Easy Homemade Dirty Rice
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With Creole seasoning, turkey sausage, vegetables, and rice, my Cajun-style easy homemade recipe for dirty rice is the perfect flavorful weeknight supper to make for your family.
Some of the best food comes out of Louisiana, like this recipe for dirty rice, which is a Cajun classic. Now, it’s called “dirty rice” (also known as Cajun rice and rice dressing) because traditionally, it was cooked with minced chicken livers, spices, and vegetables, which turned the white rice “dirty”. Over the years, many versions of this filling Creole supper have sprouted up, so this is my take.
This dirty rice recipe is a great go-to meal for busy weekdays. It also happens to be one of my favorite make-ahead meals to take on camping trips. I always make up a double batch of this recipe for dirty rice ahead of time, refrigerate or freeze it, and have instant comfort food whenever we need it. Since it is so easy to reheat, this is one of those recipes that I suggest always doubling. By simply doubling a few meals from time to time, you can build up a bank of convenience meals and shop your freezer rather than stopping by a drive-through.
Now, I’m bypassing chicken livers in favor of turkey sausage. What else do you need? Rice, Creole seasoning, dried or fresh parsley, onion, bell pepper, celery (a.k.a the Holy Trinity in Cajun cooking), and minced garlic. Weeknight meals don’t get much easier than this. We just have to chop up our vegetables, cook our rice, and slowly add all of the ingredients to a skillet. I can never resist a one-pan meal, how about you? Better yet, it’s ready to serve in 30 minutes. Serve with BBQ Chicken Breast in Oven, Southern Fried Chicken Recipe (Fuss-Free), Simple Southern Fried Catfish and you will have the perfect meal.
The Creole seasoning adds so much flavor to this simple Cajun dirty rice recipe. It’s hearty, filling, and a must-make, so let’s go!
Recipe Ingredients
- Cooked rice (to decrease carbs you can use cauliflower rice)
- Creole seasoning
- Dried or fresh parsley
- Onion
- Bell pepper
- Turkey sausage
- Celery
- Chopped or minced garlic
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make The Best Dirty Rice Recipe at Home
Chop all your herbs and veggies: bell pepper, celery, parsley, and onion. You can use dried parsley if you prefer.
Place these in a large skillet along with your sausage and minced garlic.
Chop up your sausage a bit and cook that over medium to medium-high heat.
Cook this until the sausage is cooked through and the veggies are tender.
Stir in your Creole seasoning.
I use two and a half tablespoons and it is perfect for us. You may want to start with a little less and taste it. You may end up using a lot more!
Lookin’ good!
Toss in cooked rice.
Stir that up well and make sure your rice is heated through.
Sit down with a glass of iced tea and a fine meal!
Storage
Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months. This dish tastes just like it was freshly made when you reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Recipe Notes
- I LOVE Jennie-O turkey sausage. The mild and hot are both really good. That is the main brand I recommend if you can find it. I get it at Publix. If you can only find Butterball sausage, I’d just use ground beef or ground pork instead.
- While long grain white rice is the most popular, you can also use brown rice or wild rice.
Recipe FAQs
Can I use Cajun seasoning instead?
You can! Cajun seasoning is more pepper-heavy and thus spicier than Creole seasoning, which features various herbs like oregano, basil, and thyme. If you want to use Creole seasoning but add a little bit more heat, add 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (or more to taste).
What is in Zatarain’s Dirty Rice?
Zatarain’s Dirty Rice Dinner Mix is made with long grain rice, onion, garlic, red and green bell pepper, and spices like red pepper flakes and paprika. So our recipe for dirty rice is very similar and a bit of a Zatarain copycat version.
How do you make Popeye’s Cajun Rice?
Popeye’s Cajun Rice side dish is also very similar to our recipe. However, Popeye’s uses ground beef and minced chicken gizzards. They also use more spices than just Creole seasoning, like garlic powder, celery seed, cayenne pepper, and coarse ground black pepper.
What do you serve with dirty rice?
This dirty rice is the perfect main dish as it is. But if you’d prefer to serve it as a side, serve it with some fried catfish, blackened chicken, or fried chicken, Popeye’s style.
You may also like these rice recipes:
Crockpot Fiesta Chicken and Rice
Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice Casserole
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 4-5 cups cooked rice
- 1 pound uncooked turkey sausage or ground beef
- 1-3 tablespoons Creole seasoning* I use Tony Chachere's
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped or minced garlic
- 4 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley or 2 tablespoons dried parsley
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, place celery, bell pepper, garlic, onion, parsley, and sausage. Break up the sausage and cook all, stirring regularly, until sausage is fully cooked and vegetables are tender.1 pound uncooked turkey sausage, 1 celery stalk, chopped, 1 small onion, chopped, 1/2 bell pepper, chopped, 2 tablespoons chopped or minced garlic, 4 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- Add the Creole seasoning and stir. Then stir in the rice and continue cooking over medium heat until rice is heated through, stirring well the whole time.4-5 cups cooked rice, 1-3 tablespoons Creole seasoning*
Notes
Nutrition
Just read this post, and realized that I’ve been making this all my life, my mother called it hamburger and rice, she always added onions, and parsley (that was her go to spice or herb along with dill) and added other bits of seasonings in as the mood struck her. She made a variation that used elbow macaroni, that wound up with all sorts of things in it depending on how far along the month was, and what was left in the pantry, tomatoes, and shrimp (the tiny pink ones in the can) was the most memorable one. We ate a lot of stuff like this as we were poor. The shrimp was a gift from an uncle who loved them, and thought we needed to enjoy sea food, we lived 900 miles from the sea.
Eva, I laughed out loud at seeing your uncle bringing you cans of shrimp because he felt you needed to eat seafood. It just struck my tickle bone this morning. 🙂
This was what we had for supper last nig. We loved it. There are just two of us so froze the rest for another meal.
I am so glad you liked it Jen!!
I fixed this for lunch today & it was deeeelicious. When my husband got home this afternoon, he loved it too. So easy, so fast and soooo good!
I haven’t heard the Tennessee Pride song in ages. I can’t get the tune off my mind now. I played it over & over so I could learn the words again. My grandchildren will get a kick out of this. Played for husband too. I loved it, brought back memories.
What a great recipe! I wanted something inexpensive, easy and comforting, and this was really good. Had it with some Latin seasoned pinto beans and it was delicious! Thank you!
I love this recipe and make it all the time! What does everyone serve with this? Alone it doesn’t seem to fill us up!….Guess I could make more… 🙂
I UE HEAVENS MADE AMAZIN CAJUN SEASONING, IT HAS NO SALT, AS YOU WONT NEED SALT EITHER. WITH TONYS LABLE SHOWING, THEY MUST SPONSER YOU. NO BIG DEAL. LOL.
This is one of my all time favorites. Thanks for reminding me. It’s now on tonight’s menu.
I always made this with ground beef. Tennessee Pride and Jimmy Dean were pretty much non existent in NYC. There was one choice, Jones; and those were usually just links.
I used to love Zatarain’s, until they evidentially opened up their own salt mine. And then there’s the price. As my southern friends would say, “They’re real proud of it.”
I make most of my own seasonings. I like to control the salt content. I tried Tony Chachere’s… once. As I’ve described it, “A salt-lick… with a slight hint of what ever it was you were trying to season.”
As a little twist, after all is finished cooking, I throw everything in a baking dish; about an inch or so deep. Then I sprinkle some of that ersatz parmesan cheese (Kraft) over it and pop it into a 400 deg oven until the cheese gets a little color on it; that ersatz stuff doesn’t really melt. I do the same thing with stuffed peppers; which have pretty much the same ingredients. Everybody seems to like it.
God bless.