Sausage Rice Dinner

Back to school. Colette: junior year at BR Magnet. She's applied to three art summer programs for next year, including one at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) that would take her to the other side of the country. RISD. Rhode Island. My daughter might go to Rhode Island. The bayou girl who paints the yellow cottage might paint in a state where the bayous are called "rivers" and the crawfish are called "lobsters" and the gumbo doesn't exist. I support this. I support everything about this. I also want to lock the front door and never let anyone leave again, and the wanting is the price of parenting and the supporting is the job.

Rémy: eighth grade. Last year of middle school. He's the student body president now (re-elected on a platform of "even better cafeteria food AND a cooking club"), and the cooking club exists because Rémy created it, and six seventh-graders are learning to make roux under the guidance of a twelve-year-old who carries a wooden spoon in his backpack and has opinions about butter that would shame a Parisian pastry chef. The school called Danielle to confirm the cooking club was "sanctioned." Danielle said, "My son is teaching your students to cook. You're welcome."

Made a back-to-school pot roast. The Cajun kind. Dark roux gravy. The same dish I've made for seven back-to-schools, because the tradition is the anchor and the anchor is the pot roast and the pot roast is the smell that says "the year is starting and the family is at the table and the gravy is thick and the world, for tonight, is manageable."

Some years the pot roast gets all the glory, but the truth is, the meal that shows up on our table almost as often is this Sausage Rice Dinner—because when you’ve spent the afternoon worrying about your daughter painting in Rhode Island and your son running a rogue cooking club out of his backpack, you need a pot that does the work for you. One skillet, good sausage, rice that soaks up every drop of flavor, and enough on the table to feed a junior, an eighth-grader, and a father whose heart is full and whose hands need something to stir.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 pound smoked sausage, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste
2 green onions, sliced, for garnish

Instructions

Brown the sausage. Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the sliced sausage and cook until browned on both sides, about 4–5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
Sauté the vegetables. In the same skillet, add the onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Toast the rice. Stir the uncooked rice into the vegetables and cook for 1–2 minutes, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted.
Simmer. Add the diced tomatoes, chicken broth, Cajun seasoning, smoked paprika, and black pepper. Return the sausage to the skillet. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
Cook covered. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and cook for 20 minutes without lifting the lid. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
Serve. Fluff the rice with a fork, taste for salt, and garnish with sliced green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sausage Rice Dinner — The Back-to-School Anchor