If I had to choose only one food to eat every day for the rest of my life, my choice would be simple: rice and beans. The easy meal is filling, comforting and so versatile.

Of course, as a food writer, I have a much more varied diet, but I still find myself falling back to the basics all the time. And whether it’s Mardi Gras season or I just want a little taste of the Cajun Bayou Food Trail, the boxed mixes from Zatarain’s are a great place to start.

While many families have their go-to recipes for jambalaya or gumbo, passed down from generation to generation, we do love a shortcut in this busy day and age. With that in mind, we wanted to see how the Big Easy’s own Zatarain’s rice mixes stacked up against each other.

For this test, we tasted:

• Black Beans and Rice
• Creamy Blackened Chicken
• Dirty Rice
• Gumbo
• Jambalaya
• Red Beans and Rice

To most fairly assess the mixes for themselves, we prepared the mixes following the package instructions and skipped any additions aside from the required water and a tablespoon of either olive oil or butter. Each dish had a cook time of about half an hour. Prenons du bons temps!

6. Black Beans and Rice

Unfortunately, Zatarain’s Black Beans and Rice mix was our least favorite of the bunch. While the rice had an excellent flavor, we found the texture and flavor of the black beans to be so off-putting that it overpowered the rice and left behind an unpleasant aftertaste.

It’s difficult to cook black beans and rice in the same dish at the same time, which can leave the beans undercooked and the rice overcooked. That said, the package suggested adding a chopped tomato and a protein like smoked sausage or ham. That would go a long way in making this dish more palatable.

5. Gumbo

The Zatarain’s Gumbo mix definitely needs the addition of a protein or two—the package suggests smoked sausage, seafood or chicken, as well as some okra—to balance out the extreme saltiness of this rice-and-roux mix.

Just out of the box, it’s difficult to get past the sodium content here and taste much of anything else. One box contains 6,000 milligrams of sodium, which is nearly three times the daily intake of sodium recommended by the FDA and the most sodium-packed of the six Zatarain’s rice mixes we tested.

4. Red Beans and Rice

Zatarain’s Red Beans and Rice mix suffered from many of the same problems as its Black Beans counterpart. The rice turned out a bit gummy, while the red beans remained somewhat on the chewy side after cooking. The beans themselves had a more pleasant flavor that we found to be less overpowering. We could also see this being more versatile when pairing with protein additions. The package suggests adding either smoked sausage, chicken, ham or ground beef.

3. Jambalaya

This Jambalaya mix was in the middle of the Zatarain’s pack for us. The flavor itself was a bit lacking and quite neutral. One plus is that you can add pretty much any preferred protein to this dish and make it a tasty dinner.

The package suggests adding sausage, ham, chicken or shrimp, but it would really benefit from the additional suggested additions of tomato, corn and broccoli to introduce further layers of flavor and texture to the dish. But at that point, you might as well go about making a jambalaya the old-fashioned way.

2. Dirty Rice

Zatarain’s has a hit on its hands with its Dirty Rice mix. This boxed mix was hearty and comforting all on its own, but would clearly be taken to a whole other level with the suggested addition of ground beef or sausage. The dish packed a subtle but strong heat that arrived as a pleasant and lingering jolt at the back of each bite. This mix definitely has the makings of a versatile and satisfying weeknight side dish.

1. Creamy Blackened Chicken

This was the winning Zatarain’s rice mix for us! The flavor here leans into the ways that Italian cuisine has influenced the food in New Orleans with the addition of Parmesan and Romano cheeses. The result is downright addictive.

Beyond the creaminess of the cheeses, this dish also packs a well-balanced amount of Cajun-style heat, so it can stand on its own as a side dish. To transform it into a main, add chicken and serve it with a leafy green salad.