Kiss the Cook: Kick things up a notch with Creole rice

Recently, I was on a road trip through 10 states from Pennsylvania to Florida and back north through Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia.
During this trip, I was able to enjoy a variety of different dishes and cuisine. There are dishes that just seem to be unique to the south. Over the next few months, I plan to mix in some recipes or some attempts to duplicate recipes from meals I enjoyed during this trip. Many meals included seafood such as raw oysters, grouper, crawfish, calamari, salmon, blue crab and even alligator tail, which was fantastic.
Below is a recipe for a New Orleans Creole rice — or dirty rice as some call it. This recipe uses chicken livers. I’m not a big fan of liver, in general, but I do like this dish, which has quite a bit of liver in it. As made, it’s not a spicy dish, but you can increase the Tabasco sauce to the level you prefer.

Creole Rice
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Ready in: 45 minutes
Yields: 48-60 bite size rolls
Ingredients:
2 c. beef broth
¾ c. uncooked rice
3 tbs. butter
3 tbs. all-purpose flour
1 large onion, chopped (I prefer sweet onions)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic salt
2-8 drops Tabasco sauce (as much as you prefer)
1 lb. uncooked chicken livers, chopped
1 tbs. butter to sauté the mushrooms in
½ cup sliced mushrooms
Directions:
1. In a medium or large sauce pan, combine the rice and beef broth. Bring to a boil and cook according to your rice package instructions. Remove from heat and place to the side. While rice is cooking, you can sauté the mushrooms in a tbs. of butter until the mushrooms are tender in a skillet. Place to the side.
2. In a large skillet, melt the butter and mix in the flour, cooking and stirring until the flour starts to brown. Add the onions, peppers, celery, salt and Tabasco. Cook and stir until the onions are tender.
3. Add the chicken livers and sliced sautéed mushrooms. Using medium heat, cook and continue stirring for about 8 minutes or until the chicken liver is tender.
4. Stir the mixture into the hot rice and serve. Enjoy!