Red Beans and Rice

Serves: 8-10 | Prep Time: 60 mins | Cook Time: 100 mins

1. Make roux - heat vegetable oil in a large pot until pinch of flour sizzles. Reduce heat to medium-low and slowly whisk in flour. Continue whisking for 30-45 mins or until roux is desired color. Pour and scrape finished roux into bowl and set aside.
2. Add cooking oil to pot on medium-high heat. Add sausage medallions and cook 10 minutes or until lightly browned and getting crispy along the skins. Add bacon and cook 5-10 minutes or until soft and sausage is further browned with very crispy skins.
3. Separate green tops of green onion from white bottoms, finely chopping the whites.
4. Remove sausage and bacon from pot using a slotted utensil, leaving the rendered fats, set aside.
5. Add onion, whites of green onion, bell peppers, celery, garlic, and kosher salt. Turn heat up to high. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Cook 10-15 minutes or until very soft and liquid is reduced.
6. Turn heat down to medium. Re-whisk set-aside roux to freshly even consistency. Add roux to pot.
7. Add basil, seasonings, black pepper, and bay leaf. Cook for 2-3 minutes to enrich roux with flavor.
8. Add all beans and set-aside sausage and bacon to to the pot. Add chicken broth in increments, stirring to achieve desired consistency. Reduce heat to medium / medium-low.
9. Cook rice using preferred method while bean sauce simmers.
10. Allow bean sauce to simmer at least 20 mins, stirring occasionally. Continue reducing heat to low to prevent sticking to the pot and burning. Add salt and pepper to taste, but you shouldn't need much.
11. Serve over rice, thinly slice greens of green onion and use for garnish along with a splash of Tabasco sauce.

Notes

• Preferred ingredient brands: Ragin' Cajun Hot andouille sausage, Wright hickory smoked bacon, Tony Chachere's "More Spice" Creole seasoning, Penzey's Cajun seasoning, Bush's light red kidney beans, Chicken Broth made from Better than Bouillon (I also like to add a very small amount of the beef Better than Bouillon and a splash of soy sauce for umami, but this is totally optional).
• The Blue Runner cream-style beans are pretty important for consistency so do not omit unless you have to. If you cannot find them anywhere, increase roux to 3/4 cup each of oil and flour, add a 4th can of light red kidney beans and mash half a can of beans into a paste. You may also need to add a little more chicken broth at the end to smooth everything out.
• On heat and spice level: you might notice there are no directly piquant ingredients added during cooking such as chilis, cayenne powder, hot sauce, etc. I've found for a large group, using a proper Andouille sausage and the heat inherent in the Cajun and Creole seasonings is plenty hot for a wide spectrum of tolerances. Maybe too hot. Occasionally I'll throw in an extra chili of some kind with the vegetables if I'm feeling bold, but it's easy for it to get away from you. Some people may need extra rice or sour cream to cool it off. If you absolutely need to have the base spice level lower, use a milder sausage such as Hillshire Farms or Johnsonville; you could even use a non-Andouille smoked sausage. You can also swap the Cajun seasoning for straight paprika.
• Roux color: I prefer a dark roux for this recipe. It should be roughly the color of milk chocolate. If you're not sure if you're on time, it should be starting to brown around 10 minutes of whisking, and a medium brown (like a manila envelope) after 20-25 minutes.
• Do not overstir the meats! Try to get as thin a layer as possible around the pot, and allow steam to escape. Let them sit for several minutes at a time before rotating to allow other pieces and opposite sides to brown as well. The goal is to get as much color on the meat as possible without burning and develop fond in the pot, which will deglaze with the liquid from the vegetables. Ideally, you'd cook the meat in batches to reduce crowding, but this recipe takes long enough as it is.
• Why remove the meats from the pot? In earlier versions of this recipe, this step was omitted. The result was over-cooked spongy meats. It's not horrible, but not ideal. Setting them aside also decreases cook time on the Trinity vegetables.
• How much liquid to reduce from the vegetables? The vegetables should still be moist, but not pooling. If you chopped them fine enough, the mixture should be paste-like.
• What's the right consistency when adding the chicken broth? It should be thick and stew-like, and close to the final product but a little thinner to account for liquid boiling off during the simmer.
• It tastes even better after sitting! I usually make this a day in advance and put it in the fridge. Put it back on the stove about an hour before mealtime and simmer on medium-low, stirring occasionally, to bring it back to serving temperature.

Source

Blue Runner Shortcut Red Beans and Rice

Quick Red Beans and Rice made with The Trinity, bacon, smoked sausage and canned kidney beans - you’ll never believe they’re a shortcut version!

Mary | Deep South Dish