Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice with Chicken Sausage
If you want simple, tasty, homestyle comfort food, this slow cooker red beans and rice with chicken sausage is it!
This might be the best slow cooker recipe you’ll make all year.
Beware, though, if you are like me, it will be easy to dismiss the homey, simple idea of cooking red beans and sausage in the slow cooker, but don’t be like that; I don’t want you to miss out on all the gloriousness that is this slow cooker meal.
Brian, who gets teased by friends for being really, really spoiled in the dinner department (little do the hecklers know that sometimes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be around here at dinnertime), could not stop talking about this meal even though it’s probably one of the simplest meals we’ve eaten lately.
After a while, I was a little bit like “ok, ok, I get it, you like it, thank you, that’s nice, can we stop talking about beans and rice now?”
He fought us all for the leftovers (and won, blame it on his wrestling background and savvy fridge hiding skillz) and has already requested it for his birthday dinner in December.
Apparently it’s the closest he’s ever gotten stateside to what he ate for meals on end when he lived in Brazil many moons ago.
I love how easy this meal is. No precooking, no fussy ingredients.
Toss almost everything into the slow cooker and let it go to town.
I like to add the chicken sausage (since it’s already cooked) at the end just to warm through – to avoid the boiled-texture meat thing. But if that doesn’t bother you, go ahead and add it with the other ingredients and it will be even easier (if that’s possible).
Surprisingly, the short list of seasonings provides the perfect amount of flavor to the warm, simmering ingredients. It really is amazingly delicious.
Don’t call me out on authenticity (I know there are many who are very particular about their red beans and rice) but if you want simple, tasty, homestyle comfort food, this is it.
And it’s pretty healthy and inexpensive to boot so there is that. I’ve included my typical “what to serve with this” ideas below but a special shout out to pao de queijo (gluten-free, shockingly easy Brazilian cheese bread) for being the best little side dish to serve with the red beans and rice.
And speaking of shout outs, thanks to Jessica (a sweet MKC reader) who sent the recipe to me and clued me into serving it with the cheese bread. I think we’ll be eating this all fall and winter.
What to Serve With This
One Year Ago: Soft Batch Iced Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Two Years Ago: Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins
Three Years Ago: Breadstick and Pizza Casserole
Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice with Chicken Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 cup diced yellow or white onion
- 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
- 4 cans (15-ounces each) kidney beans, undrained
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons coarse or freshly cracked black pepper (see note)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 ½ pounds kielbasa or chicken sausage, sliced (see note)
- Hot cooked brown rice, white rice or quinoa for serving
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients except the kielbasa/sausage in a medium slow cooker and give it a good stir. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours. Add the sausage and cook until warmed through (anywhere from 20 minutes to another hour).
- Add additional salt to taste before serving. Serve over hot, cooked rice (white or brown) or quinoa.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Jessica K., an awesome MKC reader who sent it to me (a favorite family recipe of hers!)
Delicious and easy! Made in the Insta Pot with a few adaptations I thought I’d share. Was surprised that the third member of the trinity was absent, so added it and garlic to the line up. Warmed a couple tablespoons of oil in the Insta Pot (I did canola) on the sauté function and added a few ribs of chopped celery with the bell pepper and onion and stirred until translucent and softened. Then added a few cloves of chopped garlic and the thyme and stirred a minute until fragrant. Incorporated the bay leaves and beans, stirred and pressure cooked with the lid sealed for 30 minutes. Added half-moon bites of andouille sausage, stirred and brought back to pressure for one minute. Very fast and flavorful! Thanks for another home run, Mel!
So good. So flavorful. So easy. So affordable. AND so addicting! Make this this week. You won’t regret it. Thanks Mel!!
This is a good one. I recently found a tri-beans combo (kidney, pinto & black) at Walmart that is really tasty in this recipe! I often serve it with crusty sourdough bread.
Me and my family thoroughly enjoyed this! The direction were simple enough for me to understand and it was extremely clear throughout the whole process. The final dish was amazing! Both of my parents absolutely loved it.
Is that cilantro on top in the pictures?
Yes
This was really good! I’ve seen this on your website for years, but never tried it. I finally tried it and it was a huge hit in our house! Even my youngest, who is super picky loved it and has been asking me to make it again. We used chicken apple sausage this time and it was great, but we’ll try the pineapple bacon next time. Thanks for another great recipe!
Can you use dry uncooked beans?
I’m not sure – I haven’t tried that. I think you could but you might need to precook them a bit.
Great flavors, however my family was not a fan. I guess they just don’t like beans that much. Now what to do with all these leftovers… do beans freeze well?
Yes, they should freeze just fine.