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This Easy Dirty Rice Recipe is a side dish that eats like a meal! Ground beef, sausage and spices folded into fluffy, seasoned rice. A classic rice recipe that everyone’s family cooks a but different and can be adjusted to your liking!
Easy Dirty Rice Recipe
Our Easy Dirty Rice recipe has all the flavors you want from this classic Louisiana Creole dish. Without one traditional ingredient – chicken livers. We actually made this rice recipe with chicken livers a bunch of years back and just couldn’t get into it.
No shame at all to our team chicken liver friends, none at all. Maybe we just weren’t doing it right, maybe it takes all those years of making them to perfect it. For us, this dirty rice recipe was just as good with ground beef and sausage, and it was a lot easier to make.
Why Is Dirty Rice Called Dirty?
Dirty Rice gets its name from the way the color of the rice changes to a dark brown color when cooking. Because this rice recipe has ground beef, sausage and lots of spices, the rice turns brown as it blends together with the other ingredients.
Dirty Rice is also called cajun rice or rice dressing, but they all mean the same thing. Another ingredient that lends to the “dirty” name of this rice is chicken livers.
Chicken livers are often poached with a bay leaf and chicken stock until tender. The chicken livers are then diced and stirred into the rice.
How Do You Make Easy Dirty Rice?
To make this Easy Dirty Rice recipe easy, we’re using pre-cooked rice. This is a great way to use up leftover rice, or we buy microwavable pouches from the freezer section.
- Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add pork sausage and ground beef, breaking up with a spoon and cook until browned. Do not drain the grease from the skillet.
- Add in celery and onion, cooking for 5 minutes until they start to soften, then add garlic and cook for a minute more.
- Pour in chicken or beef broth, bay leaf, cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper and salt.
- Simmer for 10 minutes until the broth reduces by half. Remove the bay leaf, stir in cooked rice and chopped fresh parsley and serve.
What Main Dishes Go With Dirty Rice?
While we think that this beefy rice recipe could be a meal on its own, it is traditionally a side dish recipe. Serve this hearty rice with beef, chicken, fish or spicy, classic Louisiana foods.
Beef
- Slow Cooker Beef Tips
- Garlic Parmesan Steak Bites
- Bourbon Steak Kabobs
- Garlic Herb Roast Beef
Chicken
- Chicken Lazone
- Parmesan Baked Chicken Breasts
- Flat Chicken (Crispy chicken cutlets)
- Dry Rub BBQ Chicken Wings
Seafood
- Baked Shrimp Scampi
- Air Fryer Scallops
- Crispy Teriyaki Salmon Bites
- Parmesan Crusted Haddock
Can This Rice Recipe Be Made Ahead Of Time?
Yes! In fact, a lot of people think the dirty rice actually gets better after a few hours in the refrigerator. All you need to do is reheat this rice in the microwave for an easy, delicious side dish or meal!
This rice will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. We don’t recommend freezing rice as it changes the texture of the rice and can become mushy.
Looking For More Rice Recipes?
- Shrimp Fried Rice
- Rice Pilaf with Almonds and Cranberries
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Spicy Mushroom Rice
Dirty Rice
- Author: Dan
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Dirty Rice is a classic rice dish that everyone’s family makes a little different! Our recipe follows a more traditional path, but you can adjust it to your liking!
Scale
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 pound pork sausage
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped (about a cup)
- 4–5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups cooked white rice
- 2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley
Instructions
- Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and ground beef breaking up with a spoon and cook until browned. Do not drain the grease from the skillet unless there’s an excessive amount.
- Add the celery and onion, cooking for 5 minutes until they start to soften. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more. Season with cajun seasoning, salt and cayenne pepper and stir.
- Pour in the chicken broth and add the bay leaf. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes so that the broth reduces by half.
- Stir in the cooked rice and parsley. Taste for seasonings and serve.
Recipe Notes
Store: Store leftover, cooled rice in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheat: Reheat the rice in the microwave, adding a splash of chicken broth if needed.
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
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