Easy Red Beans and Rice

This Easy Red Beans and Rice recipe is the perfect shortcut to a famous and delicious comfort food meal the whole family will enjoy.

It’s crazy how you grow into enjoying certain foods you didn’t enjoy when you were a kid. Like most kids, I hated beans. Any dish that had beans in it, I hated! Beans aren’t kids friends and I get that now. However, as a grown-up I really enjoy beans. Having beans in a dish does not prevent me from, at least, trying it. In fact, I probably am more encouraged just so I can try different ways to eat beans. So parents, if you are scoping this meal as an option to feed your family and your kids are under the age, let’s say, 16, you might want to think of a backup plan.

I have had Red Beans and Rice, from scratch, only a few times in my life. The times I’ve had it, they took almost a full day and a half to make. Let’s see. You have to soak the beans overnight and cook them for hours. When I say for hours I mean from the moment you wake up until around 4 pm that evening. I guess that is a total of 8 hours to cook, at least.

How I make my Red Beans and Rice

This recipe, in my opinion, still has all of that amazing flavor but it cuts down on half of the prep time. In this Red Beans and Rice recipe, I don’t soak my beans because I used canned beans, including the liquid, and I don’t use any bacon fat but I do use a ham hock for flavor and cook with andouille sausage. I use a variety of different seasonings to get that 2-day old flavor. I still let the beans cook for a few hours, or at least until the meat and fat from the ham hock start to fall off. Then I serve the beans over fluffy rice with a side of delicious Skillet Buttery Cornbread.

I don’t know where you are in the world, but here in Cincinnati, OH it is about 1 degree. Yep, it’s pretty cold and there is nothing like my Easy Red Beans and Rice recipe to warm you from the inside out.  

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Easy Red Beans and Rice

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• Author: Nicole Nared-Washington from Brown Sugar Food Blog
• Total Time: 2 hours 55 mins
• Yield: 6-8 1x

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Description

Make a classic comfort food dish by making this Easy Red Beans and Rice and serve over white or brown rice with aside of cornbread!

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Ingredients

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• 4–15 oz. Cans Red Beans
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tbsp. Olive oil
• 1 Ham Hock
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tbsp. Salt
• ½ tsp. Coarse black pepper
• 1 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Onion powder
• ½ tsp. Smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp. Cayenne pepper
• 4 Andouille Sausages, sliced
• 4c. Cooked rice
• Garnish: Diced green onions

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Instructions

1. In a large cooking pot on medium heat, add the olive oil and cook the onions and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the ham hock and the beans to the pot. Next add the seasonings, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf. Stir throughout the beans. Cover with lid and let simmer for, at least, 2 hours. Remove the ham hock from the pot and, using a sharp knife, cut the ham hock roughly and return back to the pot and stir.
3. Use a potato masher and lightly mash some of the beans and stir. Don’t mash completely.
4. NOTE: You can also put the ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for, at least, 4 hours.
5. Take the andouille sausage and add to the pot 30 minutes before serving. Add more seasoning if necessary and serve over cooked white or brown rice. Top with chopped green onion, if desired.

• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hours 40 mins
• Category: Entree