Can Something Dirty Ever Be Healthy?

Ever since watching dirty rice be prepared on The Food Network on both Home Cooking with the Neelys and Paula Deen, I've been really craving southern and cajun/creole cooking. After the pimple on the lip from excessive fried chicken eating (I haven't used my deep fryer since), I thought it was probably a good idea to maybe try to be a little smarter in my food choices. Broke and unemployed means I don't have the luxury of buying new clothes so I better try to fit in the clothes I do have! And since my Friday night consisted of me, myself, and I, it seemed like a good time as any to experiment in creating a healthier-yet-tasty version of dirty rice.

Traditional dirty rice is prepared with pork sausage and chicken liver with the holy trinity of veggies in New Orleans cooking -- bell pepper, celery, and onion -- and sometimes all cooked in bacon fat. Mix in a couple cups of white rice, a small pat of butter, salt and pepper to taste and garnish with chopped parsley. Simple and really yummy. I could eat this all the time!! But, I was trying to avoid eating too much white rice, pork sausage tends to be way fatty, and bacon fat is deadly. And what to do with the chicken liver? While I love eating pate, I've never cooked chicken liver before and wasn't ready to dump a whole lotta food if I didn't like it.

I ended up substituting in cajun chicken sausage and ground chicken in lieu of the pork sausage and liver, and went with brown rice cooked in chicken broth to substitute for the white rice. To cut calories, I cooked my veggies in olive oil instead of the bacon drippings. I also eliminated the addition of the butter at the end to cut additional calories ... while the butter adds subtle flavor and gloss, it won't make or break your dish. To add extra flavor and heat, I figure it couldn't ever be wrong to add cayene pepper to a New Orleans dish. The end result? DELICIOUS! It was definitely missing the distinct flavor of the chicken liver, but I didn't mind. Plus, the brown rice upped the nutrition value since its so packed with fiber and I wasn't consuming extra fat from the bacon grease.

You know, a few years ago, I would never be caught home on a Friday night in LA, but these days getting dirty on Friday night alone actually wasn't so bad. AACK! Did I just say that?!? Maybe today is the day I get an extra pair of stretchy pants and look for that bird ...