This Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice recipe has authentic New Orleans flavor, and is made with red beans, spicy andouille sausage, and leftover ham bone or ham hock, served over white rice. An easy red beans recipe with simple ingredients, it has great flavor! [Stovetop and Instant Pot Instructions]
This easy pressure cooker red beans with ham hock recipe tastes like you’ve cooked it for hours on the stovetop or in a slow cooker.
This recipe is adapted from an authentic Louisiana red beans and rice recipe. The individual ingredients are simple, but they combine to make the most flavorful and comforting one-pot dish.
Red beans, ham, and andouille are pressure-cooked and served over white rice or brown rice for a hearty meal. This is, hands-down, one of my family’s favorite recipes that you can make in the pressure cooker!
You don’t need to use an Instant Pot. You’ll find directions in the recipe card for making it on the stovetop too!
🧂 Ingredients You’ll Need for Red Beans and Ham Hocks
- Red beans are not kidney beans. The beans in this recipe are small red beans.
- Chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water can be used.
- Ham hock or ham bone tastes best.
- Onion, celery, and bell pepper make up the holy trinity of Creole and Cajun cuisine.
- Andouille is a spicy sausage that’s a staple of Louisiana cuisine.
- Cayenne, black pepper, thyme, and salt can be substituted with Creole seasoning.
- Cooked white rice – you can make jasmine rice, basmati pot in pot rice, brown jasmine, or brown basmati.
Quantities and details are provided in the recipe card at the bottom of this post
💡 Ingredient and Recipe Tips
- Quick soak beans – If you forget to pre-soak the beans overnight, use the Quick Soak method for dried beans.
- Use ham hocks or a ham bone – Smoked ham hock or ham shank adds a delicious smoky flavor. It should be available in your grocery store meat case and is worth seeking out. Use leftover ham bone from your Easter or Christmas dinner to make red beans and rice.
- Smoked sausage – Andouille is a spicy sausage. You can find it raw or smoked – you need to buy the smoked kind. If you can’t find smoked andouille, substitute any smoked sausage such as Spanish chorizo or Polish kielbasa.
- Spices – You have a couple of choices for the spices. The recipe calls for cayenne pepper and salt, but you can substitute a Creole or Cajun seasoning for the cayenne and salt. I like to use Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning. You could also omit the spice and serve hot sauce on the side.
- Red beans – This red beans and rice with ham hock recipe are small red beans, preferably Camellia brand. These are different from red kidney beans. If you can’t find them in the dry red beans aisle of your grocery store, try the Hispanic food section e.g. Goya small red beans. If you still can’t locate them, use red kidney beans or black beans in this recipe.
- Cooking time—This beans and rice recipe cooks perfectly with the given pressure cooking time. If you want the beans cooked extra soft, add 5-10 minutes to the cooking time. If you prefer firm beans, reduce the cooking time by 5-10 minutes.
- Make it ahead -Although this recipe tastes great the day you make it, it tastes even better the next day. I prefer to make it a day ahead.
- Rice – This recipe is typically served over long grain white rice. I like to use jasmine rice, but you can use brown rice too.
❓ FAQS
Yes, you can slow cook in a traditional slow cooker for 10 hours on low heat or 6 hours on high heat. Make sure there’s enough liquid.
You can double the recipe with no changes to cooking time.
You can use canned beans. You won’t need to pressure cook the recipe for as long. 10 to 15 minutes at high pressure should be fine.
If you don’t want to presoak the beans before cooking, put in the (rinsed) dried beans directly and pressure cook the beans for an additional 15 to 20 minutes (more if you like the beans to be very soft).
To make vegetarian red beans and rice, omit the ham and sausage. Everything else can stay the same, including cook time.
📝 How to Make Ham Hock Red Beans and Ham Hock in the Instant Pot
- Soak the beans, saute the sausage and vegetables, add spices
- Add the beans and ham
- Pressure cook the beans
- Shred ham and mash beans, heat through
Soak the Beans, Saute Sausage and Vegetables with Spices
- Soak the beans overnight or use the Quick Soak Beans Method.
- Saute the andouille sausage till browned (about 5 to 8 minutes). If it browns to quickly or starts burning, deglaze with some broth as needed.
- Transfer the sausage to a bowl and reserve.
- Add onion, bell pepper (green or red), celery, and garlic to the inner pot. Saute until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. The liquid released from the vegetables should be enough to deglaze the pan. If it’s not, add a few tablespoons of broth to deglaze. Add thyme, cayenne, salt, and black pepper and stir to coat for about 30 seconds. Add ¼ cup of broth to deglaze, scraping up all brown bits from the bottom of the pot.
Add Beans and Ham Hock
- Add the broth.
- Drain the beans and add them in.
- Add in the ham hock and bay leaves and stir to combine.
Program the Instant Pot and release pressure
- Close the lid.
- Program the Instant Pot to pressure cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.
- The display will go from On to 30:00. The float valve will go up after a few minutes. The display will count down to 00:00.
- Do a natural pressure release. Once the float valve goes down, the lid can be opened.
Shred Ham and Mash Beans
- Remove the ham hock and chop it into bite-size pieces. If using a ham bone, get as much meat as possible from the bone and chop it. Discard bone.
- Transfer 1 cup of beans to a bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher.
- Return the ham, beans, and sausage to the pot.
- Stir everything and cook in Saute mode, allowing the stew to thicken to desired consistency, about 5 minutes. Cook the rice separately and serve the beans over the hot cooked rice and garnish with chopped green onions and parsley.
♨️ Stovetop Instructions
- Soak rinsed beans overnight in a large pot of water.
- Sauté sausage and reserve.
- Sauté onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic in oil.
- Rinse the beans. Combine beans, vegetables, seasonings, ham, and broth and simmer for 2 ½ hours
- Shred the ham and return to the pot.
- Remove a cup of beans, mash, and return to the pot.
- Stir sausage into beans, and continue to simmer for 20 to 30 more minutes.
- Cook the rice and serve red beans over rice and garnish.
Detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
More Easy Instant Pot Cajun and Creole recipes…
- Gumbo is a hearty Creole dish filled with a variety of meats, vegetables, and spices, all simmered to perfection in a thick, savory broth.
- Instant Pot Shrimp Etouffee is a mouthwatering dish of tender shrimp smothered in a rich and creamy roux-based sauce, served over a bed of fluffy rice.
- Instant Pot Jambalaya is a spicy and satisfying combination of shrimp, spicy sausage, and chicken in a hearty rice dish, perfectly seasoned with a blend of Cajun spices and served steaming hot.
Authentic Ham Hock Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
- 1 lb Andouille sausage cut into slices
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 1 cup bell pepper chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper powder or to taste
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth or water (more for stovetop version)
- 2 bay leaves (large) or 3 small
- 1 lb small red beans soaked overnight or quick-soaked, drained
- 1 leftover ham bone or smoked ham hock
- 4 green onions chopped
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- Cooked rice to serve (about 4 cups)
- hot sauce to serve on the side
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Select Saute mode and allow the Instant Pot to heat up.
- Add oil to inner pot of Instant Pot.
- Add andouille sausage, and cook until browned, about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a medium bowl and set aside.
- Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic. Stir until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add thyme, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and stir to coat, about 30 seconds.
- Add a few tablespoons of broth to deglaze the inner pot, so there’s nothing stuck to the bottom.
- Stir in remaining broth, bay leaves, red beans, and ham hock.
- Close the Instant Pot and pressure cook on High Pressure for 30 minutes.
- Allow for a natural pressure release (NPR) and open the Instant Pot. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Remove the ham, chop the meat into bite-size pieces and set aside.
- Remove 1 cup of beans, and mash with a fork.
- Return ham pieces, mashed beans and reserved sausage to the inner pot, and stir well.
- Select Saute mode and allow the dish to thicken, about 5 minutes.
- Make the rice while the red beans are cooking. Serve red beans over rice and garnish with green onions and parsley.
- Serve hot sauce on the side (optional).
Stovetop Instructions
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat.
- Saute sausage until lightly browned, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Remove using a slotted spoon and reserve.
- Saute onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic in oil, till the onion is translucent.
- Add thyme, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, and stir to coat for about 30 seconds.
- Add beans and enough water or broth to cover the beans (about 6 to 8 cups). Stir in bay leaves and ham.
- Cover the pot, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the beans are tender, about 2 hours. (Old beans can take longer to cook.)
- Remove ham, chop the meat into small pieces and return to the pot.
- Remove a cup of beans, mash with a fork and return to the pot.
- Continue to cook with the cover off, stirring occasionally, until the red beans appear thick and creamy, about 20 to 30 minutes. At any point, if the pot appears to be too dry, add some more water and continue to cook.
- Serve over rice, with hot sauce on the side. Garnish with green onions and parsley.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. chopped onions, minced garlic, sliced sausage, etc.
- Substitute cayenne pepper and salt with Creole or Cajun seasoning, to taste.
- Andouille is a spicy smoked Cajun sausage. If you don’t have access to it, substitute it with a smoked sausage and add some extra spice to compensate.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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John Beaugez says
Best red beans & rice recipe I have found.
Neena Panicker says
Thank you, John! I love this recipe so much and am glad you enjoyed it too.
Paula says
Delicious! I couldn’t find red beans so substituted with pinto beans. Otherwise I followed the recipe as written. It was a tad salty but I noticed the andouille was pretty salty. Otherwise it was so good. Will make it again!
Neena Panicker says
Paula, I’m so glad you got to try one of my all time favorite Instant Pot recipes – red beans and rice!
Donna says
My family LOVED this recipe. I have been making a similar recipe on the stove for years. This recipe cooked in the instant pot was so much better. Only change I mean by adding a tsp of smoked paprika as I didn’t have the ham. Definitely going to be a regular dish for our family. Thank you for sharing.
Neena Panicker says
Thanks, Donna! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the Red Beans and Rice recipe! One of my all-time favorites to make in the Instant Pot.
Jerry H says
This is the best red beans and rice I’ve ever had. I have been wanting to make homemade for a while. Today I ordered an insta pot and decided to do just that. 10 out of 10 for sure. Delicious recipe thanks for sharing!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks for giving the red beans and rice recipe a try – one of my favorite recipes!
Maureen says
Can the beans be cooked in the IP without soaking overnight?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Maureen, yes they can. I like them better when they’re soaked but you can do unsoaked and increase the cooking time by almost double or 2.5x. Here’s a chart of approximate times: https://www.paintthekitchenred.com/instant-pot-cooking-times-a-complete-guide/
Hannah says
Thank you for the details you include with this recipe. I can tell by your ingredients that it will taste delicious! I’m going to make a double batch and freeze half. I have a 10 quart instant pot, so it should work out.
Thanks also for the recipe links – I can’t decide which one to try next!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you for the kind words, Hannah. I think you’ll love the recipe and it’s great for freezing.
Lisa says
This taste like old fashion Cajun red beans and rice. My generation wasn’t taught how to make Cajun food, but this taste like great food I grew up with.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
It is a shame when recipes aren’t passed down to the next generation or there is no interest. But I’m so happy to hear that you liked the flavors of this recipe, Lisa.
Leigh W says
This is a really good recipe! Works well with good andouille from a Cajun meat market, Conecuh sausage from Alabama, or regular old andouille from Walmart. It has great flavor. I double this every time in my 8 qt instant pot. All of your recipe are delicious and the information is very well organized. I’ve watched a couple of your YouTube videos as well. Thanks.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Leigh, thank you so much for the kind words. I’m so happy that you love the recipes!
Melissa Trausch says
This was delicious!!!! My store was out of ham hocks, so I had to use smoked turkey necks instead. It was sooo good!!!! Will definitely make this dish often!!!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks Melissa! Glad to hear that turkey necks worked for you – it’s a great idea.
Stan says
Amazing goto dish! Similar to Papadeuxs red beans n rice…but better?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Stan, thank you for the kind words!
Michele says
Made this tonight and it’s excellent using him what I had at home. I used light red kidney beans and I used smoked turkey that I boiled in some water while I sautéed the sausage and vegetables. I was impatient and let the steam out quickly instead of naturally. I used better than bouillon chicken with the juice from the smoked turkey boil to make the broth and I used 2 extra cups of broth. I used butterball turkey sausage too. I’m making cornbread and some jasmine rice to go with it. This is a keeper recipe.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Michele, I’m so glad you like the recipe – thank you for sharing your substitutions!
Terence says
Made this again the other night and it was far better than before (which was really good). The difference was using good andouille (I used Aidell’s before, which was fine, but doesn’t compare), which added a really nice smokey flavor and moved the dish up another notch. The recipe is a winner either way, but if you can, get the good andouille.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks for sharing, Terence. I’m so glad that you continue to make the recipe after all this time!
melissa says
This is my favorite meal EVER! I like it the day I make it but LOOOOOOOOOVE it for leftovers (the flavors come together so much better).
Paint the Kitchen Red says
What a great compliment – thank you! Very good point; it does taste even better the next day!
M. B. F. says
This is a WINNING recipe in my house. It’s super fast and easy, even for those of us who don’t cook often. I’ve made it multiple times and even my super picky 2 year old eats it. I had my husband make it one night when I was running late. It was his first time using the Instant Pot and his came out perfect as well. Even my mother-in-law, who knows good food, really liked it. This recipe will definitely stay in heavy rotation in my house. Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Wow, thank you so much for such a nice comment. I love it when my recipes are a hit!
Michele says
This is a very good recipe and very reminiscent of the red beans I grew up with that my Louisiana born and bred Mother makes. This is an authentic tasting recipe. I will keep this in my arsenal of southern comfort meals.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Michele, your comment means so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to write.