The easiest and fastest way to make an excellent pot of red beans and rice without skimping out on the flavor is to use Blue Runner canned Creole-Style red beans. I use this easy Blue Runner Red Beans and Rice recipe when I don’t have time to slow cook a pot of dried beans on the stove top, or when I’m up north at our family cottage and we’d rather cruise around the lake on the rowboat instead of keeping a watchful eye on a pot of beans.
And that’s a true story.
(Here I am cleaning the boat out for the first time this season.)
My wife loves Blue Runner beans and it’s more of a treat when I cook them compared to when I use Camellia red beans – which is the majority of the time. I either order Camellia beans online or receive them as gifts so it seems like I have an endless supply of them. For some reason when it comes to Blue Runner, I don’t know if it’s because they’re in cans and they’re heavier, but I’d rather get them when we go down south to either visit family or go to New Orleans.
On our trip to NOLA last summer, my wife asked my oldest son if he’d want to move there. He thought it over for a minute then said, “it depends on how the Walmart is.”
She laughed.
I quickly did a search and found the Walmart Supercenter on Bullard Avenue.
On our way home on I-10, we just so happened to swing by that Walmart and ended up spending a small fortune. In fact, we spent more money on that trip to Walmart than our three-day stay at Place d’Armes in the French Quarter! I admit it, I bought a lot of beans.
There were walls of Blue Runner canned red beans, for god’s sake!
But what killed the wallet was the aisles of New Orleans Saints merchandise. (I’m still upset that I didn’t buy the neon fleur de lis light.)
Needless to say, the trip to Walmart didn’t win any of them over enough to move down to the Crescent City. I still have work to do! They know how much New Orleans means to me. I love the feeling of being there and taking in the sights, and sounds, and sometimes the smells. The city and people and culture will always hold a special place in my heart. However, I might need to find a different Walmart…
And to show you just how much red beans mean to me, (and how much my wife likes Blue Runner red beans), we were excited to see this billboard:
We snapped a picture of the billboard and thought about circling around again for a better shot!
For a billboard.
I still can’t believe that we freaked out and became emotional from seeing a billboard for Blue Runner red beans.
The best part about Blue Runner red beans is that all you need to do is heat them up. They do taste great on their own and could be served over hot cooked rice with a smoked sausage and it would be a perfectly fine meal. However, I like to add to the beans. And even with the additional ingredients, I can have the meal served in no time which makes this perfect to prepare at the cottage. (This is also a handy recipe on those days when there are a lot of errands to run and I still want to participate in a Red Bean Monday.)
Pull up a picnic table, enjoy great outdoors, and have an amazing bowl of red beans and rice!
What do you like to include in your Blue Runner red beans and rice meal?
Blue Runner Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced bacon bits
- 1 lbs diced ham
- 1 small onion diced
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper diced
- 1/4 cup celery diced
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 tsp Creole seasoning
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cans of Blue Runner Creole Style Red Beans
- green onions chopped for garnish
- 1 cup hot cooked white rice
Instructions
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In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Saute the diced bacon bits and ham. (The ham that I used was leftovers from a seasoned ham cooked at Christmas time. The ham was seasoned with Creole seasoning. This added a nice depth of flavor to the final outcome of this meal. To achieve the same effect, you can add 1 tsp of Creole seasoning to this step, if desired.) After five minutes, add the onion, green bell pepper, celery, and garlic to the pot and cook until the trinity has softened, about 8-10 minutes.
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Carefully pour the chicken stock into the pot along with adding all the seasoning: Creole seasoning, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, white pepper, and the bay leaves. Mix the seasoning in with the added stock and be sure to scrape up any bits of bacon or ham that stuck to the bottom of the pot.
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Add the cans of red beans to the pot and mix well. I feel that two cans is perfect but you could add a third can if desired. If you use a third can and the consistency is to thick, either add more chicken stock or water.
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Bring the pot to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Remove bay leaves and discard.
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Serve the red beans with hot cooked white rice. You can garnish with parsley, green onions, or crumbled bleu cheese.
Recipe Notes
If you need the red beans to be thicker, you can add a third can to the pot; keep the pot simmering until all of the beans are heated through. If the beans are too thick for your taste, slowly add more chicken stock or water to the pot until you get the consistency that you like.
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Thank you for stopping by!
Keep the red beans cookin’!
Eric
Eric Olsson is the food blogger of RedBeansAndEric.com. He publishes new recipes and interviews weekly. He has developed recipes and written articles for the famous Camellia brand in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been mentioned in Louisiana Cookin‘ magazine and has had recipes featured in Taste of Home magazine – with his Creole Turkey recipe being runner up in their annual Thanksgiving recipe contest. He lives outside of Detroit, Michigan, with his wife and four children.
Lynneah Bennett
Yum! I have never thought to serve beans with rice. But your meal sounds awesome! It is also nice to see a food blog written by a man for once. Great work!
Red Beans & Eric
Ha thank you, Lynneah! Red beans and rice is an amazing tasting meal!
The Bearded Hiker
Ha ha….gotta love the Blue Runner. We keep cans in the pantry, that and the white beans…the black beans are pretty good too. But we add sausage, Tony’s, onion, garlic, bell pepper….heat that up. As good as any red beans really.
Margaret Williams
I live in Louisiana and I cook these. They are great.
Zasha Zepeda
I live in NOLA and have had many red beans and rice dishes from home made to restaurant to catered, slow cooker, or stove top, and these are by far my favorite!
Red Beans and Eric
Blue Runner beans are amazing! I always make sure I’m stocked up on them. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Dave K
Made these today. I used Kirkland beef hot dogs for the meat and 27oz can of blue runners and it turned out great. The cheapest place I found online for the beans is Target.
Cyndee
A game changer ! This is a great recipe . I’ve long cooked red beans from dry and my recipe is well loved but YOUR recipe is far better. Thanks !!
Red Beans and Eric
Wow that’s great to hear! Thank you so much for the kind words, Cyndee!
Rose
Nola native here! I am wonderfully impressed with this recipe. These are some of the best red beans I’ve had (and I’ve had a lot of red beans, grew up with a weekly dose of my mama’s red beans). I’ve used this recipe twice in the last few weeks now! Are you really not from Louisiana? It’s pretty much an unspoken (sometimes spoken 😂) rule here to avoid Creole/Cajun recipes from a non-louisianian. This is the exception to that rule!!!!
Outstanding recipe, Eric ⚜️
Red Beans and Eric
Hi, Rose! Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m really not from Louisiana. I get there as much as I can but my learning came through every Louisiana/Creole/Cajun cookbook I could find and read plus asking questions and learning where ever I could online. A few years back on Facebook someone started the “I’m so New Orleans…” posts and I shared that “I’m so New Orleans… that everyone thinks I’m actually from New Orleans.” I lost quite a few followers because of that. But that ‘unspoken/spoken’ rule is usually what stops me from continuing to create and share recipes here… it’s something I struggle with all of the time.
I hope you keep enjoying that recipe. I had a lot of fun coming up with it and it’s one of my family’s favorites – if I can get Blue Runner!
Thanks again!
Eric
Shasta Ralston
We lived in NOLA and had red beans just about every Thursday. This recipe is one of my absolute favorites! Thanks for sharing. I did not have ham, but had andouille sausage so I added the sausage at the end while it simmered. I also added bacon grease with the olive oil and trinity at the start in place of the bacon bits. It was still amazing! I def think the bacon/bacon grease adds some good flavor. You have to try this recipe!!
Red Beans and Eric
Thank you so much for the kind words, Shasta! Bacon grease is the secret ingredient for sure! I usually have stored bacon grease but if I don’t, then I’ll use bacon bits or chopped up bacon to release the grease.
Blaine
Cooked this recipe today, and it has immediately become my new go to recipe for red beans and rice. Tastes just like my grandma used to make! I moved away from New Orleans about 20 years ago, and this made me incredibly homesick. Excellent job!
Red Beans and Eric
Thank you so much, Blaine! That’s great to hear! This is one of our favorites and most requested. I’m so glad you found it and enjoyed it as much as we do.
dennis
if you use canned beans instead of dried ones, do you rinse them before adding them to the pot. i usually rinse all canned beans first when i make a pot of chili.
Red Beans and Eric
No not with Blue Runners. If it’s a regular can of beans I do. But the Blue Runners are in a sauce and should not be rinsed.