Andouille is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 24 recipes to get you started.

What is andouille?

Andouille is a coarse, heavily smoked pork sausage and the backbone of Cajun and Creole cooking. Spiced with garlic and plenty of cayenne, then smoked over hardwood until firm and deeply browned, it carries a punchy, savory heat that flavors a whole pot.

A word on names, because two very different sausages share this one. French andouille is a pale tripe sausage with a strong offal flavor, eaten cold in slices.

Louisiana andouille, the kind almost every recipe here means, is a smoked pork link built for the stewpot. When a Cajun recipe says andouille, reach for the smoked Louisiana style.

It comes fully cooked. The smoking does the cooking, so you're really just heating it through and letting its flavor bleed into whatever it's cooking with.

How to Use It

Andouille is a flavoring sausage first and a protein second. Sliced into coins or half-moons and browned, it renders smoky, spiced fat that seasons the dish from the ground up. Brown it early, then build the rest of the pot on top.

It defines the great Louisiana one-pot meals. Chicken & Sausage Gumbo and File Gumbo lean on it for backbone, while Me-oh My-uh Jambalaya and Jambalaya thread its smoke through every grain of rice. In Red Beans & Rice(Chef Du Jour) it turns a humble bean pot into a meal.

Because it holds its shape, andouille also stars on its own.

Andouille & Potatoes and Andouille Smoked Sausage in Red Gravy treat the links as the centerpiece, and Chicken-Andouille Casserole pairs it with milder meat so the sausage carries the seasoning.

Cooking and Pairing

Andouille loves anything that can soak up its smoke and spice. Rice and dried beans, the trinity of onion, bell pepper, and celery, plus chicken or shrimp and a dark roux all play well with it. Cajun Fettucine even carries that smoke into a cream sauce.

Slice it on the bias for more surface area to brown, and give it real color in the pot before adding liquid; that fond is where a lot of the flavor lives. Since it's already salty and spicy, taste before you add more salt or cayenne.

The common mistake is treating andouille as interchangeable with mild smoked sausage. Swap in a plain kielbasa and the gumbo loses its backbone.

The heat and the deep smoke are the point, so if you use a milder sausage, add cayenne and smoked paprika to make up the difference.

Substitutes

No andouille? Reach first for another smoked sausage and season up. Smoked Polish kielbasa is the easiest find; it has the right firm bite and smoke, just less heat, so add cayenne and a pinch of smoked paprika.

Spanish chorizo, the cured smoky kind rather than fresh Mexican chorizo, brings smoke and spice and works well in beans and rice. Portuguese linguica or chouriço are close cousins with a similar garlicky smoke.

In a real pinch, any smoked pork sausage plus extra Cajun seasoning will carry a dish, even if it won't quite match the original.

Buying and Storing

Look for andouille in the refrigerated sausage case, often near the kielbasa and smoked links. Good andouille is firm, coarsely ground so you can see the chunks of meat, and dark from the smoke. Brands vary a lot in heat, so check the label if you're spice-shy.

Keep unopened andouille in the fridge and use it by the date on the package, usually a couple of weeks out. Once opened, wrap it well and use it within about a week.

It freezes beautifully: wrap tightly and it keeps two to three months with little loss, which makes it easy to stash for the next pot of gumbo.

Whole links thaw fast in the fridge, so a frozen stash is no obstacle to a weeknight pot.

Quick facts

In Chinese

昂杜耶

British (UK) term

Andouille

en français

andouille

en español

andouille

Recipes using andouille

There are 24 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 24 recipes