LAURA LEE ALICE
COOKS
®
Easy One Pot Beans and Rice
This has been a Southern staple for many years and there are many versions of it, depending on the area. Makes about 4 servings.
Ingredients
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1¾ cups chicken stock
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 can pinto beans (15.5-ounce), undrained (or your choice of canned beans)
• 1¼ tsp hot sauce (optional)
Instructions
1. In a large pot with a tight-fitting lid, add the olive oil and onion; sautè until onions are slightly tender,
2. Add the stock, cover and bring just to a boil. Then add the salt, pepper, rice and beans. Gently stir to
combine; cover.
3. Turn the heat to the lowest setting, then simmer, without lifting lid, for about 20 minutes. Gently fluff
with fork.
Options
• Add ¼ cup diced celery with the onion, sautè. then add ½ cup cooked, chopped chicken with the rice and beans.
• Sautè ½ cup diced green pepper with the onion and add a can of diced tomatoes (drained) with the rice and beans.
• If you are a pork lover, add ½ cup chopped cooked pork, ham or bacon.
• Adding black-eyed peas with the pork makes a version of Hoppin' John.
Tips
• A side of collard greens and a pan of cornbread will make it a truly Southern meal.
KEYWORDS
rice and beans
Recipes are like stories; they can change from person to person. Everyone has their idea of how a recipe should be, even
though it may have changed from the original. We will never know the true author of the original recipe, regardless of
what some may say. That's why I go back and look through the oldest cookbooks that I can find. Sometimes it's not the
recipe in the books that I find, but the tiny pieces of handwritten recipes and newspaper articles that are stuck within
the pages. That's where the real story is, finding those simple Southern recipes. -Mac