Red Beans and Rice Recipe
Servings: 8 people
Hands down, the best Red Beans and Rice Recipe! It's rich, hearty and so flavorful! The beans are perfectly tender, served with rice and smoky sausage. It's a comforting meal in a bowl, that's bound to please!
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Ingredients
For the Beans:
- 1 cup dried red beans Rancho Gordo or Camellia, if possible
- 1 smoked ham hock about 6 ounces
- 4 slices bacon cut into ¼” slices
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 7 ounces skinless smoked sausage, cut into 1-inch slices
- 1 cup diced yellow onion about ½ medium onion
- ½ cup diced green bell pepper
- 1 celery stalk diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1½ teaspoons sweet paprika
- 1½ tablespoons hot sauce like Tabasco
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Garnishes:
- Sliced scallions green and white parts
- Fresh chopped cilantro
For the Rice:
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice
- 3 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Read through instructions and notes before starting.
For the Red Beans:
- Set a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed, large pot over medium heat. Add the sliced bacon and olive oil and cook about 5 minutes or until the fat is rendered.
- Add onion, green pepper, and celery. Cook 4 minutes, stirring often.
- Add smoked sausage and cook, stirring often, 2-3 minutes, until sausage has begun to brown, onion is translucent and the green pepper and celery have softened.
- Add bay leaf, paprika and hot sauce. Stir and remove from the heat.
- Drain and rinse the soaked beans, and remove any pebbles or impurities. Add the beans and ham hock to the pot.
- Add chicken stock, being sure the beans are covered with enough stock.
- Increase heat to high, and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that might boil to the top of the mixture.
- Reduce heat to LOW, cover and simmer 3-4 hours or until beans are tender and liquid has reduced and thickened.
- Remove the ham hock (pulling the meat from the bone, and adding it to the beans, if desired. The meat can be kept refrigerated, up to 5 days, for a different use.)
- Stir the pot often, being sure beans aren’t sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Discard the bay leaf.
- Season the beans with salt and pepper and add the sugar. Stir well and simmer another 10 minutes.
- Taste the beans and season with additional salt, pepper and hot sauce, if needed.
- Serve with Rice and garnish with scallions and chopped cilantro.
- Enjoy!
For the Rice:
- Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add onion, butter, bay leaf, salt and black pepper. Cook while stirring often 6 minutes or until onions are cooked through and translucent.
- Add rice and stir well.
- Add broth and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, leave covered and let stand 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, fluff the rice with a fork.
- The rice can be made ahead, cooled uncovered, and reheated when ready to serve.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Note to prepare the beans:
At least 4 hours and up to 24 hours in advance, rinse the beans, place them in a large bowl and cover the top of the beans with at least 1-inch of water. Cover and let the beans soak.
Avoid canned red beans. That’s not authentic red beans and rice. They’d end up way overcooked with this method anyway.
Adjust spice level to taste. Some sausage is spicy (like Cajun), you can replace with another mild sausage if preferred and cut back on hot sauce.
Allow time to simmer. Beans won’t be cooked through if you don’t allow enough time for simmering and liquid won’t reduce down.
Let sausage brown. With just about any dish browning the meat really adds so much flavor. Don’t toss the sausage constantly, let it rest a bit between tossing so it can brown. For maximum browning you can even brown in two batches.