Red Beans & Rice w/ Sausage Skillet

This Red Beans and Rice with Sausage Skillet recipe is flavorful and easy to put together with everyday ingredients.  Your family will ask for it again and again!

If you’re a long time reader, you may remember I used to publish a weekly meal plan.  After a few years of this, I was feeling pressure to get that post up every Sunday evening, when I’d rather be spending time with my family.  I finally just stopped posting them.  I continued to meal plan, but over the last two years I’d slowly planned less and was winging it more.  (By winging it, I mean I would buy a bunch of different things to keep on hand and then just cook whatever was easiest or about to go past the use by date.)

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With our busy schedules, I’m trying be more organized and do a better job of planning, purchasing ingredients and actually following through with the planned meals.  The recipe I’m sharing today is a perfect example of something budget friendly, easy, filling and of course; really really GOOD!  Thanks to Hillshire Farm® for sponsoring this post. The opinions and text are all mine.

The highlight of this dish is the Hillshire Farm® Smoked Sausage.  (Who doesn’t love smoked sausage?)  The Hillshire Farm® sausage comes already cooked and in several different varieties, so it’s perfect to slice and add to your own customized stir fry’s and skillet dishes.  (Though in this recipe, I did simmer the sausage with the beans and spices make sure the entire dish was infused with the smokey Cajun flavors.)

Want to add this dish to your meal plan this week?  Be sure to use this Cartwheel coupon offer from Target for 20% off your purchase of Hillshire Farm® Smoked Sausages!

I’ll admit a few of those sausage slices disappeared before they made it into the skillet!

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Red Beans and Rice with Sausage Skillet Meal

Serves 4 (though you could easily slice the sausage thinner and add an additional can of beans and more rice to stretch the meal to serve 6.)

Ingredients:

• 1-2  tbsp oil
• 3/4 medium onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 3/4 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 12 oz package of smoked sausage, sliced
• 1/2 to 1 tsp of your favorite Cajun seasoning (we like Tony Chachere’s, but it is pretty spicy.)
• 2 (12-ounce) cans red beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups prepared rice
• Salt and pepper to taste
• optional diced green onions for garnish

Instructions

1. Heat oil in large skillet over med- high heat. Add peppers and onions, sauté for about 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic, cumin, celery and sausage to skillet. Sauté another 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add beans and chicken broth to skillet. Cover and reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes.  Remove lid and simmer 10 minutes more. (*See recipe tip below.)
4. Serve with rice and garnish with optional green onions.

*Recipe Tip:  To quickly thicken up the cooking liquid in the skillet, remove about 1/4 cup of the beans and mash or purée.  Add pureed beans back to the skillet, mixing in and simmering another minute or two.

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You can find the Hillshire Farm® Smoked Sausages at Target in the Lunch Meat/Hot Dog/Sausage section:  And don’t forget to print the Cartwheel coupon for 20% off!

What is your favorite way to cook/serve smoked sausage?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hillshire Farm®. The opinions and text are all mine.