Authentic Cajun Dirty Rice Recipes

CAJUN DIRTY RICE

Steps:

• In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, sausage, and onion; drain.
• In a large pan, combine rice mix and 2 cups water. Add diced tomatoes and chilies. Stir in the kidney beans. Bring to a boil, then add meat mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Return to boil, reduce heat, and cover, stirring occasionally. Cook for 25 minutes, until rice is easily fluffed with a fork.

NEW ORLEANS DIRTY RICE OR CAJUN RICE RECIPE

Steps:

• 1. In a large Dutch oven or saucepan, over medium-high heat, sauté the sausage, beef, and livers until no pink remains. Drain all but 3 Tbsp from the pan. (If sausage is very lean add bacon grease or butter to pan to make 3 Tbsp.)
• 2. Add the bell pepper, onions, and celery. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
• 3. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the veggies begin to soften and brown. Add the rice, green onions, and garlic; continue to stir for 1-2 minutes until the rice begins to toast or turn brown.
• 4. Add the worcestershire sauce, beef & chicken stock, creole seasoning, sage, and bay leaves. Mix well, turn the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
• 5. Cook until the rice is fully tender and the broth has been absorbed. Stir well and remove from heat, then stir in the chopped parsley.
• 6. *Cooks Notes: Don't let the Sage scare you off because you don't taste the small amount of sage in this recipe but it does make a difference in the taste, so don't leave it out. I personally do not like sage in anything, but this recipe is the exception. Some people like to put diced pork or Andouille sausage in their Dirty Rice, which is fine - almost anything goes, however, adding sausage or tomatoes will lean the dish towards a Jambalaya. Dirty Rice shouldn't be too wet or gummy, the grains should separate easily and still be moist enough to hold together on your fork.

LAKE CHARLES DIRTY RICE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. When the oil is hot, add the pork and chicken livers and cook, stirring, until browned. Add the salt, black pepper, and chili powder and stir often, but resist the impulse to stir constantly: You want the meat to stick to the pan and get crusty. Add 1/4 cup of the chicken broth and cook until it has evaporated, allowing the meat mixture to get browned and crusty and stick to the pan once again. Add the onion, celery, garlic, jalapeño, and oregano and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are nicely browned and crusty and beginning to stick to the pan. Add the rice, the remaining 1 1/4 cups broth, the scallions, and parsley. Stir until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is heated through.

AUTHENTIC CAJUN DIRTY RICE

Steps:

• 1. For the dark roux. In a heavy pot melt the oil and get it hot. Slowly whisk in the flour and continue to whisk and cook over medium heat until dark brown dark brown about 20 to 30 minutes. Let cool and set aside.
• 2. Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the pork, chicken livers, onions, celery and garlic. Cook and saute until meat is no longer pink. Add the dark roux and cook for 5 minutes.
• 3. Add the Cajun seasoning, salt, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, thyme, and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil, lower heat and simmer 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Stir in the rice and cook 5 minutes. Stir in the green onion and parsley and cook 1 minute.

DIRTY RICE

Steps:

• In a large, heavy saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken livers and sausage and cook, stirring, until the meat is browned, about 6 minutes. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, the onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, Essence, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the stock and bay leaves and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir thoroughly. Cook until the rice is heated through, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaves. Stir in the parsley and serve.
• Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.
• Recipe from New Orleans Cooking by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch, Published by William and Morrow, 1993.

CAJUN DIRTY RICE

Steps:

• Place chicken gizzards and bay leaves in a saucepan and cover with water to one inch above gizzards. Bring to a simmer and cook with cover on at least 30 minutes while chopping and preparing ingredients. When done preparing ingredients, drain gizzards, (reserve water if you want to use for part of stock) and chop fine.
• While gizzards are cooking, chop veggies and gather spices. I personally use my food processor to speed up the process of grinding the livers and chopping the veggies.
• If you are going to sub out the chicken livers for ground beef or ground turkey, brown it while browning the pork mixture and then reserve -- drained. If you are using roasted chicken, shred it now and reserve.
• Place oil, simmered, drained & chopped gizzards & ground pork in a large heavy skillet over high heat and stir well; cook until meat is thoroughly browned, 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain all oil off and put back on burner.
• Lower heat to medium and stir in Poultry Magic, mustard and cumin. Then, add onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic; stir thoroughly, scraping pan bottom well. Add butter and stir until melted. Reduce heat to medium and cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly and scraping pan bottom well. (if you are not using a heavy-bottomed skillet, mixture will stick a lot).
• Add rice and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring and scraping pan bottom constantly (the rice should crackle and pop and look similar to puffed rice cereal). Add stock and stir until any mixture sticking to pan bottom comes loose; cook about 4 minutes over high heat, stirring occasionally.
• Then stir in ground (or chopped fine) chicken livers (or your subbed ingredient), cover pan and turn heat to low; cook about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave covered until rice is tender, about 10 minutes. (The rice is finished this way so as not to overcook livers and to preserve their delicate flavor) Remove bay leaves and serve immediately.
• For liver haters, substitute ground beef or chicken. Still tastes good, but it's not authentic Creole.

DIRTY RICE

Steps:

• Prepare vegetables as directed.
• Add crushed garlic.
• Brown sausage in large pot.
• Remove sausage and set aside.
• To sausage drippings, add enough bacon drippings or oil to make 1/2 cup.
• Add flour and brown, stirring constantly, over medium-high-heat until the roux is very dark brown (about the color of an old penny).
• Be careful not to scorch the roux.
• Immediately add chopped vegetables and stir and cook a few minutes.
• Then add chopped giblets and cook until pink color is gone.
• Add water, the sausage and seasonings and simmer 2 hours.
• 30 minutes before serving, add green onion tops and parsley.
• Before serving, add hot cooked rice, mix well.