24 pmHi 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
October 8, 2018 at 12:23 amWe actually have a quick & easy recipe that calls for cream soup that is baked in the oven.
Shana Bryant says
August 26, 2015 at 7:40 pmI 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
August 26, 2015 at 8:51 pmWonderful, thank you for taking the time to let me know.
Robert Hiller says
May 20, 2016 at 6:16 pmDirty 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
May 20, 2016 at 6:35 pmHow funny, I share her love of dirty rice.
Joelle says
January 29, 2018 at 5:45 pmI 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
January 30, 2018 at 9:23 amGlad you enjoyed!
BJ says
January 24, 2019 at 4:23 pmWe have made this several time and love the flavor but the rice turns out sticky. Any tips to avoid this?
Melissa says
January 24, 2019 at 4:28 pmUse a good long grain brand of rice. All rice isn’t equal so, that’s key.