Best Louisiana Rice Dressing Recipe
This classic Louisiana Rice Dressing is not the same as dirty rice. It's a traditional Southern Louisiana dish that begins with a stock made of roux, the Cajun trinity, and cooked ground beef and pork. It's a convenient and versatile side or main dish!
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My Daddy was a cattle farmer. Horses and cows were his passion, and he loved sharing them with others. My two sisters and I were put on horseback at a very young age. We spent time together driving cattle, helping in the cow pen with vaccinations and steer cutting, bottle-feeding orphaned calves, and all the other things daddies like mine want their daughters to grow up doing.
They were good learning experiences and seemed like little work, except for those twice-daily bottle feedings. We were raised eating beef in many different dishes, like this delicious rice dressing recipe.
For more classic Cajun dishes to go with this rice dressing all year round, check out 20 Cajun Thanksgiving Recipes For Your Holiday Menu.
Rice dressing also pairs well with Easy Oven-Barbecued Brisket Recipe with BBQ Sauce, and can help stretch a menu when serving a crowd.
Here's an appetizer recipe using boudin: Crispy Louisiana Boudin Egg Rolls. All you do is wrap the boudin filling in an egg roll wrapper and fry it in the right combination of oils for a satisfying snack, meal, or appetizer.
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The Difference Between Rice Dressing And Dirty Rice
Rice dressings are known throughout the South as main dishes or perfect sides. It originated as a dish made with leftover rice and ground-up meat, waste-not, want-not. However, this recipe is not the popular Cajun dirty rice dressing. This dressing is made of ground beef and pork, while dirty rice is made with ground organ meats like chicken livers, hearts, and gizzards.
Most Southerners are more familiar with Cornbread Dressing. It was not until my first Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's Mississippi family that I learned of such a thing. They served cornbread dressing, and I missed my Cajun rice dressing that year. Since then, I've learned to make a pretty good Cornbread Dressing alongside a pot of Rice Dressing at our holiday gatherings.
A delicious way to serve this Cajun rice dressing is to stuff it into a Roasted Turkey Seasoned In A Brine. It's a Cajun holiday tradition, much like other turkey stuffing methods. You can also stuff bell peppers and a de-boned stuffed Chicken with it.
Ingredients
- oil - vegetable oil or olive oil can be used for the roux
- all-purpose flour - browned in oil for a rich, nutty-tasting roux
- chopped onion - yellow or white onion
- chopped celery - a marshland plant whose stalk and leaves can be used in cooking
- garlic - pressed fresh garlic cloves or substitute with ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder/granules per garlic clove
- chopped green bell pepper - a traditional ingredient of the Cajun trinity
- ground beef - browned and drained with pork
- ground pork - adds a little bit of fat and goes well with the ground beef flavor
- chicken stock or beef broth - more flavorful than chicken broth, but chicken broth may be substituted
- water - tap or filtered for the rice dressing stock
- salt - for seasoning
- red cayenne pepper - adds just the right heat; add a little or a lot
- rice - cooked white rice, either medium or long grain, not brown or wild rice
- green onions - to garnish with before serving
- hot sauce - optional, for more heat
Ingredient amounts are found in the recipe card below.
Instructions
First, you make a roux. This roux's ingredients differ slightly from my Chicken Gumbo, Simply Classic Cajun recipe. Using less oil here gives the dressing a milder taste. The flour and oil are browned until a dark brown color in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. A cast-iron pot may be used, but remove the roux from the pot quickly into a bowl to stop browning and avoid burning.
Next, the onion, celery, and green bell pepper are stirred into the roux and cooked until the veggies are softened. These three vegetables are sometimes called the Cajun trinity or the holy trinity. Another version of these chopped vegetables is this Creole Seasoning Blend. It has herbs like parsley added to onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic.
Next, brown the meat over medium heat in a separate pot, such as a Dutch oven, then drain any excess grease. Add the roux mixture to the large pot with the ground meats, then pour in the broth (or stock or bone broth), water, and seasonings to simmer. Cajun seasonings may be used in place of the salt and pepper.
One of the beauties of this recipe is that you can freeze the dressing mix or stock before adding the rice. Then, defrost, heat, and stir in the cooked rice before serving. This is so convenient for those days when there isn't enough time to cook.
Substitution
- Ground venison is an excellent replacement for ground beef, leaving the pork ingredient in to give it the right taste and fat content.
- Substitute with ⅛ teaspoon of garlic powder per garlic clove
- Black pepper, instead of cayenne pepper, will give a slightly different peppery taste.
- Cajun seasonings can substitute the salt and red cayenne pepper.
Storage For The Louisiana Rice Dressing
The dressing can be easily stored in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Do not let the dressing sit out of the fridge for more than a few hours, or bacteria may begin to grow. It also freezes well, with or without rice added, for up to a month.
Top Tip
Chicken stock is tastier than chicken broth, or you can use beef broth if you don't have any chicken stock available.
FAQ
Dirty rice is a rice dish made from ground organ meats, and rice dressing is made from ground beef, pork, and/or deer meat.
The dressing mix or stock is made with a roux, the Cajun trinity of onion, celery, and bell pepper. Then, the browned ground meats, seasonings, and broth are simmered together. This mix, or stock, is made before adding the cooked rice and can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer before serving with the rice.
Boudin has a similar taste to rice dressing. The difference is that boudin is usually made with organ meats like chicken gizzards, livers, and hearts, then stuffed into a casing like a sausage.
For a tasty boudin recipe, try this Hot Cajun Boudin Dip. It's an appetizing treat of melted cheese and spicy meat, for dipping chips and crackers or spreading on toasted baguette slices!
Related Favorite Dishes
Looking for more dishes like this rice dressing recipe? Try these:
Pairing With Main And Side Dishes
📖 Recipe
Louisiana Rice Dressing Recipe
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish, Side Dish
- Method: Simmer
- Cuisine: Cajun
Description
Rice dressing is a traditional Cajun rice dish that begins with a roux and the Cajun trinity of onion, bell pepper, and celery. It is then simmered with ground meat to make a stock, then mixed with cooked white rice.
Ingredients
- .25 cup vegetable oil
- .5 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 large or 1.5 cups chopped onion
- 3 chopped celery stalks
- 1 large chopped bell pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1.5 pounds of ground beef
- .5 pound ground pork
- 2 cups chicken stock or beef broth
- 1 cup water
- 1.25 teaspoon salt
- .25 teaspoon red cayenne pepper
- 3 cups cooked white rice
Instructions
- Make a roux first by heating the oil in a large pot, like a Dutch oven, over medium heat until hot, then stirring in the flour.
- Brown the roux until it is a dark caramel color, taking your time and stirring all the while.
- Stir the chopped vegetables into the roux and cook until the onions are soft.
- Remove the vegetables and roux from the pot and transfer them to a bowl to set aside.
- Brown the ground meats in the pan.
- Drain the fat from the beef and pork, then return them to the large pot.
- Add the roux and vegetable mixture to the browned meat and stir in the chicken stock or beef broth.
- Pour in a cup of water, stir in salt and cayenne pepper, then close the lid and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add 3 cups of cooked rice, mix well, and serve warm.
Notes
- You may add up to 1 more cup of rice to the dressing if you prefer more rice.
- Use your favorite Cajun seasoning instead of salt and red cayenne pepper.
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"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
When I first tried rice dressing it was from a deli counter in a little store called Larry's in Kaplin, LA. I have tried to make several rice dressings recipes that mimicked theirs but to no avail.......until I found this one! It is SO good! It has quickly become a family favorite and I make it often.
Thank you for sharing!
It is my pleasure to share with you what I’ve learned from my momma’s kitchen in Kaplan, La. Small world! Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for sharing, too.
I love that quote.
Thank you, Crystal!
Hi Kay! Your blog is wonderful and dishes beautiful! So glad my brother,Tony,found you! I remember swinging on that rope with you at Aunt Mary’s camp!
Hey, girl! Thank you and I’m so happy to hear from you. I think of you and the last times we spent together at LSU. I’d love to see you again. Let me know when you’re in the area. ❤️
What happens if you use jasmine rice? We are from Lafayette,Louisiana but moved to Alabama and my daughter likes jasmine but honestly it’s hard to find my favorite rice here!😢 This is exactly how my mom makes it yum!
Jasmine is my favorite, too! It can be prepared the same way. Walmart has a brand but I can’t recall off-hand what it is. Have you tried Amazon?