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.
This was one recipe that went straight into our meals rotation and I’ve made it at least once per week since. I make it without the sausage, and then cook the sausage separately because we have a mixed carnivore/vegetarian household (For the veggies, I use the Tofurky Andouille Sausage) and I add a big spoon on chipotle paste to makeup for the flavours lost from the sausage.
Thank you for a wonderful recipe :-)
Would chicken sausage work?
You really want to use a smoked sausage to get the correct flavor. So if you can find a smoked chicken sausage, use that. :)
Hey Beth! Curious what happened to your old Jambalaya (non slow cooker version) recipe? It used to be a favourite in our house but I see it’s now gone! Any plans to bring it back?
Hi Ellie, it won’t be coming back, but I can email you a pdf copy of the recipe to keep. I’ll do that now. :)
Hi Ellie, I used the email that you entered to register your comment, but it bounced back. If you email support@budgetbytes.com we can reply with the pdf for you. Thanks!
Could I substitute salmon for the sausage for my mother in law who is a pescovegitarian?
That probably won’t work well for two reasons: The salmon doesn’t have all the herbs and spices that the sausage has, and those herbs and spices help flavor the whole dish. Second, the fat that renders off the sausage helps make the rice nice and rich, but unfortunately, that won’t get that effect with salmon. If you were to try using salmon instead, you’d probably need to add it much later in the cooking process to prevent overcooking it. I hope that helps you make a decision! :)
Delicious! I added 1/2 onion with peppers and about a TBS of unsalted butter at that stage.
I didn’t happen to have fire-roasted tomatoes, so I cut up a handful of banana pepper rings to make up for it, but the vinegar from that really did something to this dish for me! Highly recommend if you don’t have fire-roasted.
I also added a handful of cut up, raw shrimp at the last ten minutes of simmering because why not?
Thanks, Beth :)
I just made this with brown rice and it is so good!! You were right about your suggestions, I added 1 extra cup of broth and it took about 50 mins to cook. Easy and delicious.
My all time favorite! I make this at least once a month. I like to make a double batch too sometimes for meal-prep. I do tend to add more spices than it calls for (probably close to double) because we like spicy! I also add a sauteed bell pepper and half an onion to get more fresh veggies.
Followed recipe except for used can tomato sauce, polish sausage and no cayanne because my kids are sensitive to spice. Everyone loved it! Huge hit will make it all the time!
My family does not like tomatoes! What size tomato sauce did you use?
This is a keeper. I plan to cook it again with the use of an InstaPot. What setting should I use and how many minutes should Inset it for?
How would you cook shrimp with this dish instead of sausage? Wait until the very end and then put it in for 10 min? Don’t want to overcook it.
Yes, you definitely want to wait until the very end and then they will only need a few minutes. But keep in mind that if you eliminate the sausage you’ll be eliminating a lot of the flavor that it brings as well (sausage is full of herbs and spices, and the fat provides a lot of flavor as well).
This has quickly become part of my rotation. Delish! The whole family loves it.
I made this today for lunch. My only complaint is using Thyme. I forgot that I’m not too crazy about it and for me, it was a little too much. I will definitely be making this again but next time, I’ll leave it out.
I made it almost exact. I had the sausage that I needed to use and used what I had on hand. I sauteed onion first and followed the recipe up to adding the rice. I used fresh garlic when adding rice. I added fresh tomatoes because that’s all I had. I didn’t measure the spices but used everything it called for. Pretty delicious anyway. Next time I will follow the recipe.
My son saw a frozen jambalaya meal in the grocery store and decided to make it from scratch. He found this recipe and tweaked it a little. He added one pound of cooked medium shrimp before the spices and substituted roasted red peppers for the bell pepper and regular diced tomatoes for the fire roasted tomatoes. The aroma of the sausage and spices as it cooked stirred up my appetite, so I was so looking forward to eating it. It was delicious!!! Even though my son says I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food, the heat wasn’t a problem for me. We (or he) will be making this again!
This was excellent! Rarely do I review, but this deserved it. Followed recipe exactly and my 10 year old liked the blend of spices (might be spicy for most 10 year olds). The spices melded very well and gave this dish a well-rounded flavor. Definitely making this again