She made this for the first time on 10/5/13 by combining several recipes found at Allrecipes.com. The best we ever made. We have used this recipe many times and on 1/16/2025 we made it again with a few changes as noted below.
1 pound dried red beans. Dropped in boiling water to sit for one hour to remove sugars. Then pour off the red water and rinse.
Saute the following in a cast iron skillet till the onions are translucent and pepper still firm:
1 yellow onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped (1/16/2024 – 6 small bells from the garden)
2 stalks celery, chopped
Add all the above to the ingredients below in a No. 4 cast iron scotch pot. Cover with a commercial aluminum pizza pan for the first three hours of simmering.
- 8 C Ida Garten’s chicken stock – Homemade. 1/16/2025 – Did not add chicken stock. Made stock by boiling a somewhat meaty ham bone from a spiral-cut ham for about 4 hours.
- 1 large ham bone from Honey Baked Ham with a lot of ham still on it. – 1/16/2025 – Did not add a second ham bone.
- 1 pound smoked beef/pork sausage from Best Stop in Lafayette LA, cut into bite-sized pieces. 1/16/2025 – Added green onion smoke sausage from Bergerons.
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/16/2025 – Used 3 tablespoons of Kit’s Creole Seasoning we make from her recipe in lieu of the next 5 items. Added 1 more tablespoons at tasting. Next time add 4 initially. The added 3-4 shakes of cayenne pepper from our SS countertop shaker.
- The original 2013 recipe used these five spices:
- 1 T Creole seasoning Benoit’s Best spice salt-free Cajun seasoning. 1/16/2025 – Used Kit’s creole seasoning we make from her recipe.
- 1/2 t dried thyme
- 1/2 t dried sage
- 1/2 t cayenne pepper
- 1 T dried cilantro
4/7/2018 – Made with ham stock made from HoneyBaked ham bone that was simmered for 4+ hours instead of Ina’s chicken stock. Used Kit’s Creole Seasoning. Did not have dried cilantro and forgot to add fresh before serving. Used Green Onion Sausage and added near end of the cook so it did not overcook, get tough and add grease to the beans — per advice for crawfish boils and it seemed to be applicable here. The sausage was tender and flavorful.
1/16/2025 – See inserted changes with this date.
