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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April says
Simply delicious! The quick soak was awesome. I’ll be making this again soon
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks for the comment, April. I’m so glad to hear you liked the recipe!
Lydia says
This is one of the best dishes I’ve ever prepared! It was absolutely delicious! I substituted smoked turkey tails (3) and turkey kielbasa for the pork, and even though I love pork I can’t imagine this dish tasting any better than it did. Thank you so much for sharing! I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from your site!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Lydia, thanks for the lovely comment! I’m so glad to hear that you liked the recipe. I’ve never made it with turkey, so thanks for sharing. The ham hock adds a lot of great flavor so next time, give that a try 🙂
Micah says
Best red beans and rice, from a lifelong Louisianan. I mainly looked at the recipe to see how long to cook the red beans in the IP. The 30 minutes cooking time was perfect. They were already so creamy when I took the lid off and stirred them I didn’t blend or mash any beans. The seasonings and veggies in this recipe are pretty close to what I normally use. This is a great recipe. Thank you!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks Micah! I’m always excited to get a good review from a Louisianan 🙂
Francis says
Wow, delicious added some crystal hit sauce to finish off. Licked the bowl
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Francis, I have been in the mood to have me some RB&R too. I have some ham hocks in my freezer I need to take out tomorrow 🙂 Thank you for your comment!
Terence says
Came out great! As much as I love Paul Prudhomme’s recipe, this Instant Pot recipe is now my go to recipe for rb&r. Needed around 20 minutes more total cooking time due to time to pressurize and depressurize. 5 stars!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks, Terence! I do love this recipe! I’ve made Paul Prudhomme’s recipe too – it’s good too.
Lauren Elliott says
Yum! I love everything about this recipe. Very authentic!
Ken Thompson says
I’m going to try this tomorrow. I’ve always done my rice, sausage, and beans stove top but now that I have an IP, why not use it?
Two things… I’ve always used pinto beans rather than red beans. I’ve had it both ways. Not much difference, really.
The best possible addition to this dish is your left over ham shank from Thanksgiving or Christmas.
We leave the bone with a lot of meat on it and all that soft, chewy ham, and the sausage really kicks it up a notch! The ham will add some salt so go easy on adding salt to the pot. You can always add salt at the table.
Note: Honey Baked hams don’t work well in this dish. Too sweet!
A loaf of French bread or a pan of cornbread, some cold beer and you got yours real meal.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Coincidence: I just had another reader comment about using a ham bone too! Thank you for sharing your tips and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Laura Mandel says
After we ate our Christmas ham for several days there was too much to toss but it was definitely time to reinvent the wheel. This recipe popped up,
I only had to pick up a few ingredients since i had celery and onion left from the holiday, followed the directions almost exactly, and yummmmmm! I had leftover beef broth so I used 3 cups of that , one cup of water, and added a spoon of chicken stock concentrate. It turned out so delicious. I like things spicy so next time may add extra Cajun seasoning. I think the meaty ham bone really helped make the dish. There was sooo much good ham to chop and add to the pot!Will definitely
make this whenever I serve a bone-in ham, it’s
very easy and economical and it’s great to make
use of the ham bone.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Laura – awesome! I know it’s traditional to include a ham bone, but I’ve never done that. Great to know. Thank you for your detailed comment – I’m sure it will help someone else!
Ivy Carter says
This recipe is top notch!!! Absolutely delicious and authentic red beans and rice, the best I’ve had since my Cajun Pawpaw was alive. We followed the recipe exactly, but did the offered substitution of Cajun seasoning instead of cayenne pepper and salt. We also added dried chives and parsley during the pressure cooking portion, instead of adding fresh green onions and parsley at the end, and did dried red kidney beans instead of small red beans. My only note for this recipe is that I would not recommend leaving the skin from the ham hock in the mixture. The simmering process isn’t long enough to completely render the fat, so you end up with half-melted pieces if they’re not chopped small enough.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Ivy, thank you for your detailed comment, especially sharing your substitutions and tip about ham hock. I’m always most excited when a Louisianan loves my Cajun and Creole recipes. So glad you liked the recipe 🙂
John says
I’ve tried several recipes for red beans and rice (both slow cooked and pressure cooked), and made this one today – this is hands down my favorite! Used an extra ham hock (my grocery store sells them in packs of two), and added some creole seasoning, otherwise followed exactly. Perfect! I always say red beans and rice tastes better the second day, and this was better day one than anything else I’ve made on day two. If that makes sense. Already looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
I’ve had someone else mention putting in more ham hock, and I say there’s no such thing as too much – love the flavor! Thank you, John, for such a glowing review of the recipe – you’ve made my day!
Monica says
Cooking instructions were perfect! I tweaked it a bit using my own traditional recipe (used a beer for part of the liquid). I ended up transferring it to a big pot on the stove to finish during the saute part, but that was only because I wanted to make rice in the instant pot. I also drained off some of the liquid, but that’s because I like RB really thick.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you Monica! I’ve never used beer in my Red Beans recipe before. I might try that next time! Do you ever blend some of the beans to thicken it?
Mimi says
Do u use high pressure or low pressure on the instapot?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Mimi – all my recipes are high pressure unless otherwise stated. That’s the case for most recipes you’ll find on the internet.
Babineaux says
Wow! From a Louisiana Cajun who’s lived in New Orleans, this was AWESOME! Thank you! It did. It need a thing added. We added corn bread and loved every bite!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Woo hoo! Thank you so much for the kind words. I am so glad you liked it.
Bettina says
Yummy! I added a little more creole seasoning and blended the beans. Definitely a keeper.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks Bettina – I do like to add extra creole spice if my kids aren’t eating it 🙂 I’m happy to hear you like the recipe.
Wes says
This came out great.
Adjustments: I skipped the ham hock. I blended about two cups of the blender. I quick soaked the beans in the IP first.
Results: Served with rice. Really delicious. Blending a portion of the beans really creates a richer experience. For those with kids, I thought the heat factor was perfect but my kids (5, 7) thought it was a bit too spicy and would have eaten more if it was less spicy. This may have been a result of the brand of sausage I used.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Wes, thanks for sharing your modifications. I think blending is a great idea; I can see how it would be really creamy.
Alan says
I made this last night and it was delicious. I wasn’t able to find the creole seasoning, but I did find Cajun seasoning and used that. I put in 1 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. I was also not able to find ham hocks, so I started with 3 slices of bacon, after the fat was rendered I took it out and browned the andouille sausage. I also added kielbasa so I browned it next. and followed the recipe the rest of the way as written. I took extra care to make sure the fond was all scrapped up with the vegetables. I had soaked the small red beans 12 hours in salted water.
Came out great. I will be making this regularly.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Alan, thank you for your comment and for letting us know your substitutions. I’m glad you loved the recipe as much as I do.
Gail M says
I love how thorough your instructions are!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you Gail – I know how confusing the Instant Pot can be for newcomers, so I try to always put detail in my posts!
S W Seip says
These were good. I live in New Orleans so I have my own seasoning but with standard well-soaked beans the cook time of 30 mins is spot on. I let them sit about 5 mins then released pressure. Then let them sit on sauté while I warmed the rice. They were just the way I like them!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
What a great comment from someone who lives in New Orleans – thank you for taking the time to comment and I’m so glad you liked the recipe!
Richard Craig says
The Small red beans that U speak of for this Recipe, would that be the same a Pinto Beans that so may Mexican Recipes call for?
we have just got out IP, before be had a Regular stove top 6 qt. Presto Pressure Pot, we mostly used it for doing Potatoes, we Love Your Bolg
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Richard, the small red beans are frequently found in the found in the Mexican/Latin section: labeled ‘small red beans’ or ‘frijoles rojos pequenos’ – Goya brand is common. You could use kidney beans but you’ll have to cook them for a bit longer. Thank you for visiting the blog – I too own a Presto from 20 years ago, still works. However, I haven’t touched it since I got the IP! I hope you enjoy your’s like I do!
Bill says
Excellent recipe! Tastes way better than the stuff out of the box. Love your site!! Next time I will probably up the ham hock from 1 to 3 because I didn’t get much meat off of 1, but it certainly imparted some flavor.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Bill – Awesome, so glad you liked it. I think you could definitely up the ham hock. I love the flavor!