Recipe: Dirty Rice Pie

[ellyssian]

We had some bulk sausage that needed to be cooked up - thought about doing something with home fries, but we're having rosemary potato tomorrow with chicken, so that's a no go. After a few moments, Deb mentioned rice, and I grabbed the dirty rice mix. We've always done as the package says and used hamburger (before we departed from the text and turned it into dirty rice pie, but that will be covered soon enough,) so I thought, hey, let's use the sausage! After all, jambalaya usually has sausage, and this is close enough...

So, anyway, enough preamble:

Dirty Rice Pie

1 box Zatarain's Dirty Rice Mix
1 pound of ground sausage
1/2 pound extra sharp Wisconsin cheddar, shredded or cubed
1/4 pound monterey jack, shredded or cubed
black pepper, freshly ground
Sgt. Pepper's Chipotle Del Sol Southwest Seasoning
tortilla chips, crushed
salsa

Brown the sausage - I use a sandwich grill that has a drip tray to drain the fat as it cooks; a lot less greasy, and a lot healthier. Go for 'no pink,' especially with the sausage, although we're still cooking it twice.

Prepare the dirty rice mix per package directions, using the sausage in place of the ground beef. Time can be cut a bit short, as everything will be cooked again. All the water should be absorbed, but don't overdo it and dry it out.

Prep a baking dish - we use a Pyrex - with a layer of tortilla chips, crushed and broken up a bit. We used rounds, and made sure each was broken in fourths or more. Prep the cheese if it's not done already. Start the oven on 300F when there's enough time left on the dirty rice to get it up to temperature.

Scoop the dirty rice out and gently layer on top of the chips. Grind some pepper onto the top of the dirty rice, and then sprinkle with the Chipotle Del Sol. Top with the cheeses, and bake until the cheese melts evenly. Better to watch closely than go with a certain time, which will depend on the way the cheese is prepped.

Serve with salsa, or, optionally, prepare with a cooking salsa added as a layer between dirty rice and cheese. You may want to check out Frontera - that's what I've used; tonight we kept it on the side and used Chili's Fiesta Hot salsa.

Comments

[dangerdean.livejournal.com]

And what, pray tell, is dirty rice?

[nhmetalchick.livejournal.com]

^^^^ so glad they asked that, I was thinking I was afraid to know, or that it was another TMI post. But now that we know, I have a question, do ya serve it with rolaids/tums too?! :p

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Certainly not! The flavors do not complement the meal at all - frankly, I don't see the need for such supplements.

A nice, tall glass of iced tea (without additional fruity flavors) does go well with it, or perhaps a glass of milk, if the heat is too much for you.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Dirty rice is a Cajun dish made with white rice and chicken bits and pieces, onions, and peppers. The Zatarain's mix specifies using ground beef, although when I looked for a good link that describes dirty rice, and maybe a recipe to make it.

Zatarain's seems to have a pretty wide distribution, so it might make it to store shelves in Canada.

[rowancat.livejournal.com]

I switched to Luzianne Cajun Dirty Rice Dinner Kit, much better to my taste than Zatarain's Dirty Rice Mix but, alas, they are in New Orleans and i haven't seen any on the shelves in weeks.

They may have been flooded and halted production.

I used it with shredded Cajun seasoned chicken breast or good quality ground beef (sirloin or angus) and veggies mixed in, sometimes a good sharp chedder cheese too.

Copied your recipe and will try it :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Luzianne doesn't have any current news item on their web site, but they have manufacturing in Knoxville, TN and Baltimore, MD in addition to NO, so they should still be viable.

I've been really happy with Zatarain's - including my favorite accompaniement for fish, the Caribbean Rice Mix - but I've alerted my wife to the brand, so we'll see if we can find it and give it a shot.