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Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker

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Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker - delicious and EASY recipe! Dinner practically prepares itself. | APinchOfHealthy.com

You are going to LOVE this red beans and rice in the slow cooker because it is so delicious and easy!

Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker | APinchOfHealthy.com

You can make it by throwing all the ingredients in the slow cooker/ crock pot in the morning, and poof! Dinner practically prepares itself.

Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker | APinchOfHealthy.com

It’s like kitchen magic! 🙂

And PS: You do not have to soak your dried beans ahead of time! Yes, you heard me right. This article from the LA Times explains why.

I did rinse mine, but I did NOT soak them, and this turned out perfect. I use this same method for my slow cooker black bean soup too, and it also is a gem of a recipe.

Note: Since they are not pre-soaked you will need to allow plenty of time to cook. I would suggest at least 10 hours on low, or at least 6 hours on high. This might vary a little if your slow cooker is different than mine.

Update Note: Please make sure your crock pot heats up hot enough to eliminate any potential toxins, as explained here. My crock pot gets very hot, so it works out fine for us to cook them this way. If you are in doubt, go ahead and soak your beans first just to be safe. I do not want anyone to get sick from this recipe!

Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker | APinchOfHealthy.com

My slow cooker (<- Amazon affiliate link) is one of my most used kitchen appliances. It is SUCH a valuable tool for making really yummy food that is easy to set and forget. Perfect for busy folks! Which, aren’t we ALL?!

Enter: red beans and rice, which is known for cooking low and slow. And LONG. You could totally make this low and slow on the stovetop, but the slow cooker is my cooking method of choice here. It is just so easy!

Side note: If you want to make this dish quicker (like less than 2 hours, starting with dry beans), check out my Instant Pot red beans and rice recipe!

You can use any type of cajun sausage, but I am using Amylu’s chicken andouille sausage that I found at Costco. I had never used this in any recipe before, and I bought it on a whim…as I so often do at Costco! (<- anybody else?? I am a sucker for the sample pushers too.)

Usually, Costco doesn’t let me down. Nine times out of ten I absolutely LOVE everything that I ever try there. And they are good about letting you return stuff, too, which is awesome.

Anyway, I liked it!  The chicken andouille sausage has all the flavor, while being kinder to the waistline. Win!

More Cajun Recipes You May Enjoy

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Tools Used to Make This Recipe

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Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker Recipe

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Pin it if it looks good to you.

Red Beans and Rice in the Slow Cooker | APinchOfHealthy.com
3.56 from 109 votes
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Red Beans and Rice in the slow cooker

You are going to LOVE this red beans and rice in the slow cooker because it is so delicious and easy! Throw the ingredients into your slow cooker, and dinner practically prepares itself.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Cajun
Keyword crock pot red beans and rice, slow cooker red beans and rice
Prep Time 12 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Total Time 8 hours 45 minutes
Servings 10 servings
Calories 461 kcal
Author Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 1 bell pepper diced
  • 3 celery stalks chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 pounds ¼ chicken andouille sausage cut into thin slices, I used Amylu brand
  • 1 pound dry red kidney beans
  • 1 tsp salt or more to taste
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp white pepper optional
  • 1 tsp hot sauce I used Texas Pete
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme or ½ tsp dried thyme
  • 2 leaves bay
  • 7 cups water
  • 10 cups cooked rice

Instructions

  1. Rinse the kidney beans and drain.
  2. Add all the ingredients (except the rice) to the slow cooker.
  3. Set the slow cooker to low and cook for either 6 hours on high or 10 hours on low (total).
  4. Optional: When there is one hour remaining, use a potato masher to go in and mash up some of the beans, then let it cook the remaining hour.
  5. Cook the rice in a separate pot, according to package directions. I used white jasmine rice and cooked it in my rice cooker.
  6. Serve with 1 cup rice in each serving.

Recipe Notes

*Nutrition information includes 1 cup cooked rice.

Nutritional information is approximate and was calculated using a recipe nutrition label generator. 

Adapted from The Weary Chef.

Update Note: Please make sure your crock pot heats up hot enough to eliminate any potential toxins, as explained here. My crock pot gets very hot, so it works out fine for us to cook them this way. If you are in doubt, go ahead and soak your beans first just to be safe. I do not want anyone to get sick from this recipe!

Nutrition Facts
Red Beans and Rice in the slow cooker
Amount Per Serving
Calories 461 Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 7g 11%
Saturated Fat 1g 5%
Cholesterol 32mg 11%
Sodium 735mg 31%
Potassium 747mg 21%
Total Carbohydrates 77g 26%
Dietary Fiber 8g 32%
Sugars 2g
Protein 21g 42%
Vitamin A 12%
Vitamin C 24.1%
Calcium 6.9%
Iron 21.8%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

 

 

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  4. Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. We found this to be bland, even after using lots of extra hot sauce and some Cajun creole spice mix.

    Reply

  2. Waste of time. Rinsed beans like recipe said but after 14 hours on low, beans still on harder side and sitting in so much liquid. Threw out. Never will I try this again!

    Reply

  3. Hi, Marjorie!
    I made this recipe as meal prep lunches for my boyfriend and I. I played it safe and pre-boiled the beans for 10 minutes. I was silly, however, and did not adjust the amount of water (since the beans were boiled I needed less). after 4.5 hours, the mixture was still quite liquidy.

    to fix this, I decided to mix in rice with the other ingredients in the slow cooker, so it would absorb the liquid and some flavor! I did about 1.5 cups of dry rice. this worked perfectly for me, and I think I like it better as a whole mixture, rather than the beans on top of the rice.

    thanks for this recipe! I will be making it again.

    Reply

    • I wish I hadn’t read this comment before making this! With adding in the rice from the beginning, the rice turned into something like a pourage …..and the beans weren’t done yet. I do NOT suggest cooking the rice with the beans. However, i just added more water and continued to cook it until the beans were done. It tasted delicious, but the texture was mushy. I’ll try it again with the rice seperate. The flavor was great. I also added some old bay seasoning.

      Reply

  5. The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many common bean varieties, but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. White kidney beans contain about a third as much toxin as the red variety; broad beans (Vicia faba) contain 5 to 10% as much as red kidney beans.

    Phytohaemagglutinin can be deactivated by boiling beans for ten minutes; the ten minutes at boiling point (100 °C (212 °F)) are sufficient to degrade the toxin, but not to cook the beans. For dry beans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recommends an initial soak of at least 5 hours in water, which should then be discarded.

    Reply

  6. This was so delicious. I’ve made it twice. I used red beans in place of the kidney beans, just a personal preference and added one 15 oz. can of refried beans to thicken it. I did not mash up any of the good red beans!

    Reply

  9. Now my go to red beans and rice recipe. They only change I did was add extra liquid smoke, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce at the beginning. Followed by more to taste at the end.

    Reply

    • I am sorry I am just now seeing this, and you probably already made it. Hope it turned out okay! Soaking would mean you would need to reduce the cook time and the liquids. I am not sure by how much, but I would say at least a cup less liquid, maybe reduce even more than that.

      Reply

  11. This looks amazing…that’s why I already pinned this earlier this week! Showed pictures and told the hubby the ingredients and he said, “Yes, I just got a new bottle of salsa!” So, it’s obvious you like hot flavored foods…looking through a few recipes! Just how spicy hot is the chicken andouille sausage? I know this is going to be a winner for the hubby and I…not to mention mostly healthy!

    Reply

    • Ha ha. 🙂 Yes, the spiciness probably depends on the brand. I’ve used Amylu’s, Aidele’s and Trader Joe’s and none of those were too spicy for us. I always add extra hot sauce on mine as well. 😆👌🏻 I hope you enjoy it!

      Reply

    • Hi Elizabeth! Thanks for your question. 🙂 I would not recommend that. The chicken andouille sausage provides a lot of flavoring that seasons the whole dish. Any other kind of cajun sausage should work, but not plain chicken thighs, since it tends to be pretty bland on its own.

      Reply

  14. I only used half the amount of beans and I chose to soak and boil them ahead of time. What I’m wondering is about the amount of water I should use in the crock pot. The recipe calls for 7 but I’m going to try 4 1/2 and see how that works out…Fingers crossed!

    Reply

  16. I made this today and it was AMAZING!! My Husband is from Louisiana and he can cook, he said this was great and reminds him of back home 🙂 Thank you for sharing, this is going in our recipe book.

    Reply

    • Thanks for your question! 🙂 I would not recommend using canned beans for this recipe. I am not sure that would taste too good or work very well. What makes this taste so good is that it cooks low and slow all day. Plus, using canned beans would decrease the cooking time significantly, reduce liquids significantly, and the other veggies wouldn’t get as tender.

      Reply

    • Good question! That is hard to answer with too much precision, since the veggies (onion, bell pepper, celery) can vary in size. I estimate between a cup and a third to a cup and a half of the bean/sausage mixture. Hope this helps!

      Reply

  21. Thanks for the heads up Tara! I did not know about this. My crock pot gets pretty hot, so I am guessing that’s why none of us have ever had problems. I am going to update the post with a note to warn of this, though.

    Reply

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