Spicy Elk Sausage with Cajun Rice

Elk meat is a wonderful alternative to beef. Its lean nature and flavorful meat offers plenty of health benefits. If you're wondering, is elk meat good for you? Know that it offers a lower-fat, higher-protein alternative to beef. The flavorful, slightly sweet and slightly savory meat is chock full of vitamins and minerals such as niacin, zinc and selenium. And in sausage form, elk is especially accessible and fun to cook!

 

Elk sausage is a lot like other sausage. Essentially, it's ground meat formed within a sausage casing. Frontiere Natural Meats' elk is fully cooked and enhanced with spices and seasonings, making it slightly spicy and excellent for jazzing up your sausage recipes. 

Frontière Natural Meats offers a variety of elk products, and sausages are just one variety to choose from. Normally, choosing elk meat means cooking low and slow so as not to toughen up the meat by overcooking it. But with these spicy elk sausages, all you need to do is warm them up—either in a pan with a little liquid, or over a hot grill, or even briefly simmering in a soup or stew.

In this recipe, you'll simply slice the thawed sausages and then warm them in a pan before mixing them into the pot of rice and veggies. A hotter pan gives them a tasty bit of char. The mix of red onions, celery, peppers, and garlic are a flavorful twist on a typical trinity blend. This recipe is a hearty, tasty, and super easy meal to feed the whole family on a weekday.

Find more elk meat recipes, check out our website. 

Spicy Elk Sausage and Cajun Rice

Serves 4-6

Ingredients 

1 16-oz. package of All Natural Elk Spicy Sausages
1.5 cups of long-grain white rice
3 cups of water or broth
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed.
2 tsp Cajun spice blend

Method

Allow the Elk Spicy Sausages to thaw under refrigeration, ideally overnight. 

Start by making the rice, and follow the instructions on the bag. For our recipe, we suggest rinsing the white rice under running water until the water runs clear, then adding the rice to a sturdy pot with water or broth (or a blend of both). Add the 2 tsps of Cajun seasoning. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large pan over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil. When warm, add the red onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic. Stir often and cook for about 5 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, slice the sausages into thin rounds. Scoop the veggies to the sides of the pan and place the sausages in the center. Allow the sausages to heat up and brown, stirring occasionally.  

 

When the rice is finished, remove it from the burner and fluff it up with a fork. Add the rice and beans to the pan and stir all the ingredients together. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with hot sauce or a squeeze of lime.