Dirty Rice

I was just thinking about how sad it was that there had been so few posts to the food blog. Probably a sign that none of us have time to cook. But, since I've left the firm, I've had time to cook a few things. So here's the first post. Most of you probably wont like this, but I think it's really tasty so. . .

Paul Prudhomme makes this thing called dirty rice. When my parents gave me a 10lb. bag of basmatti rice I started seeking out ways to use it. I have been making a very modified version of this recipe all year, but it has been overwhelmingly hot every time. This time however, just right, so finally post worthy.

Ingredients:
- red pepper, chopped (green too if you're feeling adventurous)
- onion, chopped
- two large chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (you could substitute this with tofu I think)
- two links chicken sausage, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2+ cups of chicken broth (you can sub. vegetable broth if you want)
- 2 tbs. olive oil

Spices:
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 teaspoon, sweet paprika
- .5 teaspoon dry thyme
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 bay leaves
- .5 teaspoon oregano leaves
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic

Directions:
1. Chop everything up. Put the vegetables and the garlic in the pot and cook them with a little bit of olive oil.
2. Once the vegetables are soft, put the meat, in the pan. Cook it alone for about one minute.
3. Add everything else (the spices, the rice, and the broth).
4. Let it simmer until all the liquid is dissolved and the rice is tender. You might need to add more broth if it looks like it's drying out before the rice is soft.

Eat. This is a great meal to take to work or to eat on the go. I think everything meet could be replaced with a fake meat product or tofu without having a negative result.