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
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.
Great recipe! I substituted rotel in place of just plain diced tomatoes as that’s what I had on hand, and I doubled the recipe. The only tweak with doubling I found is it needs a bit more liquid and time to soften the rice just a bit more. Came out nice and spicy and the whole family loved it! And I loved that it was a quick easy meal which is a huge plus for our busy and big family!
Delicious and easy. I made a double batch in a large skillet and didn’t have any issues with the rice cooking evenly like someone else did below, it came out perfect.
I doubled everything except the sausage (prefer to go lighter on meat) and the tomatoes (forgot to buy a second can). I also added an onion, a bunch of kale, and a can of red beans. I think I also used 4 cups of broth instead of 3 (by mistake, but it probably evened out the missing can of tomatoes).
One of my all time favorite budget bytes recipes, which means one of my all time favorite recipes :) started adding a can of red kidney beans at the same time as adding rice/ tomatoes/ broth, which added this lovely creaminess and extra nutrients! Also add in celery /onion when k have them on hand as others have mentioned :). Thank you, Beth!!
Great recipe as is. I had found some cajun andouille sausage in the grocery store and looked up recipes to make with it. Found this one and gave it a whirl. It’s become a staple since and have made it many times, either as written (with the exception of using fresh onion and garlic as opposed to powdered) or with alterations.
The recipe lends itself very well to additions or alterations. I’ve added things like shrimp, carrot, beans, peas etc. and substituted long grain for short grain rice. Always turns out great.
Fire-roasted tomatoes are a bit difficult to find at my grocery store. Would a jar of sun-dried tomatoes work? Is that the same or should I avoid using that? Are there any good alternatives? Can I use a can of diced tomatoes?
Diced tomatoes would work better than sun-dried tomatoes for this!
This has been a steady presence in our dinner rotation since it was posted 4 years ago. It’s the perfect weeknight dinner- full of staples I keep on hand, customizable (I use 10oz tomatos and 4 oz green chili cans instead…cheeky!), nourishing, and after a few makes you’ll have it down to memory.
Hi, I’m looking to make this recipe for the first time and this may be a silly question but do you need to pre-cook the rice or just toss it in as is?
Not silly at all! You do not have to pre-cook, the rice cooks in the broth in the skillet!
Amazing delicious and easy recipe. I’ve made it about 4 times now and it gets better each time. I go a bit more heavy handed with the seasoning and add onions with the sausage. Whenever I make this recipe I can’t stop talking about it. Yum!
My family, we love this recipe. It’s on a regular rotation. Especially for days when I’m looking for a dinner that has ample flavor and easy preparation. Only caveat is that being a family favorite the serving size seems to only feed 3 hungry adults.
I made this for a mini potluck tonight and followed the recipe as-is with the exception of using kielbasa turkey sausage (12oz pkg) instead of the andouille. It was a hit! I doubled the recipe but did it with two separate pans to avoid issues with the rice cooking evenly. Also, I was skeptical about not adding salt but you were right; it absolutely wasn’t needed. The rice is a tad bit more wet/mushy than I usually like but I think it’s supposed to be like that? I’ll be keeping this dish in mind for future potlucks…delicious and great option for folks who are allergic to nuts, gluten, soy and/or dairy. Thanks for posting this recipe.
This is one of my favorite go-to recipes, though over time I’ve changed a few things. After cooking the sausage, I remove it from the pan and saute two chopped bell peppers, half an onion, and a few chopped stalks of celery (anything for more veggies). I’ve doubled the recipe – just used a huuuuge 15″ diameter pan; used brown rice – it’s always been fantastic.
My first time commenting on a recipe, it’s that good! So easy and delicious, and reheats AMAZINGLY for meal preps. It’s almost better the next day. Thanks for the recipe!
SEO was great. This was the first result. I’m glad it was, because this was a delicious meal. Thanks
Hi! Love this recipe! Question though: if you double the recipe, would you suggest changing the cooking time and temp? Be cooked this a couple times as a doubled recipe but the rice on the bottom get burnt and all the rice is not quite cooked through. Recommendations would be lovely! Thank you!
I really don’t know if I would recommend doubling in in one pan. I just don’t think that the rice would cook properly throughout. The only way I would double it is if you had two skillets in similar size.
Instant Pot version:
Steps 1-4: Follow the recipe and sauté everything in your Instant Pot.
Step 5 & 6: When you get to the part where you add the rice, just throw the rice in and pressure cook on high for 6 mins. Natural release for 10 mins. Then quick release, mix, top with green onions and eat.
(It’s also delicious with cilantro, cheese, and sour cream.)
Thank you for this!