Dirty Rice is a spicy and flavorful Cajun rice dish made from white rice. You won’t find a more flavorful rice.
Why Is It Called Dirty Rice?
It gets its “dirty” color from finely chopped chicken livers and ground beef or pork. The chicken livers give it such a deep flavor. Even if you think you don’t like chicken livers, you should try adding them. Since they are finely chopped, the overall dish doesn’t have much of a chicken liver flavor.
Dirty Rice is a spicy and meaty rice dish that just may become your favorite rice dish of all time.
Usually this cajun rice is served as a side dish, but with all that meaty goodness added to it, it’s tempting to eat it as a main dish.
Holy Trinity
The flavor of Dirty Rice starts with the Holy Trinity- onion, celery, and bell pepper. Garlic, dried thyme, and a few teaspoons of Cajun seasoning round out the seasonings.
If you save your bacon grease when you cook bacon, use a little of it in this rice. It will add even more flavor.
For the Cajun seasoning, I love to use Tony Chachere’s. It’s by far my favorite seasoning and it is perfect for sprinkling on all kinds of foods. I love it on potato salad. 🙂
What If I Don’t Like Liver?
I recommend you try it first with the livers. The liver flavor gets really dispersed and isn’t all that noticeable. If you’re sure you hate liver, leave it out. You can add a little bacon grease and a few pieces of chopped, cooked bacon for extra flavor.
How To Store
Will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days and can be reheated in a microwave.
Try These Other Southern Favorites:
- Grillades and Grits
- Mardi Gras Pasta
- Southern-Fried Pork Chops
- New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp
- Easy Chicken Pot Pie
- Cubed Steak with Onion Gravy
- Crawfish Jambalaya
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Watch the short video below to see how to make Dirty Rice.
Dirty Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 (14-ounce) can chicken broth
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 1/2 cups long-grain rice
- 1 tablespoon bacon grease or Vegetable oil
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion,, chopped
- 1 celery rib,, chopped
- 1/2 green bell pepper,, seeded and chopped
- 1/2 cup finely chopped chicken livers
- 2 cloves garlic,, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Cajun Seasoning,, I like Tony Chachere’s
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Instructions
- Set aside 1/2 cup of the chicken broth and pour remaining chicken broth in a medium saucepan. Add 1 1/2 cups water and bay leaf. Bring to boil. Add rice, cover and cook 20 minutes.
- Heat bacon grease in a cast iron Dutch oven. Add ground beef and crumble it with a wooden spoon.
- Once you have the ground beef crumbled, add onion, celery, and green pepper. Cook stirring occasionally until beef is no longer pink and vegetables are softened. Add chicken livers and garlic and continue to cook 5 minutes.
- Add salt, Cajun seasoning, and thyme.
- Add reserved chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pan to release all the brown pieces. Let simmer 1 minute.
- Remove bay leaf from rice and add rice to Dutch oven. Stir it into the ground beef mixture. Keep the heat on while you stir. Once it is combined well, remove from heat.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Originally published February 29, 2016.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
This recipe is amazing! It’s so good. It’s better than any restaurant I have tried this side of the Mississippi. For extra kick, I replace the bell pepper with jalapeños.
My husband absolutely LOVED this. He ate 3 full plate fulls!
👍👁️👄👁️👍
Excellent except it does not need that extra spoonful of salt. I will omit that next time. My grand didn’t even fuss about the onions and she really liked the flavors. I doubled the recipe for leftovers except I only used 3 tbs of Creole seasoning due to salt & I added a good shake of red pepper flakes. Can’t wait to make it w the chicken livers, too since I only had ground beef this time. It was still delicious! Thanks.
Can I substitute Liver with ground beef? I am a child and I don’t like liver, but I wanna start cooking more and this looked really good!
I took the casings off of 2 brats,chopped up some mushrooms and added 1tbs of A1,to sub the chicken livers
This turned out great!! So tasty and the liver blends in really well. Thanks so much for sharing.
Wow, was this good. We loved it. Spicy without being to hot. This rice dish is memorable. It was quick and easy to make with excellent results. Thank you so much for sharing a new family favorite.
I rarely leave 5 star reviews but this one deserves it!! I’ve made this at least 3 times and it has come out perfect every time. I do add a bit more garlic but that’s the only change. Thank you for a fantastic recipe that hits the spot. 😍
hey christin! made dirty rice as a side dish for my mixed enchiladas at lunch and it turned out stellar! thanks a ton for the recipe!
greets from California
Just made this tonight, 9-12-2020. It is amazing in taste. Used a little breakfast sausage in place of liver. All else as recipe directed. Thank you!
I enjoy all the recipes that was created for this fabulous dish, l will be using it all, thank you so much for posting it all.