Boudin is a fully cooked, savory Cajun sausage. It's pronounced "boo-DAN", or "BOO-dan". Don't confuse Cajun Boudin with French Boudin Blanc. Cajun Boudin is a mixture of tender, juicy, cooked pork shoulder, cooked rice, pork stock, cooked pork liver, seasonings, onions, celery, bell peppers, parsley and green onions. Many variations and recipes exist, all are a little different, and can include crawfish, shrimp, crab or other kinds of seafood.

The boudin mixture is fully cooked, then ground or chopped, then stuffed into sausage casings. Or the boudin mixture is mixed with 2 beaten eggs and a little flour, then shaped into balls, rolled in bread crumbs and fried or baked. Boudin links can be steamed, or gently simmered, grilled or pan-sizzled before serving. Boudin links are usually served with some form of mustard. Boudin balls can be served with a remoulade sauce.

My version is for a small batch; roughly 5 pounds of boudin when made. Traditional boudin yields a great deal more than that. Traditionally made boudin requires simmering a whole pork butt roast ('Boston Butt' roast) or pork shoulder roast, or several butt roasts at one time. My recipe could be doubled if you're making a large batch of boudin using a whole butt roast, or more.

My Small Batch Boudin Recipe:

1/2 Pound Pork: (butt roast, pork blade steaks, pork sirloin roast, pork 'country ribs', etc)
1 Slice Pork Liver or 1/3 pound Braunschweiger
1/2 pound Ground Pork or Pork Pan Sausage
1/4 to 1/2 cup crushed Pork Cracklins or Fried Pork Rinds
1/2 tsp Powdered Sage
1/4 tsp Cayenne (or more to preference)
2 tablespoons Paprika
1 teaspoon Ground White Pepper
1 tablespoon Ground Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Kosher or Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Thyme
3 to 5 Whole Bay Leaves
(optional): 1/4 tsp Dry Mustard Powder
2 teaspoons chopped Garlic or garlic powder
1/4 cup Chopped Parsley
2 to 3 cups cooked White Rice or cooked Parboiled Rice
(optional): 2 tablespoons Gumbo File' Powder
4 to 5 chopped Green Onions, green tops separate from the green onion bottoms.
15 to 20 Fresh Pearl or Boiler Onions, or a 10 oz bag of frozen Pearl Onions
1 chopped Green Bell Pepper
3 to 4 ribs Celery, fine chopped
(optional): 1 tablespoon fine diced Red Pepper

You'll need a large dutch oven or stock pot. Add all the seasonings and bay leaves to the pot, do not add the gumbo file' powder yet. Add all the fine-chopped celery and chopped peppers. If using frozen pearl onions, add those now. If using fresh pearl or boiler onions instead, hot-peel those first in a separate pot. Peel pearl onions then add them to the stock pot with the rest. Add enough water to cover the ingredients. Bring this to a boil, cook until the veggies are tender. Then remove and discard the bay leaves.

To the pot with seasoned, cooked veggies, add the pork meat, ground pork, crushed cracklins and slice of liver or braunschweiger (be sure to break up the braunschweiger as much as possible). Break up the ground pork or pork sausage in the warm broth so it's in small pieces. Bring this mixture to a boil for about 15 minutes, then reduce to a simmer. Break up any remaining chunks of ground meat or braunschweiger. Add the chopped green onion bottoms. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours, or until the pork is very tender. This could be done in a Crock-Pot.

Remove the pork from the pot. If necessary de-bone the pork and chop that up, or run it through a meat grinder.

With my latest batch, once everything was cooked, I took the pot from the heat. With a slotted utensil, remove all the solids from the broth, and place them on a large flat pan to speed up cooling. With a mesh strainer, strain the remaining broth into a heat safe bowl or sauce pot. Return the strained solids to the cooling meat mixture on the flat pan. Add the chopped, uncooked green onion tops and chopped parsley to the cooling meat mixture.

Return the strained broth to the stock pot, add the uncooked rice and bring to a boil. Cook the rice according to package instructions. Cook the rice in this boudin broth instead of the salted water the package instructions say.

With a sharp knife, hand chop all the solids that are on the flat pan. This should go easily, as everything is now very soft. It's your choice how chunky or finely chopped the boudin mixture is. An option is to run this veggie and meat mixture through a meat grinder instead of hand chopping. Were I cooking a large batch of boudin, I'd use a meat grinder. But that isn't necessary with a small batch.

Once the rice is fully cooked and cooling, add the gumbo file' powder to the rice (if using), and mix in well. Now put the chopped meat mixture in a large mixing bowl and add the seasoned, cooked rice, combine them by hand. I fold the mixture gently (to prevent smashing the rice), until the grains of rice are evenly mixed throughout the boudin mixture.

Now you have a batch of boudin! Taste for salt, add more if needed. The next step will either be making boudin balls, or stuffing this mixture into sausage casings. I make boudin balls, as I don't have stuffing tubes for my grinder.

To Make Boudin Balls:

To the above boudin mixture add 1 large or 2 small beaten eggs and 1/4 cup flour, mix very well. The egg and flour is a binder, and will help them keep a ball shape while frying. Without the egg and flour, they'll just fall apart while frying. You can also use 1/4 cup breadcrumbs instead of 1/4 cup flour as the binder.

Roll and squeeze into balls a little larger than a golfball. Chill or freeze the boudin balls before frying. When ready to fry them, roll each ball in a little flour, then coat in an egg wash, then roll them in seasoned or plain bread crumbs. The coating helps them hold their shape while frying, also sealing in that scrumptious juice, and giving them a crispy, flavorful coating.

When I bake these, they taste and smell wonderful, but they lack that crispy coating they get from frying. To serve them hot, they can be microwaved, or reheated in the oven. What I tend to do is either coat the baked, frozen boudin balls in (the 3 types of coating) in order: flour coating, then egg wash, then rolled in breadcrumbs, then fry the coated boudin balls. Or I deep fry the frozen boudin balls without any extra coating.

Heat deep oil to 360°f to 370°f. Fry only 3 to 4 boudin balls at a time, don't overcrowd the pot or they can fall apart. Fry until golden brown, and drain on a rack over a baking pan. I highly recommend either freezing or chilling the boudin balls for a few hours before frying.

Boudin links or boudin balls can be stored in the freezer for about three months in freezer bags. Squeeze the air out of the freezer bags to prevent freezer burn.

Stored in the fridge, they need to be used inside of one week.

Why I Make Small-Batch Boudin:

A traditional Cajun boudin recipe is typically something like this:

1 whole (bone in) pork butt or pork shoulder roast (5 to 10+ pound roast); 1/2 pound to 1 pound pork liver; 4 to 6 cups white or parboiled rice cooked in the pork broth; 2 to 4 chopped onions; 2 to 4 chopped bell peppers; 1 to 2 whole heads of chopped celery, leaves and all; 1 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1 cup diced green onions. Seasonings: salt, pepper, thyme, cayenne, paprika, bay leaves, garlic. And of course prepared, fresh sausage casings for stuffing into links. Prepping, cooking and stuffing that many pounds of boudin goes much easier if you've got family or friends to help.

A bare, basic boudin recipe can be as simple as: pork butt roast, pork liver, onions and bell peppers, spices, rice cooked in the broth.

Either way, that's still several pounds of boudin, and it's impossible to make a small batch of boudin from all of that! So, I made my own small batch boudin recipe which is much easier on me to make.

Use any sort of onions you have. I choose pearl onions because I love the unique flavor of pearl and boiler onions.

Pork cracklins or fried pork skins aren't strictly necessary, but many old family recipes have them. Or they substitute other pig parts to cook along with the pork roast, (such as pig feet). That will render out an amazingly delicious broth. For me, boudin doesn't taste right without them, and I crave that sticky, flavorful broth that comes from pork cracklins or fried pork rinds.

There are countless kinds of Cajun boudin. Most every family has their own coveted recipe. Boudin is a hunter and fisherman's best friend, as boudin can be made from meats other than pork. Such as venison, crawfish, shrimp, crab, alligator and many others.