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.
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You are more than welcome. And if there’s a recipe you’d love to see, please let me know. Thanks:)
Hi, I am planning on trying this on wednesday, I was wondering did you cook the pre-cook the rice and leave it in the fridge overnight to dry? Or If I don’t need the refrigerate overnight part?
Hi Kyle! The rice is pre-cooked and no need to refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!
Fantastic .. thank you. My husband & I love dirty rice. Nearly any time I’m the one cooking it, I try a new variation.
Like the originator of this recipe, we love bacon too, so adding that was a hit (& a surprise for my husband). xoxo
Love this & will make it again
Glad to know you all enjoyed this! 🙂 Thank you, EllieRose!
Imma,
Thanks for the recipe. Sounds very good. I look forward to making. I also look forward to checking out your other interesting recipes.
Hello, You are welcome! Do let me know how it works out . Thanks.
This was a hit with the people I shared it with! I’ve always loved dirty rice, but this was my first time including liver. It was fun to get myself and my friends out of our comfort zones a bit.
Can I grind the liver instead of chopping it? It seems to make a negative difference> HUH??
I haven’t tried grinding the liver, but I don’t see why it won’t work. Please do let me know if in case you did.
How much salt and pepper ?
Hi Maria, I usually season with salt and pepper to taste .
I don’t like liver what can I substitute for it
You may leave it out and just with the ground beef.
I’m in love! I used andouille instead of beef, otherwise followed recipe as stated. Previously, I’ve only had zatarains dirty rice…thus kicks its butt all over the place! Thanks so much for sharing
You’re welcome. Glad you it turned out well for you. 🙂
Please did boil the liver before adding to the bacon?Also I like your recipe
Thank you, Sammy. No need to boil the liver.
I just made your recipe but did substitute sausage for the bacon. It is absolutely delicious! Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to let me know, Renee! 🙂
I love this recipe. I had ground beef and chicken liver defrosting and needed something to cook both. This was delicious! Thank you!
Thank you, Jessica!
Do you replace water with beef stock as your liquid measure? Receipe only indicates 1 cup of beef stock added to dish?
It’s a matter of preference . I only add about 1 cup stock and add more if needed, usually about 1/2 cup more, to prevent any burns. I prefer my rice on the dry side.
Sorry, what I meant was when cooking the rice alone. I’m going to use this recipe for Thanksgiving and will feed roughly 17 people. So my question is with 17 cups of rice..do you use 17 cups of water to cook the rice or 17 cups of broth.
Again speaking about just cooking the rice separately from the rest of the dish.
Hey, just popping in to help. Rice is a 2:1 ratio. So 2 cups of liquid to cook 1 cup of dry rice. So for 14 cups of cooked rice you need 7 cups of dry rice and 14 cups of liquid. Hope this helps!
Where can I buy the huckleberry ( African nightshade seeds) I want to plant. Thank you
Flavorful and delicious
Qucik question. Did you precook the rice before adding it to the liver/beef mixture?
Yes the rice is precooked.
Mouth mesmerizing.
I love liver, so thank you for posting this. My mom doesn’t, so maybe I’ll also try a version with seafood instead of liver (tho it defeats the purpose of dirty rice, I know…weirdly she loves tripe).
Also thank you for the instant metric conversion! Makes my job easier.
Me too! I ate it a lot as a child- especially cow liver. Do you eat that too? Trying out more liver recipes for the blog.
You know you can leave out the liver and just do ground beef -right . It still be “dirty”
Glad you love the metric conversion, am trying to switch things up here a bit, making it more user friendly. Hope it works out fine.
My favorite is rabbit liver. It has to be cooked with the right ingredients but it is fantastic once you do (imo – some people just don’t like it).
I know I can use all beef but I like to mix meat and fish sometimes, especially in the summer – summer to me is fish season.
Didi, you are one adventurous girl! Rabbit liver ? Oh Boy! I have to try but must have it grilled first… it’s a mind thing .
Rabbit is the most traditional meat in Liguria, so it’s not like I went looking for it lol. But I do appreciate how people especially one or two generations ago ate all of the animal, nowadays not so much. I try to do it when I can. Did you know that the traditional recipe for ravioli contains cow brain? And that another very old recipe is pig tripe? In a way, this reminds me of Southern cooking (USA). Poor people ate everything they could of an animal, organ meat is also very nutritious so I am in favor of retaking this tradition.
(Also: best way to eat rabbit liver is with onions, bellpeppers and olives)
Your post just inspired me to try more organ meats. I know how nutritious they are, especially organic meats. Trying to get my extremely picky, “burger & fries” eating sons and husband to them is another story. Torment. Going to find some recipes that can allow me to sneak in some heart or other organs haha
Me and Dirty Rice have had allot of good times together. Yet it’s been awhile now since last had it. And Timely of you to remind me I hadn’t had it in awhile. I can tell that Rice is in Flavortown! All the Dirty Rice I’ve ever had came packing a little bit of heat on up. I like heat so I’m good with it.
But next time I make some Rice. I’m gonna play Dirty with it!
So interesting ! I want to give this a try but quick question. Can I use sausage instead of the ground beef and omit the bacon? Thanks