Crawfish and Dirty Rice
This week’s recipe is from a cookbook that a great chef and a good friend of mine has out called “The Meathead Method.” Y’all know I love a good cookbook – I wrote three of ’em – and in this case, I thought it would be good to cook something in a way I had never done before. I chose crawfish and dirty rice because I love both of those things, and this recipe looked much easier than the way I learned how to do it.
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The Meathead Method
Prepare the Ingredients Ahead of Time
This recipe is what I like to call a one-pot meal, so it’s a good idea to get everything ready ahead of time. Mix up the Cajun Seasoning as per the cookbook instructions (also listed in the printable recipe below). Dice the onion, celery, and bell peppers. Drain and rinse the beans.
Prep the Grill by Loading One Side with Coals
This recipe will use the indirect/direct heat grilling method. It sounds more complicated than it is! In a grill, you can move all of the coals over to one side. This is the “direct” heat side. You’ll start to boil your water over the hot coals.
Once the water is boiling, move it to the indirect heat side but keep those coals going hot. This will create an “oven” effect where the food gets the benefit of the heat and the smoke flavor without burning over direct fire.
Set it and Forget it
When your water is boiling, move the dish to the indirect heat side. Add the rice, butter, beans, vegetables, bay leaf, and seasoning, and mix well.
Place a wire rack over the casserole dish, and lay out the whole crawfish and andouille sausage. The meat will cook, and the drippings will get the rice “dirty” – and full of flavor. Let everything cook until the sausage is 155 degrees.
When the sausage is cooked, remove the wire rack and stir the rice well. If the rice is done, you’re ready to eat! If not, add some boiling water and smoke for another ten minutes.
The Final Presentation
When the rice is fully cooked, remove everything from the grill or the oven. Slice the sausage into rounds and mix in with the rice. Lay the crawfish out over the final dish.
Spread newspaper over the table and dig in!
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Crawfish and Dirty Rice – Cowboy Kent Rollins
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons 1 ounce unsalted butter
- 2 stalks celery diced, about 1/2 cup
- 1 medium onion peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 small green bell pepper chopped
- 1 small red bell pepper chopped
- 1 tablespoon Cajun Seasoning see notes
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon medium-grind black pepper
- 1/2 cup canned black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup white rice preferably basmati
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 pounds whole crawfish live or frozen, headless if frozen
- 1 pound andouille sausage
- Optional Garnish: 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley chives, or scallions
Instructions
Recipe Taken from The Meathead Method Cookbook
- Cut the butter into pea-size chunks. Dice the celery to about 1/2 cup. Peel and coarsely chop the onion. Chop both bell peppers. In a small bowl, mix together the Cajun seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Drain and rinse the beans.
- Set up the grill for 2-zone cooking and preheat the indirect zone to 225°F or fire up your smoker to 225°F. Get some smoke rolling.
- Pour 2 1/2 cups water into a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and bring it to a boil. Add the rice. On top of the rice add the butter, celery, onion, both bell peppers, the beans, and the bay leaf. Sprinkle on the spice blend and give the rice a good stir. Place the pan on the indirect side of the grill or in the smoker. Place a wire rack on top of the pan of rice and put the crawfish and sausage on the rack. Do not put the crawfish directly on the rice, since you will need to stir it later and don’t want to spoil the presentation by getting rice all over the crawfish.
- After the sausages hit 155°F, give the rice a good stir and taste it. It should be soft and there should be no more liquid in the pan. If it is still hard, add more boiling water and let it go for another 10 minutes or so.
- Spoon the rice onto a large platter and top it with the crawfish. Slice the sausage into coins 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and scatter them around the top of the rice. Sprinkle the plate with the optional garnish.
- Eating crawfish is a messy affair and many folks just spread newspaper on the table and have at it. Begin by twisting the head off and peeling the tail. The good stuff is in the tail, but some folks like to suck the head. Try it. And when you eat, make sure you try the sausage and crawfish meat on the same fork.