No.47 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Red beans and rice

Name: Red beans and rice
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 1 lb (450 g) dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight and drained; 2 tbsp bacon fat or oil; 1 lb (450 g) smoked sausage (andouille or kielbasa), sliced; 8 oz (225 g) smoked ham or a ham hock; 1 large onion, chopped; 1 green bell pepper, chopped; 2 celery stalks, chopped; 4 garlic cloves, minced; 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme; 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp black pepper; 10 cups (2.4 L) water or stock; Fine salt, to taste; Cooked long-grain rice, sliced scallions and hot sauce, to serve

Made famous by Leah Chase

Photo: Kent Wang, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From The Dooky Chase Cookbook, 1990.

Monday's dinner in New Orleans for two hundred years, simmered while the washing was done. Leah Chase fed the city, and its civil rights movement, from her kitchen.

8Makes

3 hours plus overnight soakingTime

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in The Dooky Chase Cookbook.

Red kidney beans cooked low and slow with smoked sausage, ham and the trinity until creamy. Mash some against the pot to thicken it.

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Ingredients

1 lb (450 g) dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight and drained
2 tbsp bacon fat or oil
1 lb (450 g) smoked sausage (andouille or kielbasa), sliced
8 oz (225 g) smoked ham or a ham hock
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp black pepper
10 cups (2.4 L) water or stock
Fine salt, to taste
Cooked long-grain rice, sliced scallions and hot sauce, to serve

Steps

Heat the fat in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Brown the sausage and ham 5 minutes; remove the sausage and keep the ham in the pot.
Add the onion, pepper and celery and cook until soft, 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute.
Add the beans, water, bay, thyme, cayenne and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer, partly covered, stirring now and then.
After 1 1/2 hours, add the sausage back. Keep simmering 1 to 1 1/2 hours more, until the beans are completely soft. Add water if it gets too thick.
With the back of a spoon, mash about a quarter of the beans against the side of the pot and stir. The beans will turn creamy.
Remove the ham hock, shred any meat back in, and season well with salt.
Serve over rice, with scallions and hot sauce.

Chef's tips

Don't salt until the beans are soft; salt early can keep them firm.
It thickens as it sits; thin with water when reheating.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in The Dooky Chase Cookbook by Leah Chase: get the book, No. 89 on The 100 Greatest Cookbooks.

← No. 46Chicken and andouille gumbo

→ No. 48Shrimp and grits

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