Easy One-Pot Dirty Rice

Dirty rice is a traditional Cajun or Creole dish named for the color it takes on, thanks to key ingredients like chicken giblets and liver. It’s earthy, heavily spiced, and hearty. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume you don’t normally have liver and giblets around (I sure don’t), but that doesn’t mean you can’t still throw a version of this dish together on a weeknight.

To make dirty rice more weeknight-friendly, I sub in spicy chicken andouille sausage for the giblets and liver and cook the rice right in the pot with everything else, making this a one-dish meal that tastes like you’ve been cooking for hours.

Many regional dishes from Louisiana, especially those with Cajun or Creole origins, start with sautéing what’s known as the holy trinity: celery, onions, and green bell peppers. It’s a little less sweet than a mirepoix, the mixture of onions, celery, and carrots often used in French cooking, but just as complex and earthy once cooked.

Start with cooking this flavorful combination in some sausage fat, then add in uncooked white rice, spices, and chicken broth.

Most stovetop rice recipes call for you to bring the rice up to a boil, then simmer covered until it’s done, leaving it alone the whole time. While I like this method for cooking plain rice, I’ve found that when there’s other ingredients like vegetables or meat cooking with the rice, it can cook unevenly. Stirring the rice halfway through the cooking time ensures much more even cooking, guaranteeing that every grain is tender and fluffy.