We’re busy enjoying our Louisiana favorites this time of year. I am not kidding when I tell you that my kids are just about as excited for Mardi Gras as they are for Christmas. Parades, candy, music, screaming like idiots for beads and plastic cups. If I’m being completely honest with myself, it’s a pretty awesome holiday. It involves lots of yummy food, fun, great music, and very little effort or preparation on my part.
One of my favorite Louisiana foods is Dirty Rice. Now…this recipe comes with a big disclaimer. Dirty Rice is traditionally made with chicken livers and gizzards. I don’t care how good they make your food taste, I cannot cook with them. So, in case you haven’t guessed, I’m not using tiny organ meats in my dirty rice, and no, the color isn’t quite “dirty” enough. But I promise this Not-So-Dirty Dirty Rice still delivers big on flavor. It makes a great one-dish meal or side dish, and it’s perfect for reheating for an easy lunch during the week as well!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Ground pork sausage – AKA breakfast sausage, like Jimmy Dean brand. Spicy or mild, depending on your preference.
- Yellow or white onion
- Celery stalks
- Fresh garlic cloves – Fresh is always best, but garlic powder will work in a pinch.
- Green bell pepper – Green bell pepper has a distinct flavor compared to the sweeter, more ripe yellow, orange, or red varieties. You can use whatever you like, but I like the flavor of the green pepper in this dish!
- Long-grain white rice – Long grain white rice cooks up separate and fluffy. It absorbs liquid without turning sticky. You can use medium grain rice, it will just turn out a little softer and stickier. I wouldn’t recommend short-grain or sushi rice. Jasmine is a long-grain rice that would work well here.
- Black pepper
- Tabasco sauce – This does not make the dish spicy, just adds a nice kick of flavor.
- Salt-based Cajun or Creole seasoning – Like Tony Cachere’s.
- Kosher salt to taste
- Beef broth – Canned, from a carton, or reconstituted from bouillon base are all good options.
- Green onions – Optional.
How to Make Not-So-Dirty Dirty Rice
- You’ll start by browning your sausage. When it’s about halfway cooked you’ll add some chopped onions, peppers, celery, and garlic.
- Once that’s cooked you’ll add some uncooked rice and cook for a few minutes before adding black pepper, Tabasco, Cajun seasoning and beef broth. That gets brought to a boil and everything gets covered and simmered over low heat until the rice is tender.
- After it’s done it just needs to rest for a couple of minutes then you can serve it up, top with green onions if desired, and enjoy!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 4-5 days for best results.
- We like eating this as a meal with a simple green salad. It also makes a great side dish.
Frequently Asked Questions
You bet! This is a great meal to prep at the beginning of the week and eat as an easy lunch for several days.
You bet. Ground beef, ground turkey, smoked sausage, or a mix of meats work well here.
You can, but you’ll need to increase the beef broth to 4.5-5 cups and simmer the rice for longer – at least 40-50 minutes.
Not-So-Dirty Dirty Rice
Ingredients
- ¾ pound ground pork sausage mild or spicy, depending on your preferences, you can use a 16 ounce roll of sausage if that's what you have
- 1 medium onion minced
- 2 stalks celery minced
- 5-6 cloves garlic minced or pressed
- 1 green bell pepper seeded and chopped
- 2 cups long-grain white rice
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 10 dashes Tabasco sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt-based Cajun or Creole Seasoning like Tony Chachere’s; you may want more or less depending on how hot you want your rice to be
- Kosher salt to taste I used 1/2 teaspoon, but again, this will largely be to taste
- 4 cups beef broth high elevations may need up to 1/4 cup more
- Optional: 1/2 cup chopped green onions
Instructions
- Preheat a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until it is about halfway browned. Add the onion, celery, garlic, and green pepper and cook until the sausage is cooked and the vegetables are tender and fragrant.
- Add the rice and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add the Tabasco, Cajun seasoning, and black pepper and stir until combined. Add the beef broth and bring to a boil. Cover tightly, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the moisture is absorbed (again, higher elevations may take as long as 45 minutes).
- Season to taste with salt and Tabasco sauce. If desired, toss with green onions before serving. Makes 10-12 servings.
Questions & Reviews
Love Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning. We use it on practically everything!
Kate, I live in Ponchatoula, Louisiana which,if you don’t know, is about 50 miles west of New Orleans. My family cooks dirty rice all of the time and we never put livers and gizzards in our rice. Only mushrooms and sautéed onions. I know that I’ve eaten dirty rice with lovers and gizzards, but I didn’t know those were in it. Like you I can’t bring myself to cool with any of that. Good luck with your sewer problem. Hope it all turns out well.
My Southern husband will love this! Thanks for making a gizzard-free option for those of us Westerners!
I’m with you on the organ meats. You know what livers do, right? They collect all the poison in your body! I’ll admit to boiling “little organs” for broth, but I don’t chop them up and put them in the finished product, and the livers get tossed. And I’m pretty obsessive about saving food – like boiling bones for broth, and saving the fat from chicken and bacon.
We also live in an old house – they have lots of “character”, yes?
I’m feeling your pain. Isn’t home ownership OVER-RATED sometimes? This week my website got hacked (fixed now), My roof is leaking evidenced by paint sliding down the wall, I have sick kids, and…AND my TIVO died. Forever. And I didn’t get to see Modern Family. I know my life is hard.
Would Funeral Potatoes be the State Pride post for the Beehive state? It would have to be, right?
We love dirty rice, and this recipe sounds absolutely perfect.
I love your pregnancy hormones. Honestly is always appealing, funny, and human. 🙂 I am not pregnant, and I do not want to cook with tiny organ parts, either.
Sorry to hear about the sewage leak. Will your homeowners policy pay to clean the carpets in your house? Maybe you can get one of those disaster companies to do it for you which would be even better!
Very, very fortunately, our house is on an old-school pier and beam foundation off the ground, so we never got any leaks inside our house; it all just drained out the side and into the driveway. It looks like the sewer line goes under our garage (bad), then under our driveway (worse) and runs straight into the roots of a giant old oak tree that has caused more problems than I can possibly tell you but is prohibitively expensive to remove. So…the current plan is to re-route the plumbing line to the other side of our yard and tap into the city sewer there, rather than rip up the floor of our garage, the driveway, and tear down the old tree. I’m beyond THRILLED. 😉
There are a lot of times I’d rather not know what was in something…because as soon as I do, I lose my appetite. I know there are sometimes anchovies in Ceasar dressing…well, yesterday I looked at the back of my dressing bottle and sure enough…they were in the ingredient list (although at the end of the list)! Maybe the dressing is always made with the anchovies but I really wish I hadn’t looked. I’m not so interested in a ceasar salad at the moment!
Sounds great, will be trying it soon. Also did your pie in the jars-so cute.
Love reading your blog.
This made my day. Although I never have cooked with organ meats and never will, we often follow the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule in our home. Lately the kids are starting to get a little smarter…I do believe this will be a big hit, though! Rice dishes are always the first to go at dinner time. Thanks for sharing!