Dirty Rice
Dirty rice is a classic Cajun dish made “dirty” by cooking the rice with minced livers or gizzards. I created a healthier version using brown rice and lean ground beef in place of the chicken livers that normally make dirty rice “dirty”. I’d like to think of this as a Cajun shrimp fried rice.
This healthier version does not skimp on flavor! It has plenty of spices and a bit of kick, you can adjust the heat to your taste but don’t be shy with the cayenne if you can handle it! Normally a rice dish like this if made with white rice would be cooked all in one pot, but after several attempts to perfect this I found that cooking the brown rice all together created an unpleasant mushy texture. By cooking the brown rice separate, the texture of the rice was perfect when mixed with the beef and shrimp and made a delicious main dish even my “non-brown rice eating” husband enjoyed. Makes 6 1/2 cups.
