Hello, new favorite! I think of this Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet kind of like “jambalaya light”. It has similar flavors and ingredients as jambalaya, but it’s a slightly scaled back, simplified version, perfect for quick weeknight dinner. And the best part? The leftovers are SO GOOD. So feel free to add this tasty skillet to your meal prep rotation!
What Kind of Sausage Do I Use?
To make this skillet meal taste the best, try to find Andouille sausage, which is a smoked pork sausage commonly used in Louisiana cooking. If you can’t find any in your area (I’m not sure how readily available this is outside the southern U.S.), you can use any smoked sausage in its place. If you want to go so far as to special order some to get the full experience, check out the selection from Cajungrocer.com.
Is Cajun Sausage and Rice Spicy?
It can be, depending on the ingredients you use. I used a “medium” heat Andouille sausage, which had a good amount of spicy heat, as well as a little cayenne pepper in my Cajun seasoning blend. If you want to make this dish mild, make sure to get a non-spicy smoked sausage, and you can skip the cayenne pepper in the spices listed in the recipe.
Can I Use Store Bought Cajun Seasoning?
The recipe below includes a half batch of my homemade Cajun seasoning, minus the salt because the other ingredients in the skillet contained enough salt that I didn’t need to add more. The total amount of spices used is about 1 tablespoon. If you’d like to use a store bought Cajun seasoning blend, first check to see how much salt it contains. Many store bought Cajun seasoning blends contain a lot of salt and are used more like a seasoning salt, or table seasoning, and probably will not work well for this recipe. If the blend you have is mostly just herbs and spices, I would use about 1 Tbsp for this recipe.
Can I Use Brown Rice?
Brown rice requires more liquid and a much longer cook time than white rice, so you will need to take these into account if you attempt to substitute brown rice for the white rice in this recipe. While I haven’t tested a brown rice version, I would probably add at least another cup of chicken broth and increase the simmer time to closer to 40 minutes.
You might also love my One Pot Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Rice!
Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet
Servings 4 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 14 oz. Andouille sausage* ($3.99)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1 bell pepper ($0.89)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp onion powder ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.01)
- 1 15oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes ($1.00)
- 1 cup long grain white rice ($0.62)
- 1.5 cups chicken broth ($0.20)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.20)
Instructions
- Slice the sausage into ¼-½ inch thick slices. Add the sausage and cooking oil to a deep skillet or Dutch oven and sauté over medium heat until the sausage is well browned. Don't worry if the sausage begins to brown on the bottom of the skillet. That's extra flavor that will cook into the rice later.
- While the sausage is cooking, dice the bell pepper. Once the sausage is browned, add the bell pepper to the skillet and continue to sauté for about one more minute.
- Add the spices (smoked paprika, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and black pepper) to the skillet with the sausage and bell pepper and continue to sauté for one minute more to toast the spices.
- Add the fire roasted diced tomatoes (with juices), rice, and chicken broth to the skillet. Stir to combine and dissolve any browned bits off the bottom of the skillet.
- Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the broth to come to a full boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let the skillet simmer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the skillet from the heat and let it rest, with the lid on, for an additional 5 minutes.
- After the skillet has rested, remove the lid, and fold the sausage and rice to redistribute the rice and sausage throughout. Top with sliced green onions and serve!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Video
How to Make Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet – Step by Step Photos
This is the Andouille sausage that I used. Andouille may not be readily available in all areas, so if you can’t find any, just try to get a smoked pork sausage of some sort instead. You really want that smoky flavor!
Slice the Andouille into medallions and add to a skillet with a tablespoon of cooking oil. Sauté over medium heat until the sausage is well browned. Don’t worry if the bottom of the skillet turns brown. That’s just extra flavor that will soak into the rice later!
While the sausage is browning, dice one bell pepper. Add it to the skillet and continue to sauté for about a minute. Then add the Cajun seasoning: 1 tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp dried thyme, ¼ tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp onion powder, ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper, and ⅛ tsp freshly cracked black pepper. Continue to sauté the spices for another minute.
Next, add one 15oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes (with juices), 1 cup long grain white rice, and 1.5 cups chicken broth to the skillet. Stir to combine and dissolve those browned bits off the bottom of the skillet.
Once everything is combined, place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the broth to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let the skillet simmer for 20 minutes. (Pictured: before simmering)
After simmering for 20 minutes, remove it from the heat and let it rest for an additional five minutes (with the lid on). After resting, it will look like the photo above.
Fold everything together to redistribute the sausage, rice, and bell peppers. OMG it looks so good at this point I just want to dive in!
Top the skillet with sliced green onions and serve! It’s rich, spicy, smoky, and all-around DELICIOUS.
Excellent recipe! Easy and sooooo tasty!
This was such an awesome dinner to make! I was so excited when I came across your recipe. I had a pack of andouille sausages and wanted to do something new with them. I will most certainly be making this again! I couldn’t believe how quickly it came together. Served it with toasted sourdough baguette bites. Yum! :)
My family LOVES this recipe and asks for it at least once a week. It’s definitely a staple in our home. Thank you for sharing!
We just finished dinner. it was great. I did have to add more stock and cook longer to get the rice to cook through. Everyone loved it. Thanks again.
I have made it today, it is cooking for the last 20 minutes. the house smells great. I hope it tastes half as good as it smells. will be looking at more BB recipes, for sure. Thanks.
I think I made a mistake with the rice. I cooked it and then tossed it into my Dutch oven… is it supposed to be uncooked? 😖💀
Yep, it’s uncooked rice. :)
Everyone in the family loves this one. I add two sauteed onion and an extra pepper but delicious!
Very tasty and quick to make.
So great! First thing we tried with my husband’s birthday gift of an inversion cooktop & all clad pot. Fabulous, flavorful, and easy. Only tweak was chipotle instead of cayenne since we like the smoky notes.
Sorry…Induction.
Honestly one of my absolute favorite Budget Bytes recipes and I’ve made a LOT of BB recipes over the years. I crave it at least once a week! So flavorful and it makes my house smell amazing.
This was delicious!! I ended up adding an onion, and I used about half leftover white rice and half minute brown rice.
I cooked the veggies and tomatoes and broth together for about 10 minutes, then added the rice mix and simmered for another 10 mins. Super filling!
Heads up: I made this all in my Instant Pot–browned the sausage on “Saute” setting, then used the “Rice” setting for 15 minutes to cook everything together and it was PERFECT.
I think most BB recipes are great foundations to get creative and make them your own. Here’s what I did:
– Used a mix of hot and mild Italian sausage because that’s what I had on hand
– Omitted the green peppers because I hate bell peppers and replaced with chopped onion
– Doubled all the seasonings and added a sprinkling of salt before cooking
– Added chopped/washed collard greens with the tomatoes, rice, and broth
– Used another 1/2 cup of chicken broth
My husband, who used live in New Orleans for a while, loved it and said “You could get a real Cajun to eat this!”
Awesome! Thank you for sharing your IP method!
I made this for dinner tonight and awesomeness abounded…. I feel like a kitchen Jedi.
Thanks Beth. :-)
Picked up some korean bbq seasoned sausage from local farmer’s market and I am trying to figure out how to adapt this recipe to match those flavors. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for a wonderful site and great recipes.
That’s a tough one. I don’t think I’d be able to figure that one out just off the top of my head, I’d need to do some playing around in the kitchen.
I’m in college and this is my favorite go to dish to make! It’s easy to make, cheap, and it lasts me awhile! Thanks so much for sharing recipe!