There's TONS of dirty rice recipes, and many ways to make it, most any meat can be used.

Don't use chicken livers if you hate them! Substitute browned pan sausage, ground burger, ground venison, link sausage, andouille, duck, ground elk, rib meat, pulled pork, gator, ground pork, ground lamb, goat, elk, or ground bison. If you like seafood, use crawfish, shrimp, lobster or crab.

However, if you're interested in more authentic dirty rice and the flavors that make it, then this is the recipe.

My trick is to use very little chicken liver. This is not a "livery" dish. There's only enough chicken liver to add flavor, nothing more.

--------------------

Ingredients:

3 to 4 cups cooked white rice (Zatarain's Parboiled Rice is perfect!)

2 Tablespoons bacon grease

2 strips semi-crisp bacon, chopped

1 to 2 raw chicken livers

1 pound browned, crumbled pan sausage, ground pork, ground beef or other meat

1 chopped medium onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup seeded, chopped green bell pepper

1/4 cup seeded, chopped red bell pepper

1 tsp Kosher or Sea Salt, or Tony Chacheries seasoning

Dash cayenne (more if you want it spicy)

1 Bay Leaf

Chicken Stock (1-2 cups, depending on how dry the rice is)

--------------------

In a heavy bottom pot, fry the bacon, remove before it becomes fully crispy. Slice or chop the bacon, set aside.

In the same pot the bacon cooked in, fry the sausage, livers and onion. Drain the grease. Mash the livers, mix the bacon and meats mixture together, set aside, or chill in fridge.

In the same pot, using some of the drained grease, add the celery and peppers, stir and fry until veggies are glossy. Add meat mixture back to the pot, add Bay Leaf and seasonings, about 2 cups chicken stock, mix well And bring to a boil, stir the browned bits from the pot loose. Take from heat. Remove the bay leaf.

Put the cooked rice in a large mixing bowl, and fold in all the other ingredients until the rice has taken on the "dirty" colors from the meats and spices.

If mixture looks dry, add some water or chicken stock, then mix. This is better if slightly moist going into the oven, the rice will steam some more, and take on the other flavors.

It could be served as is. But it always tastes much better if baked! The flavors blend together better that way. This always tastes much better the next day.

It can be frozen. Just put leftovers into sandwich bags with all the air squeezed out, seal and freeze for future meals.

This can be used as stuffing for stuffed peppers, stuffed chicken breasts, stuffed cornish hens, stuffed roast, stuffed pork chops or stuffed flounder. The possibilities are endless.

To Bake:

Heat oven to 350°f, grease a casserole dish with bacon grease, oil or cooking spray. Add the dirty rice mixture to the casserole dish, (do not mash it down, leave it rugged across the top), then bake until the top of the mixture is slightly crisped and toasty. Serve as a side or main dish.

Options:

More meat can be used, add up to one part meat to an equal part rice. It does not need to be spicy. Include or omit spicy ingredients to preferences.

Seasonings can be: thyme, salt, pepper, sage, dash of file' gumbo powder, paprika and red pepper flakes.

Some love this with about 1/2 cup chopped fresh scallions added to the mixture right before baking.

If you don't want certain ingredients, then leave them out. Dirty rice is typically rice, celery, bell peppers, onions, meat of some sort and seasonings, and a chicken liver or more.

This is a great way to use leftover cooked rice, or make a batch fresh, it's your choice.

Meats can be:

Andouille Sausage

Ground Beef

Ground Chuck

Pork Pan Sausage

Any type of meaty sausage

Any fresh/frozen seafood (not canned tuna)

Any red meat of choice

Any fowl of any sort

This is a very option-friendly entree. Make it all your own. As said at the beginning, there's TONS of dirty rice recipes. This is just my own.

Chicken livers are the classic flavor of dirty rice. I find you loose the "livery" flavor if chicken liver is used very minimally, like one to three chicken livers. Some folks like their dirty rice very livery. I don't! 1 chicken liver adds a wonderful umami flavor without overloading the meal with a knockout liver punch. Feel free to make dirty rice how you like it.

I've never heard of anyone making dirty rice with any form of canned fish, like tuna. Nor precooked/canned mussels or oysters.

If you want seafood in your dirty rice, it's highly recommended to use fresh or frozen seafood.

Canned, mushy oysters or canned mussels won't work in this. Those bags of frozen seafood blends are ok, just omit the mussels as they're fully cooked and will be mushy once thawed.

Fresh or frozen seafood is the preferred seafood to use for dirty rice.