Red Beans and Rice {Popeyes Style}

Quick and easy to make red beans and rice is the perfect knock off of your favorite side dish from Popeyes. You can add sausage or make it vegetarian.

We love our Cajun and Creole foods over here so much that we have an entire category of recipes dedicated to those neighboring cuisines. We’ve got recipes for everything from gumbo to jambalaya to etouffee and Cajun crab dip.

One Creole dish that we didn’t have a recipe for yet is a favorite of ours and many others. We thought “why reinvent the wheel? Let’s just see if we can recreate Popeyes Red Beans and Rice...”

In all seriousness we usually stay away from fast food, but the one exception is Popeye’s and you can probably guess why we love them. They originated in the New Orleans area and spicy chicken and the best biscuits and sides are what they’re known for.

Is it authentic red beans and rice?

We developed this recipe to be quick and easy, so the truth is, it’s probably not what you would consider “authentic.”

The history of the dish itself tells the story. It was originally made from dried red beans (and still is in lots of cases). Those beans soaked and then cooked slowly all day. Traditionally, Monday was “wash day” or the day the laundry was done in most homes.

Putting a pot of beans and rice on the stove to cook slowly meant you could dedicate your time to something other than cooking – like laundry. Even so, you’d approach evening with a good meal ready to eat.

Enter today’s lifestyle: We don’t know anyone who dedicates an entire day to doing laundry and we’re all about quick and easy meals when we can. Using canned red beans makes a still delicious pot of red beans and you can have it on the table in 30 minutes.

You can add meat or make it vegetarian

At Popeyes there is no meat in the beans and rice. We offer an option for adding spicy andouille sausage to yours if you want to kick it up a notch and make it extra hearty.

Either way, a little liquid smoke gives some of the great flavor you would get in the original method, which usually had ham hocks.

We’ve used chicken stock (or broth) too, but that could easily be replaced with vegetable stock for a true vegetarian version.

Does it have a secret ingredient?

Some folks think the addition of the liquid smoke is the secret ingredient. Still others think it’s a dab of bacon grease.

In doing our research we found an old school recipe that called for a bit of apple cider vinegar. We included it in ours (as we did in our spicy pimento cheese) and we proudly proclaim it to be the secret ingredient.

We hope you’ll make it and give us your take. Regardless, we know you will love it!

Is this red beans and rice copycat a spicy recipe?

That depends. Like many Cajun and Creole recipes the spiciness can be toned down or up according to your preference. They’re all big on flavor, but not necessarily heat, like our Grilled Blackened Chicken.

We do make a recipe called Fiery Cajun Shrimp and it lives up to its name. But we find that most Cajun and Creole dishes get a bad rap from so many who think they’re all fiery.

For this one there is an optional addition of cayenne pepper that would add heat, but you can certainly leave it out. Also, andouille sausage tends to be on the hot side, so if you’re adding it you can expect a kick.

One last frequently asked question: Are red beans the same as kidney beans?

They are not. Red Beans are their own type of bean. They’re actually not as red as kidney beans and they’re smaller.

We found canned red beans to be a little difficult to find. Most all of the specialty grocery stores in our area had some – like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s.

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We’ve linked here to the exact ones we use if you’d like to order from Amazon. If you just can’t find any you could certainly make this recipe with kidney beans, but definitely go for the light red ones.

Cajun and Creole recipes to make: