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.
I added chicken to recipe and tossed in an extra hot pepper. Touch more red pepper (cyanne) the aroma is amazing!
This is really good however some of my rice was still crunchy is there a way to fix this or did I do something wrong?
There are a few things that could cause this, such as having the heat slightly too low so it doesn’t simmer quite strong enough, having thin cookware so that parts of the pan don’t cook evenly (like the outside edges not simmering), or using a burner that’s too small for the pan width, which would again cause the outside edges to not get enough heat.
Had a couple links of Andouille in the ‘fridge so I halved the recipe and went for it. I didn’t have fire roasted tomatoes so used a handful of sun-dried tomatoes instead. I also used less broth and pre-cooked rice as I had some on hand. The flavors were rich and delicious and it was super quick and easy to make. Mixing up a small jar of the seasonings to keep in the spice rack would make it even quicker. You would use 2 3/4 teaspoons of pre-made seasoning. This is definitely a keeper.
Love this recipe! I make it all the time for dinner because it’s so quick and easy, and delicious!
The most recent time I’ve made it, I chopped up most of a bunch of collard greens and added them in when the chicken stock went in, and it was great! Love getting some more veggies in, and the collards are sturdy enough to hold up while everything simmers together.
10/10 for this recipe
This was easy to make, and really awesome.
Absolutely perfect! Didn’t deviate from the recipe except I doubled all ingredients for bigger portions and used brown five minute rice and low simmer cooked for forty minutes and used a red bell pepper. Came out perfect!
Has anyone tried doubling this recipe? How did it turn out? Did you have to adjust anything?
Really good. I subbed in a red pepper sauce for the tomatoes because my wife is allergic to tomatoes. Rice came out tender and well seasoned. Will make it again.
So yummy! I didn’t have any roasted tomatoes and still LOVE the flavor. Used a bit more of the sausage (what I had on hand) and more rice and a bit more bell pepper due to more sausage! 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Could I add spinach and jalapeños to this?
Sure, if you wanted to! :) I’d do the spinach at the end, though, so it doesn’t get overcooked and stringy.
Awesomeness recipe! I made it exactly as written and wouldn’t change a thing. I did use brown rice and followed your suggestions regarding increasing liquid and cook time. Liquid increase was spot on. I would increase cook time to 45 minutes though next time. Rice was still a little firm. Thanks for a great recipe
Delicious! I made this as directed and the flavor was excellent. I did have to cook longer than the 20 minutes + 5 min resting time as the rice was still a bit undercooked. This is absolutely a keeper for busy weeknight dinners!
I love this recipe! I am looking to substitute the rice for quinoa to add more protein. How would you recommend revising the ingredients?
Can you add cheese?
Of course! I would finish with cheese, stirring it in at the end, off the heat. xoxo
This is a wonderful recipe!!!! I had Pineapple Deer Sausage that I used and it’s definitely a keeper recipe!!!!
This is such an EASY and DELICIOUS recipe! I’ve made it twice now and the second time I didn’t have the green pepper, but I had fire-roasted green chiles on hand that I subbed. I’ve added corn and onions as well – always delicious!
Will this recipe work with meat instead ?
What type of meat? The Cajun sausage brings a lot of seasoning and flavor to this dish, so you have to keep in mind that if you substitute it with something like plain ground beef you’ll be losing a lot of the flavor. I suggest sticking with some sort of smoked sausage.