Real Cajun Dirty Rice

Here's one holiday side dish you can scratch off your "To do" list, it's Real Cajun Dirty Rice. Let's start cooking this savory dish that is family and friend pleasing no matter where you celebrate the holidays!

Heat a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat and pour in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons of butter.

Drop 1/4 lb. of finely chopped chicken gizzards and 1/4 lb. of finely chopped chicken livers into the pot and cook them, turning occasionally until they are evenly brown, about 5 minutes. You will wind up with extra liquid in the pot from the gizzards and liver.

As soon as the livers aren't red or pink anymore, add 1/2 lb. lean ground beef and 1/4 lb. ground pork sausage (recommend regular breakfast sausage) and cook them into the mix for about 4 minutes or so until no more pink is evident. Then add 1 whole onion finely chopped to the pan and sauté them, stirring occasionally for a few more minutes until they just start to wilt.

Fold 2 ribs of celery finely chopped, 1 green bell pepper finely chopped 4 cloves of minced garlic. Cook everything together for another 5 minutes, stirring, this time continuously.

Now pour in 2 cups of white rice to the pot of ingredients and stir the entire mixture well to combine.

Once the rice is in, pour in 4 cups of chicken stock. Season the pot with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Now bring the stock to a full boil. Once a full boil is achieved, immediately cover the pot tightly and reduce the heat to low, just enough to keep the mixture simmering. It will take about 20 minutes or so for the rice to fully cook.

When the rice is cooked (and you can test a few grains before you take the pot off the stove), move your the pot from the heat to a cool burner. Fluff the rice, give it a quick, gentle stir to uniformly combine everything for the last time, and then cover it again for 10 more minutes to give all the flavors time to combine a little more.

Where else can you find a full-bodied and flavored rice like this?

If you can still move after eating all of that rice, Margie from Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet tagged me to say something about the last 10 people who commented on my blog. I can't express how grateful and blessed I am to have all of you visit and leave comments. I started this blog almost a year ago because cooking is about the only thing that I'm good at and I'm learning how to use my camera. If you're not one of the 10, please know I take every comment to heart and am honored you stop by and visit.

The 10 of you are:

Tavolini has a unique blog sharing adventures exploring Atlanta with his wife and some truly wonderful recipes.

Maria shares some fabulous recipes that blow me away since not too many newlyweds are that adventurous in the kitchen. She's so generous with her time in taking care of her niece to help her sister.

Debbie and I could be kindred souls since we are both coffee addicts. I can picture Debbie and I hanging, picking apart apple recipes out sipping our way through a pot of really good coffee.

Gigi I have not met Gigi, but I feel like she's a dear friend. She's shares her life with her readers. We've met her sweetheart, Harry and witnessed his triumphs and watched her adorable grand children grow up before our eyes. I'm secretly keeping my fingers crossed that one day I'll win a bag of Georgia pecans!

April has the sweetest blog, no really and literally, she does. She may just find me on her front door step with a big glass of milk looking for dessert! I may have to trade a casserole or something and that would be cool!


Aggie has some wonderful and easy recipes (I've tried a few) and they are good. She hails from Florida and has two cute children. I am jealous that they eat so well and mine want potato chips for dinner.

Bridgett prepares some of the most amazing dishes and they all look picture perfect. She calms the old Italian woman in me screaming to get out. I drool over her pictures have had to replace 3 keyboards...thanks Bridgett!

Bon apetit to all of you and thanks for coming back! I've learned so much from every single one of you.