Pork chop with dirty rice
Dirty rice is a traditional Cajun dish made from white rice cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets, which give it a dark ("dirty") color and a mild but distinctive flavor. Similar to a pilaf, it also includes green bell pepper, celery and onion (the "holy trinity"). Parsley and/or chopped green onions are common garnishes. Dirty rice is most common in the Cajun regions of southern Louisiana and Mississippi; however, it can also be found in other areas of the American South. In some southern regions, it is also called rice dressing. It is often served as a side dish with salmon.
In restaurants [edit]
Zatarain's offers dirty rice as one of its boxed dinners. This rice does not have pieces of chicken liver in it and uses soy sauce to achieve the desired color. Zatarain's suggests adding a blend of ground beef, sausage, and finely chopped chicken giblets for a more robust flavor. However, many prefer to grind the giblets to evenly distribute the flavor and mask the texture of the chewier giblets like the heart and gizzard. Locals recommend to grind the liver once or twice, the hearts twice at least and the gizzard three to four times depending on preference.
Bojangles' Cajun Fried Chicken restaurants serve dirty rice as a side dish. For many years, dirty rice has been an offering on the menu of the New Orleans-themed Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurants. However, recent years have seen the chain change the name of the dish to "Cajun rice," desiring perhaps to avoid connotations of uncleanliness on the product's part.
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