This Easy Dirty Rice is the perfect recipe! Made with cajun seasoning, ground beef, white rice, celery, onion, and garlic this dish is flavor packed!
If you're looking for a go-to side dish that is packed with flavor, then you're going to love this easy recipe. Of course it can easily be a one pan meal on its own as well. Dirty Rice cooks in one pot and tastes great with a variety of dishes. The authentic cajun flavor shines through in this flavorful dish! We loves serving this for dinner as a simple side with oven Baked Chicken Thighs or Cajun Garlic Baked Salmon!
What is dirty rice?
Dirty rice is a classic Creole recipe. It's made with with white rice and cajun flavors. The "dirty" name comes from the dirty color it gets from being cooked with ground beef, green bell pepper, celery, onions and seasonings. These ingredients also add a lot of flavor.
How to make easy dirty rice
This rice dish cooks in a large Dutch oven or pan in less than 35 minutes.
- First, cook the beef. Add the ground beef to a large pan set over medium heat. Crumble the beef with a spatula and cook for 5 minutes, or until the beef is no longer pink.
- Next, add the onion, garlic, green bell pepper, celery, Cajun seasoning and salt. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the rice and beef broth.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 to 23 minutes.
- Allow the rice to rice for 5 to 10 minutes and then fluff the rice with a fork.
- Serve the rice with your favorite main dish, or eat it as a main meal along with a side of the easiest ever Drop Biscuits!
Enjoy!
Dirty Rice
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 1 cup celery diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups white rice uncooked
- 3 ½ cups beef broth
- chopped green onion or parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Add ground beef to a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pan set over medium heat. Crumble with a spatula and cook 4-5 minutes until no pink remains.
- Add onion, garlic, green pepper, celery, Cajun seasoning, and salt. Stir until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add rice and beef broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered about 20 to 23 minutes or until rice is cooked.
- Allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Garnish with green onions or parsley before serving.
Followed the recipe and rice came out very mushy. Flavor was good though
We love this recipe and the cajun seasoning recipe linked. My guy is into weight lifting and body building. I changed the recipe a little for us and our health needs by using ground turkey and short grain brown rice. I add extra cajun seasoning and a jalapeño when I have one. The brown rice needs about 1/2 cup more broth and more simmer time. Easy peasy and delicious!
Do I use instant rice or long grain rice. I'm looking forward to making this dish.
Has anyone made this recipe with brown rice? What adjustments did you make and how did it turn out?
I'm getting ready to make it with brown rice now. I would cook the rice with the liquid until it's almost finished, and fold in the veg and meat and tightly cover it to cook the rest of the way through.
I make it with short grain brown rice and increase the broth by 1/2 cup. I simmer it on low until it's cooked. We love it!
My brown rice recipe always says 45 minutes, and is equal amounts of rice to liquid, so other than simmering for 45 minutes instead of 20 - 23, I simmered for 45 and it is fantastic! Didn't change anything else.
Do you have recommendations for using Minute Rice? I thought I had slow-cooked at home, but it's all instant. I could just make it and then fold it in but I'm afraid of it not having the simmer time to soak up all that flavor. Any thoughts? Thanks!
I usually use a box mix for dirty rice. However, not being able to find it, I decided to make my own from this recipe I found on Google. I saved it to my Pinterest page, and I'm glad I did. The prep work was a bunch of easy chopping and throwing it all together was simple. A very easy recipe to follow, we had a yummy dinner in 25 minutes. My husband found it very flavourful and requested it be made often. It wasn't spicy enough to me bur thsts easily fixed. All in all it was very tasty
To add a bit of spice to it without being overwhelming, i sub out the ground beef and use a pound of Jimmy Dean or similar Hot Sausage. If a big batch use a pound of ground beef and a pound of sausage
This is the best dirty rice that I’ve ever had! It’s packed full of flavor and is hearty enough to serve as a main dish on its own. The only modification that I made was replacing the celery with a few dashes of celery salt. This dish will be on rotation at my home on a regular basis. Yum!
Made it exactly like the recipe. (Only doubled it. Lots of people to feed) This was bursting with flavor! Everyone loved it. Definitely my go to for Dirty Rice recipes. So so good! Served with a small side salad and corn bread. Perfect!
Cooked in a Ninja Foodi (I think Instapot would have the same directions..) Used "sear/saute" function to brown the meat. When it was almost finished, I added the cajun seasoning and veggies and cooked until softened slightly. It looked like a lot, so I added two cups of white rice, stirred everything a few more minutes allowing the rice to brown slightly. Poured in two and a half cups of beef broth, stirred well. Close the lid and set to "pressure cook" for 3 minutes, making sure the vent is in the seal position. Once it was finished, I let it natural release pressure for 10 minutes, opened the vent to let it manual release the rest of the way. Open lid, stir, and serve! It was PERFECT. I have a kid that doesn't like spicy food, so I added extra seasoning and cayenne pepper to my own bowl. 🙂 Absolutely delicious! Great recipe.
Do you have to cover the pot while the rice is simmering?
It says simmer covered, so yes! ❤️
Very good! I used pork sausage and topped with truffle Buffalo sauce. Yummy!
Perfect base recipe! I used bulk breakfast sausage (had it in the fridge and needed to be used up). So yummy. I topped with black truffle Buffalo sauce. 🙂
Taste great. Very Easy to follow, but I would recommend adding canyane pepper or more Cajun spice if you want it spicy New Orleans style.
Very tasty and simple to make! Thank you for the recipe!
I make this except I use cajun sausage rather than ground beef. I also throw some red beans in and it's amazing.!!!
I remember these substitutes for this dish from my childhood, served in my school a lot. the sausage and beans are really delicious. We use Poblano peppers instead of Green bell peppers and throw in a little Jalapeño for some fun heat.
I made this tonight for dinner for my very picky 13 year old and she actually loved it. Instead of Cajun seasoning I used Italian seasoning and since I'm allergic to celery I skipped that step but the last few minutes of cooking I added some peas and it tasted wonderful!
Can you use chicken livers instead?
Yes you can.
Delicious! Even the three year old is eating it willingly. We will definitely be making this again.
This is literally my "go to" recipe when it comes to dirty rice. Everyone in my family loves it. The only thing I do different is lower the Cajun seasoning a little and add about 1/2 to 1 tsp of smoked paprika. YUMMY!!
I followed this recipe but tweaked it and made it my own, of course. I kept everything the same but added sage breakfast sausage with the ground beef and some worchistehhire sauce. Delicious. I paired this with fresh string beans and your drop biscuit recipe (a must try!!! Definitely add the melted butter to tops after removing from oven!). Will be making this again!