The Secret to Cajun Red Beans & Rice | Comfort Food Done Right #RedBeansAndRice #CajunCooking #MrMakeItHappen

Today we're making red beans and rice, arguably one of the best comfort food meals of all time. I'm talking smoky andouille sausage, tender smoked turkey wings, creamy red beans, rice, and cornbread on the side. Meet me in the kitchen, let's make it happen. All right guys, if we're making red beans and rice, we got to talk about the beans, right? So you got options. Most people are going to tell you if they're purists, they want you to use the dry beans. Today we're using the small red beans. This is the most traditional. We're going to strain these, these would be the beans we're using. Now you could also use the larger ones which are more like the dry kidney beans. These take a little bit longer to cook, similar flavor profile, they're both nice and creamy, they're both good. Whatever your choice or preference is, you can go with that. These do cook a little faster so I tend to lean towards these. The fastest method though is good old canned kidney beans. Now, the people. Those that are purists on red beans and rice, they'll cut you out if you do this, but in a pinch, if you're really craving them, can work. Next up, we're going to prep our andouille sausage. You can use pork, chicken, beef, whatever floats your boat. Today, we're using pork. Andouille sausage is very common in Cajun and Creole recipes. It's a little smoky, a little spicy, a lot of good flavor, and that's what we're going with today. I'm going to cut them into little cubes, bite-sized pieces. That way, they can all fit on the fork or the spoon, rather. Thank you, Heather. with the beans and the rice and all that good stuff. So we're going to chop them up even sized pieces. These are going to brown up nicely and add tons of flavor to our pot. All right guys once we brown up our andouille sausage nicely we're going to go ahead and remove it. This process can take a couple hours so we don't want that andouille to get all mushy. I like to remove mine and then add it back towards the end. So we're going to use a slotted spoon. Remove the sausage, leaving behind all that fat and flavor. That's going to be the foundation of our flavor base when we go to sauté our Cajun Trinity. I'm going to get this sausage out of here. Then we're going straight into the pot with our onion, bell pepper, and celery, also known as the Trinity. In goes the veggies. We're going to sweat these down and season it up. Then we'll add in our beans and then add in the smoked turkey. Cover that with chicken stock. And then cover with the lid and let that simmer for 1 1⁄2 to 2 1⁄2 hours, depending on which beans you choose and whether or not your smoked turkey is frozen or room temperature. All right, my friends, time to add some seasoning. We're going in with my all-purpose, which is a blend of salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder. Basically, the foundational seasonings. Got a couple other things in there, but that's the basis. Going in with some chicken bouillon powder as well to beef up the flavor. Help out that chicken stock that usually is a little bland. Just a pinch of cayenne pepper. I'm only going to add just a sprinkle, and then I can add a little bit more later. A little bit goes a long way, and then, of course, you can always add more, but once it's in there, you can't take it out. So we'll adjust that later. A little smoked paprika to play off the smokiness of the andouille sausage and the smoked turkey. Gotta have Cajun seasoning for this recipe. I have a great product. If you haven't tried it yet, you can grab that via the link down below or just go to MrMakeItHappen.shop. Also, you can just use whatever your favorite Cajun seasoning is. And then we're going in with some dried oregano as well. We'll add some fresh herbs a little bit later. I like to get the party started with the dried oregano, give it some time to rehydrate and all that oil down there. So just give that a good mix. Let those spices really wake up and toast. And that oil and andouille sausage fat. After a couple minutes, we're going in with our beans. Give that a good mix as well. This is going to be good. This is comfort food personified for me. All right, guys, we got about five cups of chicken broth in here. Anywhere between four and five, depending on how large your smoked turkey is. You want it to be mostly submerged. We're going to bring this to a boil and then reduce it down to a simmer. Cover with a lid. I'm going to check it in about 90 minutes, an hour and a half. This will go anywhere from 90 minutes to two, two and a half hours. Really, just until the beans are tender and the turkey is falling off the bone. All right, guys, the turkey's fall off the bone tender. We got it shredded up over here. What I like to do for consistency's sake. is to take a masher and mash up some of these beans the goal is to get them nice and creamy it's going to thicken up the red beans and rice i would say maybe 50% of the beans i want to mash you could also just take some of them out and blend them up in a blender and add them back might be a little unnecessary but i've seen it done enough i've done it a time or two but mash the beans up by hand the old-fashioned way and just keep doing it you'll notice that Notice that the color will change to become a little bit lighter. like a creamier color and you'll notice the texture will thicken up as well as you do this. It takes a little bit of time especially when you're using you know the smaller beans kind of just find their way they escape so you got to find them pin them down and mash them. Once we get the consistency we're looking for we're going to add back the shredded turkey and the andouille sausage let it simmer for a few more minutes don't burn yourself while we finish our white rice and our cornbread is already done. Quick reminder, guys, you can find this recipe and all of my recipes at MrMakeItHappen.com. There you have it, folks. Mount Rushmore of comfort food right here. Red beans and rice, cornbread on the side. Doesn't get much better than this. Make sure you guys hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any more recipes like this one. I got you guys covered all comfort food season long. Without further ado, it's time to dig in. Matter of fact, let's do this right now. Break a meal. Cheers.