This is the best recipe for red beans & rice on this site. It does need tweaking for your individual tastes, though. To make these red beans taste like the ones I grew up on in Louisiana, I did the following: Omitted the jalapeño. Cut the bell pepper by half. Used a generous amount of Tony Chachere's cajun seasoning. Subbed chicken broth for water & cut it down to 7 cups. Used the back of my spoon to smash up enough beans to make the whole pot creamy. Must! Use! Andouille! even if you have to order it online this is the ONLY way to get the authentic and unique flavor of the sausage right. Regular sausage just isn't seasoned the same way or contains the same amount of spiciness. My central Texas grocery store has started carrying it, as does Whole Foods and other "specialty stores". I only had ham scraps instead of a ham hock but the andouille adds smoky flavor so I didn't miss the hock. Normally I'd use both the andouille & the ham hock. For those omitting celery, you really need the "holy trinity" of onion, celery & bell pepper to call it authentic. Mince it finely and sautee it first if you have to. Me, I just do a fine dice on the veggies and let them cook down in the pot.

In N'awlins, everybody has her own touch for red beans and rice, so whatever works for you is great. They are ALL creamy, though, accomplished by smashing beans as noted by several folks. Most restaurants serve smoked sausage on the side and season the beans with ham or a little andouille. One tip--don't add the salt until the end or it will prevent the beans from getting soft.

If you can't find andouille sausage, smoked keilbasa is a great substitute. We always add a bay leaf or two to our pot of beans. Got to have the bay leaf.... Good recipe. I like slow cooker idea. Thanks for the recipe.

I have been looking for a real red beans and rice recipe ever since I visited New Orleans a couple months ago. This is the closest I have found to what I had there. I liked it much more the second day. Next time I will make it a day before I want to eat it. I also had to add more spice (cayenne pepper) to get the heat my family likes. Other than that, this is an excellent recipe that I will definitely make again!

I live in Louisiana and have never attempted to make red beans..this recipe tasted so good and just like all the red bean recipes here in Louisiana! Next time I would cut the water back to 9 cups, it was a little thin but the next day it thickened up. I also would not cook te sausage ahead of time and just put in the crock pot and it will cook up in there. I added just a little cajun seasoning for an extra kick! Thanks for the great recipe I will be making for years to come!

This is really a pretty good recipe. I adjusted the spices to suit my families taste, and made a couple of substitutions due to location and price. I subbed hot sausage (from Hillshire Farms) for the andouille sausage, and I used ham boullion instead of a ham hock. My only thing is that in the slow cooker the thing would not thicken- so I ended up pouring it into a pan and simmering for about 20 minutes to reduce the liquid. Next time I'll just use less liquid- probably more like 7-8 cups of water. Over all though it is a really tasty recipe that is pretty forgiving when it comes to adjusting here and there for your own taste.

this was the first time that I made this recipe. It was very good but only because I read the reviews first. I only added 8 cups of water which was stock from the turkey meat that i boiled before i added it to the crock pot. and i substituted pork for turkey

Tasty, with some nice bite to it, but has too much liquid. I used 1/2 lb beans and 4 1/2 cups water, but next time I'll use only 3 cups water.

This was my first ever try at making Red Beans and Rice, and it turned out great! I did leave out the jalepenos, as my children are not spicy eaters, and I used Italian sausage instead of Andouille (my grocer didn't carry the Andouille). It still tasted wonderful. I think next time I will try adding some crisp bacon, as a friend of mine does in hers.

A little too bland for me. I added chopped green onions and celery. Threw in some cayenne and white pepper too. Served with Tobasco on the side.