This slow cooker red beans and rice recipe brings you creamy, New Orleans style beans the easy way!
I grew up eating two different kinds of red beans and rice. My mom made her own slow cooker version with canned large red kidney beans and tomatoes, which had whole beans and a thin broth. At Southern restaurants and the good ol’ Mississippi State cafeteria (loved that place), I had the thick, creamy version with mostly mashed beans.
Both versions were delicious, but I only knew how to make my mom’s kind until I tried Emeril’s recipe for New Orleans Red Beans and Rice. That recipe is spot on for the cafeteria-style dish I remember, but I wondered if I could make creamy red beans in the slow cooker.
Originally, I wrote this as a no-soak recipe meaning I rinsed and sorted the dry beans and put them right into the slow cooker without soaking or pre-cooking them at all. A reader pointed out to me that uncooked red beans contain a toxin called phytohaemagglutinin, which can cause severe GI upset. It turns out that undercooked red beans are somehow even higher in this toxin than the dried beans. Yikes! (You can read more about this here.)
Truth be told, I’ve made this recipe a bunch of times without soaking the beans, and as far as I know no one has ever gotten sick from it. The problem is, if those beans don’t get cooked for at least 10 minutes at 212 degrees F or hotter, there can be enough of the toxin left to cause illness.
I for sure don’t want any of you (or me!) to get sick from my recipe, so here’s what we’re going to do:
- Soak the dried beans overnight. The next morning, put them in a pot on the stove, and cover them with a couple inches of water. Bring the pot to a boil, and boil them for 10-30 minutes. Carefully drain them, and then put them in the slow cooker. You could do the boiling while you dice up your other ingredients, so it hardly adds much work or time.
- OR, You can use drained, canned red beans. I’d say about 6 cans. You can put those right in the slow cooker and make the recipe as written. You’ll only need to cook it 6-8 hours, and you’ll want to cut back on the added salt since the beans might be salty on their own. Just salt to taste at the end.
- OR, You can follow this recipe except cook it on the stove. I’ve done it that way before, but it takes a few hours and more monitoring since you can’t really leave a pot on the stove unattended all day. I vote for one of the previous two options.
Who knew these harmless looking beans could make us sick??
The good news about soaking and pre-boiling the beans is that the recipe can be ready faster. With the no-soak method (besides the potential poisoning), sometimes it would take 10-12 hours for the beans to be completely tender. Soaking them ahead of time or using canned beans will definitely speed up the process. You really want soft, mashable beans for this version of crockpot red beans and rice so you can get that wonderfully creamy texture.
Once the beans are soft, you can get busy with your potato masher, mashing about half or more. Yes, you will mash some of the sausage while you’re at it, but that’s OK. Let it cook another hour or two, and you will have creamy, wonderful red beans to ladle over your rice!
I hope your whole family enjoys this slow cooker red beans and rice recipe as much as mine does!
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 8 hours |
| Passive Time | 8 hours |
| Servings |
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- 1 pound dried small red beans rinsed and sorted
- 1 sweet onion diced
- 4 ribs celery chopped
- 7 oz. smoked boneless pork chops diced into ½-inch cubes
- 12 ounces andouille sausage cut in half lengthwise and sliced into ½” thick slices, I use chicken sausage
- 1 tsp. kosher salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cloves garlic minced or crushed
- 4 c. cooked rice
Ingredients
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- Rinse and sort beans. Soak in water overnight. (Place beans in a large pot, and cover with at least two inches of water.)
- The next morning, drain the soaked beans. Rinse the beans, and rinse the pot they were soaked in. Now, put the rinsed beans back in that same pot, and cover with 1-2 inches of water.
- Bring pot of beans to a full boil. Continue boiling for at least 10 or up to 30 minutes. (Meanwhile, chop the rest of the ingredients.)
- After boiling, drain beans one last time.
- Place pre-boiled beans and all other ingredients except cooked rice in the slow cooker.
- Add about 7 cups of water, enough to cover contents with about an inch of water. Stir, cover, and cook on high 6 hours or low 8 hours.
- About an hour before serving, use a potato masher to mash at least half of the beans, stir, and cook on high an hour longer. (This step is what gives the creamy texture.)
- Before serving, taste beans and add additional salt and cayenne to taste. Remove bay leaves, and ladle beans into bowls over cooked rice.
- Adapted from Emeril's New Orleans Red Beans and Rice.
- Note: This recipe used to call for unsoaked beans. I have since learned that it is important to soak and pre-cook the beans, so please follow these instructions as written. If you don't have time to soak the beans, you may substitute drained canned beans.
This is the slow cooker I use for all my recipes (affiliate link):
Hamilton Beach Set ‘n Forget Programmable Slow Cooker With Temperature Probe, 6-Quart
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My husband grew up in New Orleans and after making this recipe he was beyond happy. It’s absolutely delicious! Thank you for sharing I have already made it several times.
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Going to give this a try tomorrow, I’m going to soak the beans overnight but am going to put most of the stuff into the cooker on high for a couple hours then on low, I dont have pork chops but got some smoked sausage from an amish store so going to double the amount of that, I plan on using chicken broth instead of water, I’m sure it will be good, oh also making a fresh loaf of bread to go with this
Dried beans don’t cook well when other things are added before they’ve had a chance to soften from cooking alone. Learned that one 53 years ago from my Home Economics teacher, and it turns out to be true.
Might make this dish, but will never use pig meat in any form whatsoever, so will figure something else out.
Use Turkey necks or smoked turkey tails. They’re yummy
I’ve used your recipe before the recently added soak the beans recommendation and I havent made anyone sick yet luckily. I have also done the recipe with soaking the beans and I think The amount of water/stock may need to be reduced as the beans absorb so much of the soaking water. The red beans seem to come out too runny when I added the 6-7 cups of liquid, maybe the added water soaked up by the beans during the overnight soak caused this? Just a thought. Thanks for the recipe!
That is what I’m worried about, it seems to be to much water in the crock pot. I hope it comes out good, I’ve never cooked red beans before.
I have just made for the first time using canned kidney beans and I too found it was too much water – supposed to be creamy when it comes out but more like a soup.
I made this last weekend. Using the amount of water the recipe called for, it came out way too watery.I did mash half of the beans as instructed.
Also, I would think a stock would add more flavor rather than using water. It turned out quite bland and soupy. I will not be making this again.
Instead of pork chops, would it be ok the substitute for chicken?
Do you think this would be able to fit inside a 4 quart crockpot? Trying to decide if I should cut the recipe in half or not. I am a college student/student teacher and meal prep my meals via crockpot every week! This looks divine and would definitely spice up my lunch aside from the boring ole pb&j! Thanks! :)
Unfortunately this was a dud for me. After 7 hours, I tried to mash the beans but I found the onions & celery still crunchy. And the water wasn’t absorbed. The beans were crunchy.we tried to eat some of but am throwing it out. Not certain if only one thing was off or if it was several things. Any suggestions for improvement?
First make sure you soak your beans overnight. Also, fry in canola oil and saute the onions and celery then add to crock pot I always cook my beans on high for 2 hours then low the rest of the day.
I found this recipe awhile back when you didn’t have on to soak them. I have made it several times without issues. I was kinda shocked when I pulled it up this morning and noticed the change. I still didn’t soak my beans so I guess we will risk it this time. Kinda sounds like worst case is we might get a stomach ache. In the future I will soak and boil but today we are living on the wild side. Also the house smells great right now thanks for the recipe.
Hi! I hope you are feeling good after eating your dangerously unsoaked beans tonight ;) Honestly, I’ve made this recipe a bunch of times without ever soaking the beans either, and nothing bad has happened! My slow cooker does cook pretty hot though and eventually boils the food even on low. It might be more of a worry if you have a lower temp slow cooker. Anyway, let’s soak/boil our beans next time just to be safe, but I think the old way is probably fine 99.5% of the time ;)
Instead of pork chops, would it be ok the substitute for chicken?
Funny to think that half of New Orleans would be wiped out if that were true. Maybe a little gas or stomach ache, especially if you ate too much. But a health danger, I think not.