Sometimes the Blue Runner cans seem light in the brands and heavy on the "cream style". When this happens I just add a can of drained and rinsed light red kidney beans.

We've been doing Blue Runner since my kids were little. Took them to Treebeard's and they said they preferred "my" red beans and rice.

I add a bay leaf, a cut up Holmes Smokehouse Andouille or Original sausage, serve over rice any too with some grated Colby Jack cheese.

Tailgate88 said:

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This is my go-to, and it's great:

https://www.gumbopages.com/food/red-beans.html

I tried the America's Test Kitchen recipe just for grins and was not happy with the result. The beans were super salty and the flavors were just not on. They are based in the north east, just sayin' ...

What I DID like is the way they did their rice... sauteed in a little butter first, then instead of a 2-1 ratio of water to rice, a 1.5 - 1 ratio. Bring it to a boil, simmer for 15 minutes or so then push it to the back of the stove and let it steam. That's how I'm doing it from now on. Very good textured, fluffy rice.



2 cups long grain white rice, rinsed until clear
One tablespoon butter, saut rice in this
3 cups water
1teaspoon salt
Boil then simmer 18 minutes
Wait 15 minutes, covered, to steam

One other thing - the splash of vinegar at the end to the beans did liven up the flavor, will probably do that from now on in my own recipe.

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fixed red beans and rice for the first time and used your recommendation on gumbopages and loved the outcome - THANKS

I typically follow the back of the Camelia Red Beans bag recipe.

But I add a stick of butter at the end of the recipe, typically also try to find actual cajun meats from Best Stop of Cajun Grocers like Tasso, and real cajun andouille. I've heard that the pickled pork is a good addition but have a hard time finding it. The dish is so heavy that some brightness and acidity really lifts it-either that or some Crystal's Hot sauce. I always top it with Crystal's sauce, some green onions and serve it with crispy french bread or baugette.

Make your own tasso. It's easy and delicious.

Glad to hear! Now I am craving red beans!

double post

Very curious how you do this. To me, tasso gets tough and is so lean it doesnt add too much. is there a way to keep it tender or give more flavor? What am I getting wrong? I cook it with the beans

I've made tasso with pork shoulder which as far as i know is traditional but ive also cut up pork loin into chunks (for snacking, mostly) and i smoke it to internal of 160. For the fattier chunks, those go in beans...the leaner chunks i probably wind up snacking on. I've never had it coming out tough. Drier than ham yes, but especially in a red beans and rice situation when theyre just in with the beans for hours...it softens up a bit and gives a different contrast than andoulle or other smoked sausage. I use both when I can.

This crockpot red beans and rice is ridiculously easy and tastes good enough for me, and when I used andoulle and the homemmade tasso it was amazing to me.