Popeye’s Red Beans and Rice – The Real Deal

This is my version of Popeye’s® Red Beans and Rice.  I think I’ve tried every “copy cat” version of this recipe that exists on the Internet and I’ve never found one that really hit the mark when it came to flavor, texture and color. That’s not to say that many of them didn’t taste good, because they did.  They just didn’t taste like the ones I get at Popeye’s®.  I should point out that my goal was to develop a copy-cat recipe, as close to the original as possible.  I realize that this is not a traditional New Orleans recipe and is absent many traditional ingredients.

I have a science background, so for me it seemed natural to start with some research.  First, I went to Popeye’s® website and found the ingredient list for their red beans & rice.  The next step was to decipher and simplify the list, to figure out what was really in their recipe and what flavor profile each ingredient added to the dish.  The first thing I realized was that the names of many common food products were disguised within the list.  For example, one of the ingredients listed is refereed to as, dressing.  When you break down the ingredients that make up the dressing, you discover that it is simply margarine. In other words, what we call margarine, they call dressing.  Similarly, what they refer to simply as pork fat, is specifically smoked bacon fat.  When all was said and done, it turns out that the recipe is pretty simple, consisting of only 5 basic ingredients.  These are rice (long grain), dark red (kidney) beans, bacon fat, margarine, smoke flavor (liquid smoke) and season salt.  The season salt consists of, dried onion, dried garlic, paprika, dried parsley and msg. There is also a small amount of sugar, both white and brown.  Note that there is no meat, celery, bay leaf, green pepper, or any of the other traditional RB&R ingredients. 

The next step was to figure how much of each ingredient to use, what ingredients (if any) should be omitted and what unlisted ingredients might be necessary to arrive at the desired flavor profile. The last step was to figure out how to put it all together so that the dish would have the correct taste, texture and appearance.  For these final steps I relied on a combination of other “copy cat” recipes, my personal experience in the kitchen and a lot of trial and error.

I think the result is copy cat version of Popeye’s red beans and rice that is virtually identical to the original.  I encourage you to try it and let me know what you think. 

The Recipe 

3 (16 ounce) cans small dark red beans (Goya)

2 smoked ham hocks

1 cup water

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon paprika

Pinch (1/8 teaspoon) cayenne pepper (or to taste)

½ teaspoon MSG (Accent)

½ teaspoon Kosher salt (more or less to taste - be careful here, you don't want to over salt)

¼ cup bacon fat (do not substitute)

1/3 cup diced onion

½ teaspoon or 1 capful liquid smoke (Wright's Natural Hickory Seasoning)

For the rice:

2 cups uncooked long grain rice

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Sauté diced onion in bacon fat until translucent.  Do not brown.
2. Add 2-cans beans, (including liquid), ham hocks and water.
3. Bring to boil and reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour until the meat loosens from the bone.
4. Remove the ham hock from the beans and set aside to cool.  Add all remaining ingredients, except the beans.
5. Using a food processor, blender, or immersion blender (my favorite), process the beans until they are nearly smooth.
6. Drain and rinse the remaining can of beans and add to the pot.
7. Continue to cook over low heat, uncovered, stirring often (you don’t want the beans to scorch) until the beans reach the desired consistency.  Remember that Popeye’s® RB&R are rather liquid, much like the consistency of a thick soup or chowder.

Make rice in the traditional manner, using the ingredients listed above.

If you’ve followed my directions carefully, you now have a pot of red beans and rice that I hope you agree, come as close to Popeye’s as any you’ve tasted.  At this point you have the option of removing any meat from the ham hocks, cutting it into a small dice and returning it to the pot.  Popeye’s recipe doesn’t include any meat, but doing so will add a layer of flavor and allow you to use the leftover meat.

A few notes:

Where it’s important to the final outcome, I‘ve listed specific brands, namely Goya Small Red Beans and Wright's Liquid Smoke. If you can’t find these brands, just make sure your beans are plain, unadulterated beans (no sauce) and the liquid smoke is natural and not artificial.  Artificial smoke flavor imparts a distinctly chemical taste and is unacceptable in this recipe, (or any recipe IMHO).

Don’t substitute onion salt for onion powder.  The same goes for garlic powder.  The products I use came from The Spice House (available on-line at, http://www.thespicehouse.com) and are referred to as granulated garlic and granulated onion.  In any case make sure whatever you use contains just onion and garlic; no salt, no sugar.

The ham hocks I used came from my local grocery store and were naturally smoked.  Don’t use ham hocks that are artificially flavored or smoked.  They will give an off, chemical taste that will ruin the dish.  If you can’t find naturally smoked hocks you’d be better to omit them.

The bacon fat came from standard, store bought hickory smoked bacon. Every time I fry bacon I save the fat, just like Mom used to do.   Avoid maple flavored, honey cured, etc.  You want just plain smoked bacon.  This is one of the main flavor components in the dish, so please, no substitutions.