Dirty Rice

Yield: 6-8 Servings

Prep time: 20 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

If you could not tell by the array of recipes up here, I really love Cajun food. Cajun/Creole cuisine is truly among the last examples of great food developed here in the United States. I’m slightly embarrassed that my introduction to this food was through the fast food restaurant Popeye’s, but I’m thankful for it nonetheless. I’ll give Popeye’s their dues. Especially because their dirty rice is still one of my favorite foods to this day. The rice is always cooked well, it’s savory, and always hits (especially because I don’t eat it often).

That brings us to this recipe here. I’ve had “homemade” dirty rice before, if you can count the Zatarain’s rice mix as homemade lol and its always a nice, easy meal for a weeknight dinner. This recipe is 100% from scratch, of course but still as simple as if it did indeed come from a box. Taking under an hour to make, the ground beef helps to transform this rice dish into a hearty staple that can be both a side and main dish. Since rice produces a lot of food, this is a good choice when wanting to feed a crowd, or if you’re a single person looking for foods to meal prep.

Ingredients

3 cups beef broth
1-2 lbs. ground beef
½ onion, finely diced
½ green bell pepper, finely diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 cup long-grain rice
½ tsp celery seed
¼ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Kosher salt, black pepper

Directions

1. Heat oil in Dutch oven (or large pot) over medium heat. Brown ground beef, seasoning with salt and pepper as it is cooking. Remove meat with slotted spoon when done.
2. In the beef drippings, melt butter. Sauté the onion, garlic, and bell pepper until they begin to soften (3-5 minutes).
3. Add the seasonings (celery seed, thyme, basil, oregano, cayenne pepper) and rice to the pot; let the rice cook 2-3 minutes. 
4. Add the ground beef back in and stir to combine. Pour in the beef broth and bring to a slight boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and let rice simmer 25 minutes, or until all water is gone from the rice. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Recipe Tips

• For taste/”authenticity” purposes, I do not recommend substituting the ground beef for another type of meat.
• Adding Cajun seasoning will help to spice up your dish.
• The recipe can be doubled, just make sure you double EVERYTHING for consistent results.