Italian Sausage Rice Recipe | Easy One Pan Meal
We are a rice-loving family, which is nice since it’s a budget-friendly food, and there are endless ways to prepare it. My Italian sausage rice recipe is a quick, easy one-pan meal that I make when I’m craving comfort food. It cooks in one pan and is mostly hands off – parsley is optional!
Italian sausage is cooked with rice and bone broth for extra protein. The result is a hearty, savory dish loaded with protein and goodness. I used pork sausage, but you can use my homemade chicken Italian sausage to lighten it up. A generous amount of parsley at the end brightens it up!
It’s perfect for busy weeknights and holds up well, making it ideal for work lunches or meal prep. The leftovers are delicious the next day with a drippy egg on top (we love eggs and rice). Add this to your collection of high-protein recipes, easy dinners, and ways to use rice.
I love it when a kitchen mishap turns into something fabulous, and that’s precisely what happened with this Italian sausage rice recipe. It started as a pasta sauce, but I didn’t realize I was out of tomatoes until after I had browned the sausage. So I pivoted, added bone broth and rice, and it was a huge hit. This is my kind of food – simple, flavorful, and nutritious.
The entire meal cooks in one pan, and it’s very affordable. This will feed 3 to 4 people, but you could easily stretch it by adding a can of beans or serving it with a simple side dish.
This is regularly part of my weekly meal prep. The recipe is easy to double, and you can divide the leftovers into single-serve meal-prep containers for an easy lunch on the go!
Italian Sausage Rice Recipe
One of the easiest ways to incorporate extra protein into your meals is to replace regular broth, stock, or water with bone broth. Unlike regular broth and stock, bone broth cooks for 12 to 24 hours, extracting more of the protein and nutrients from the bones. The result is an incredibly nutritious, rich, and flavorful broth high in collagen, the most abundant protein in the human body. Depending on the brand, just one cup yields 8 to 14 grams of protein.
When I was going through tonsil cancer treatment, bone broth was one of the only things that saved me from a feeding tube! When I couldn’t eat, bone broth provided the nutrients I needed.  This is what I used during treatment and in almost all the recipes on this site.
Main Ingredients
This is a short list with just four necessary ingredients. Seasonings and herbs are optional; the recipe will still work and be delicious!
- Italian sausage. This does the heavy lifting in this recipe, adding most of the flavor to the dish. Use spicy or mild – whatever you like.
- Long-grain rice. I prefer long-grain white rice, but any rice will work. See notes below.
- Bone broth. Bone broth adds protein and richness. For this recipe, I like chicken.
- Italian parsley. A generous amount of Italian parsley at the end adds freshness and color.
- Seasonings. A few seasonings add extra flavor, but they’re optional.
Ingredients like Italian sausage and most store-bought broths can be very salty. I added a little salt to the recipe because I use unsalted bone broth. I recommend omitting the additional salt if you use regular or low-sodium broth. Once the dish is done, you can taste and adjust the salt before serving. It’s always easier to add more than to try to fix it once it’s too salty.
How to Make Italian Sausage Rice
The instructions are on the recipe card below, but here’s a quick rundown.
- Place a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid on the stove over medium heat.
- Add the Italian sausage, onion, and seasonings (if using them).
- Cook the sausage until there is no more visible pink (I use a meat chopper for this)
- Move the sausage to one side of the pan, and soak up any extra grease with a paper towel.
- Keeping the heat on medium-high, add the rice.
- Stir and cook for about one minute or until fragrant.
- Add the bone broth and simmer.
- Turn the heat down to low, cover tightly, and cook for 20 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for five minutes.
- Gently fluff with a fork, add the parsley, and fluff again.
- Taste and adjust the salt.
Recommended For This Recipe
Hard Anodized Ceramic Nonstick Skillet with Lid
Toxin-free cooking, free of PFAS, PFOA, and lead. Scratch-resistant construction. Oven and broiler safe up to 600°F. Large 12″ size is perfect for one pan meals.
Recipe Variations & Helpful Tips
- The Italian sausage rendered out enough fat for me, so I did not use additional oil when browning it. If the Italian sausage you use is leaner, you may need to add a bit of olive oil to the pan before adding the sausage.
- For a cheesy twist, sprinkle on four favorite shredded cheeses at the end, cover, and let the residual heat melt them.
- A can of beans, diced zucchini, mushrooms, or broccoli can stretch the dish and add nutrition.
- If using a different type of rice, adjust the liquid and cooking times according to the package directions.
- Cool completely, then store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 2 months.
- To make this more budget-friendly, stock up on ingredients when they’re on sale. Bone broth is expensive, so I always stock up on it when it goes BOGO at Publix!
If you try my Italian sausage rice recipe, I’d love it if you would leave a comment below!
Italian Sausage Rice Recipe | Easy One Pan Meal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2 cups unsalted chicken bone broth
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
Instructions
- Place a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid on the stove over medium-high heat.
- Add the Italian sausage, onion, and seasonings.
- Cook the sausage until there is no more visible pink.
- Move the sausage to one side, and soak up extra grease with a paper towel.
- Keeping the heat on medium-high, add the rice.
- Stir and cook for about one minute or until fragrant.
- Add the bone broth and bring to a simmer.
- Turn the heat down to low, cover tightly, and cook for 20 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for five minutes.
- Gently fluff with a fork, add the parsley, and fluff again.
- Taste and adjust the salt.
Everyone loved it. We were sick of having variations of chicken for dinner so this was an easy and welcome change.
If you are adding zucchini when would you do that?
Do you add the rice uncooked or cooked already to this recipe? I’m assuming raw?