Creole Dirty Rice -

Dirty rice is one of those dishes you’ll get a thousand comments on.

“My mom always made it with this”

“It’s best with sausage instead of ground beef”

“You’ve got to use day old rice”

“Cook the rice in with the meat, not in two pots”

Dirty rice is a universally beloved Creole dish that’s origins made it easily adaptable.

In Louisiana in the 1700 and early 1800s this dish was prepared by slaves using whatever scrap meats they could find. A lot of the time that meant offal, like organ meat, necks, feet, ears, tails and tongues. Rice combined with the offal was the main component of dirty rice.

As more people cooked it, and as better cuts of meat became available, offal was slowly replaced by ground sausage and/or ground beef. When you order dirty rice at a restaurant now nine times out of ten it will be made with sausage or beef.

I’m one of the ones who likes the traditional dirty rice. Chicken gizzards and livers are more palatable than most other offal, so that’s what I use in my dirty rice. Livers aren’t everyone’s favorites since they’ve got such an intense, metallic flavor, but once you have it in dirty rice, you probably will never go back to the better meats.

My dirty rice only has green bell pepper and onion in it instead of the holy trinity with celery. I hate celery, so I call this the “holy duo”. Other than that, the rice is seasoned simply with Cajun seasoning, thyme, and a bay leaf. No salt is needed if you follow this recipe to a tee.

Enjoy!

Creole Dirty Rice

Servings: 6-8
Time: 40 mins
Difficulty: Easy
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A more traditional dirty rice recipe with chopped chicken livers mixed in.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. chicken livers, chopped

2 TBS. shortening

1 yellow onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 tsp. Cajun seasoning

1 tsp. dried thyme

1.5 cups long grain rice

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

2 TBS. butter

3 cups water

1.5 tsp. beef bouillon powder

Sliced green onions, for topping

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine rice with water, butter, bay leaf and bouillon powder. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.
Meanwhile, in a medium sized skillet, melt shortening over medium high heat. Add chicken livers and cook, chopping fine with a wooden spoon, until browned. Stir in onion, bell pepper, thyme and Cajun seasoning. Cook until onions and pepper are tender, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in garlic and continue to cook for another minute.
Discard bay leaf from rice. Add cooked rice to chicken liver mixture. Toss until well combined and rice looks “dirty”. Serve topped with sliced green onions.