Crockpot version of Red Beans

I was asked to create a recipe for my red beans using a crockpot so here it is.

Soaking your beans

If you have time go head and soak your beans overnight in a bowl full of water. Make sure you take out the bad beans, meaning the ones that are broken or ones that are already split in half; you may even find some with a different color, throw those all away. If you don’t have that type of time do a quick soak meaning : Rinse them and take out any bad beans you see. Put them in a pot and cover them with water ( just enough to cover the beans.) Bring the beans to a boil and then turn the heat off, let them sit covered for 30 minutes. I’ve only used 2 types of red beans and off top the Camellia brand works 100% better. I’m in Texas and I find them in Walmart, H-E-B and I heard that Kroger has them. I know for sure you can find them in Louisiana since that’s where they originated.

Cooking Process

After soaking, rinse your beans off and put them in your crockpot. Add in your sliced sausage,bell pepper, onion and garlic. Add your smoked meat to the crockpot as well. Next pour in your low sodium chicken broth. After cooking for 4 hours on high add in your seasonings and butter. You want to first let your beans cook covered for 5 hours, the last hour to hour and a half let the beans cook with the lid off to get rid of some of the liquid. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Total cooking time was 6-6.5 hours on high.

Ingredients

1 lb of red beans

2 smoked turkey necks; or whichever smoked meat you choose.

1 pack of andouille sausage- this tastes and cooks better than beef

1 diced bell pepper

1 diced small yellow or white onion

5 cups of low sodium chicken broth

5 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 tablespoon of onion powder

1.5 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning (add more if needed)