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!
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Notes
Nutrition
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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.
Very easy, fast, and tasty meal. I simmered 30 minutes instead of 20 to make sure the rice was fully cooked. I think next time I will try another pepper and some onion, but the base recipe is delicious. Thanks!
I followed the recipe to the T. I’m not familiar with Cajun spices but this tasted overwhelmingly of thyme. Otherwise the rice turned out well and the dish was flavorful, just lots of thyme. :)
I love this recipe, I follow mostly and will add some shrimp at the end for a little more depth
Sounds awesome! — marion :)
I hate to be that person but I made a few changes due to dietary preferences and to wanting to make a complete meal. Additionally because I hate cooking rice on the stove I make this in my pressure cooker.
The first change I made was to use Hot smoked turkey sausages.
Instead of just adding a green pepper I added 1 each red, yellow, and orange bell pepper.
At the same time I added the peppers to the pot I also added:
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion chopped
1 large handful baby spinach, roughly chopped
As i mentioned I used my pressure cooker set on high for 3 minutes. Natural release for 10 minutes
Next time I would decrease stock by 1/4c next time as it was more “wet” than I’d prefer but still very good.
Thank you for a great recipe that was easily customized to our liking
SO GOOOOD! You definitely need to try this recipe. I would maybe double the rice though. You’d have to also add more tomato and broth but I feel like it would balance out the sausage amount better. Highly recommend. Top 3 recipes I’ve had from Budgetbytes.
Made this the other night, and it was absolutely delicious! Definitely going into my rotation of meals! Easy and fast to prepare, and tastes so good. I have shared it with a number of friends, as well. Budgetbytes has become my go to source for easy, flavorful recipes! Thank you!
Cold & rainy here in the PNW so opted for an easy dinner. I had the Andouille sausage link, rice & all spices on hand. Seared the sausage in one piece, removed from pan, then added rice to saute in the drippings with some onion. Used 3/4 cup of Uncle Bens long grain rice (converted) and one small can of chicken broth (no tomatoes) & seasonings. Brought to a boil, turned down to a simmer, added the sausage in one link & covered for 20 minutes. Perfect! Sausage was sliced in half, just two of us here, and rice was devoured along with the sausage. No leftovers!
Flavors were great but the dish had entirely too much rice & had I added the full amount of rice and 1.5cups of broth… I would’ve had soup.
I reduced the amount of rice to .75cups with 1 cup of broth and still felt this was too much rice and liquid with the entire fire roasted tomatoes can. Recommend .5cups of rice to .75cup broth.
My boyfriend and I love making this. We don’t follow the recipe to a T – but it’s a helpful guideline. We tend to add spinach and different type of beans. Maybe even corn. Just to bill up the level of vegetables and less rice heavy. Maybe triple the smoked paprika (we love spicy). Overall, a great recipe and really flexible. Definitely a staple in our easy dinner rotation.
Good flavor. Followed instructions exactly and some of my rice turned out crunchy. Recipe needs some refinement.
I love this recipe. It has become my go-to meal when I’m crunched for time. Very easy to make, inexpensive and turns out great everytime. My husband loves it too.
I added the trinity – onion, celery, and green bell pepper- to make it more Cajun-y and it was delicious. Sauté the sausage first and add in the veg and follow the rest of the directions. I used closer to 2-2.5 cups of broth but overall A+ weeknight dinner. Will totally make again.
I was thinking about adding celery and onion too, so glad to see it worked for someone else first! I also added two cloves of garlic and upped it to 3 bell peppers to add some more vegetables. Kept everything else the same. Yummy!
I would think that people using low sodium broths may need to adjust with some salt, but I use Better than Boullion, so I didn’t need to.
One of my new weekly go to! Great flavour and everyone loves it.
Made this tonight with andouille chicken sausage from Costco. I wish I would’ve added fresh minced garlic and the rice wasn’t quite done after 25 minutes (my large btu burner on low was too low, apparently) but other than that, absolutely delicious and I will make it again!
I made this tonight, and it was fabulous!! I did make a few changes, although they were not by choice. I didn’t have fire-roasted diced tomatoes, so I used regular diced tomatoes. I also had no scallions, so I omitted them. I also used a cajun type of andouille sausage. Otherwise, followed the recipe to the letter. I will absolutely be making this again! As far as how wide spread andouille sausage is, I live in a small town in Wyoming and I have several different types of andouille sausage available at my local grocery store. Thank you, Beth! Love this recipe!