Dirty Rice Recipe
My easy dirty rice recipe is an incredible side dish made from scratch with Creole spices, ground beef, chicken livers, and bacon. Liver haters, you’ll love this crazy delicious Creole classic because you can leave it out if you want!
No, it’s not dirty. But the name is fun, isn’t it? Dirty rice is a classic soul food that is flavorful, full of texture, and guaranteed to level up your rice game.
As with most soul food, ingenuity turns what you have available into big, bold flavors. And what better way to use chicken livers? Ground beef and bacon boost the flavor. You could skip the bacon, but why?
What Is Dirty Rice?
The name might put you off if you’ve never heard of it. But it originated in Southern Louisiana as pure soul food. The blend of white rice, spices, aromatics, and small pieces of meat, like chicken livers and gizzards, ground beef, or sausage, is delicious.
The liver (I’ve given you an alternative to liver in the recipe) and ground beef turn the rice an unexpected dirty brown color. Over the years, this flavorful rice meal has evolved with many variations. I use whatever I have in the fridge because I can’t resist Immafying it. Plus, it’s a great way to use leftover rice.
How to Make Dirty Rice
- Make the rice, fry the bacon (and andouille sausage if desired) and the aromatics, then add the ground meat and break it up.
- Add veggies and aromatics, then add broth or water and simmer. Fluff the rice.
- Add the cooked rice and mix thoroughly, heat through, remove the bay leaf, and enjoy.
Recipe Tips
- This Southern dirty rice recipe is a great way to use leftovers! Leftover meat, veggies, and rice make a super-fast meal.
- Omit or add some ingredients to suit your palate, such as skipping the liver or adding jalapenos to spice up your rice dish.
- Creole seasoning already has cayenne pepper, but feel free to add more if desired.
Make-Ahead and Leftovers
Like most fried rice recipes, you can make this one the day before. And since it freezes well (2-3 months), a double batch isn’t a bad idea. A splash of broth or water will bring it back to life when reheating.
Menu Suggestions
To complete a drool-worthy meal with dirty rice, you’ve got to have an equally easy coleslaw. Fresh skillet cornbread or hush puppies, and spicy chicken wings or Cajun shrimp are also fantastic pairings. Another ingenious way to use it is as a rice dressing for your holiday turkey.
More Deliciously Seasoned Rice Recipes to Try
- Seasoned Rice
- Caribbean Rice and Beans
- One Pot Caribbean Jerk Chicken and Rice
- Mushroom Rice
- Cajun Rice
This blog post was originally published in May 2017 and has been updated with additional tips and new photos.
Dirty Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 4-5 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 pound (450g) andouille sausage or kielbasa, chopped (optional)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3-4 teaspoons (15-20g) minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons (1-2g) fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 pound (450g) chicken livers, chopped (optional, see notes)
- 1 pound (450g) ground beef
- ½ pound (250g) ground pork sausage (optional)
- 1 tablespoon (15g) Creole seasoning (or more to taste)
- 1 small bell pepper, diced (red and green are fine)
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- ½ teaspoon (1g) freshly ground black pepper (or more if desired)
- salt to taste (see notes)
- 1½-2 cups (355-475ml) beef stock (start with 1½ cups and add more if needed)
- 6 cups (720g) cooked rice
- 3-4 green onions, chopped (or scallions)
- 2-3 tablespoons (7-10g) chopped parsley
- pepper flakes or hot sauce to taste
Instructions
- In a large, heavy sauté pan, fry chopped bacon (and optional sausage) until cooked, 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add a tablespoon of oil to the bacon grease if needed.
- Toss in the onions, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf, and saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the optional chicken liver, ground beef, pork sausage (if using), and Creole seasoning. Cook while stirring for about 2 minutes.
- Add bell peppers, celery, salt, and pepper. Continue cooking while stirring for five more minutes. Then pour in about 1½ cups of stock.
- Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Finally, add rice and green onions, and mix thoroughly. Cook until the rice is heated through, 5-7 minutes. Add more stock if needed to keep it from burning, being careful not to overcook the rice.
- Remove from the heat and take out the bay leaves. Stir in the parsley and serve with hot sauce or red pepper flakes.
Tips & Notes:
- Feel free to replace the liver with andouille sausage if you prefer.
- I never make this recipe the same way twice in a row. Bacon, andouille sausage or kielbasa, ground pork sausage, hamburger, liver, etc., are mix-and-match options that depend on what was on sale that week.
- This recipe is meat-heavy, so reduce the amounts by half for more of a rice side dish.
- How much salt will depend on whether or not you use sausage and how salty the rice is. If using only liver and ground beef, start with a teaspoon and add more as needed toward the end of cooking. If using bacon and cured sausage, it may be better to wait until it’s closer to finished and do a taste test before adding more.
- Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
Just made this with some leftover rice and it came out great!! I only had bacon but I imagine chicken livers and ground beef would have kicked it up a notch. Easy to follow and throw together in a few minutes.
Awesome!!! Thanks for sharing. I love when people are brave enough to change recipes to fit what they have in the kitchen.
Church’s Chicken used to have dirty rice on their menu. It was something I had to have every time I went for chicken. This recipe tastes exactly like Church’s! Ah, the memories that it brought back. Thank you so much!
I did tweek it a little by adding some red and orange bell pepper with the green bell pepper. It couldn’t have been better!
Awesome!!! And thanks for the recipe ideas.
Excellent!
Thanks !
Just tried this recipe and I’ll make some tweaks in the future but it turned out pretty well! Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes, this is my go to website. I’ve been trying to expand my cooking abilities since getting married and you’re making me look great in front of my husband lol!
Hi Nneka,
I’m so glad to hear that the Dirty Rice recipe turned out well for you, and even more thrilled to know that this is your go-to website for recipes! It’s wonderful that you’re expanding your cooking abilities, especially as a newlywed.
Cooking is all about tweaking and making a recipe your own, so I’m glad you’re planning to make some adjustments next time. That’s how you become a great cook!
Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your experience. It’s feedback like yours that makes sharing these recipes so rewarding. Keep cooking and impressing your husband! ️✨
I love this recipe so much
Oh great to hear that. Thank you so much!