You will love this recap of our YouTube video on making Hoppin' John, a classic dish with soulful simplicity. Think of rich, weird flavors built from rendering your bacon fat through the brown bits. It's a classic Southern Black-Eyed Peas and rice dish.
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So, a great way to use your Dutch oven. They are great for this type of recipe; they keep the heat well and are good for building flavor. I like to use my Dutch oven for making Irish stews for this reason.
Five simple dinners. One grocery list.
No recipe hunting, no messy shopping notes, no complicated chef projects. Just family dinners that fit real weeks.
Black-eyed peas are something I don't use often, but I do like cooking with peas and beans, and I always keep them in my pantry for a quick, nutritious meal.
Key Takeaways
Collect Your Ingredients
Selecting the Perfect Bacon
Start by getting your ingredients ready. Try to go for thick-cut bacon, as this will contain more fat for rendering down and giving richer flavor. Farmer John's is the cook's go-to brand, but you can use any good-quality thick-cut bacon.
When it comes to cooking with bacon, I always opt for streaky bacon, as the fat renders beautifully and you get all that great flavor. Perfect, crisps up amazingly well. I don't tend to stick with any particular brand; I just try to buy the best quality I can find.
It's amazing the things you pick up when cooking. I used to always throw the fat away, not knowing how much flavor I had in the pan. In a recipe like this, when using bacon as the backbone, make sure you use plenty; you're doing what we were to shame through the dish.
Must-Have Seasonings and Vegetables
Fresh Vegetables:
Essential Seasonings:
Getting the Best Taste and Quality
Kitchen Preparation Made Simple
Basic Ingredient Setup
To get prepped for this recipe, you will need thick-cut bacon, about 6 stalks of green onion, some celery, bell peppers, a cup of rice, 2 cups of chicken broth or stock, black-eyed peas, a bay leaf, and seasonings. This may sound like a lot, but actually isn't, and cooking this dish is extremely simple. I always have onion, celery, and pepper to hand, as so many recipes start with a good mirepoix, like this.
If you don't have pepper, you could use carrot or even use garlic. When it comes to cooking, I always have mold and sea salt to make sure my food has plenty of flavor, and lots of fresh, cracked black pepper you can't really do without; these are so important.
Basic Cutting and Prep Work
Preparing Your Heavy-Bottom Pot
Begin with Love and Flavor
Getting That Bacon Fat Just Right
Start by getting the bacon's flavor. You don't need to add oil to the pan, as the bacon will render its own fat.
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Keep an eye out and watch the bacon crisp up and turn golden. Once the fat is rendered, remove the bacon to a paper plate lined with a napkin to rest.
Try to do this on medium heat, as you want the bacon golden, not burnt. I prefer to take my time doing this, as I am wearing the hardware and trying to rush it in the past and burning the bacon.
One of the great things about cooking with bacon is the smell. You instantly know something is going to taste good.
Getting Those Vegetables Perfect
Capturing Every Drop of Goodness
Building Flavor the Old-Fashioned Way
Getting That Rice Golden Brown
Another way to add extra flavor to this dish is to toast your rice. I like to cook my rice for about a minute and a half to get as much flavor into the dish as possible. Do this before you add any liquid. The brown bits on the bottom of the pan are what you are trying to incorporate into your rice and sautéed veggies. That flavor you just can't buy.
This is one of the first techniques that I learned when cooking that can actually really make a difference. I used to hate recipes with lots of small steps, but the more you keep cooking, the more you realize the purpose they serve and their importance to the final dish. There's nothing worse than skipping a step, and the whole thing fails, and your dish is ruined.
Adding That Liquid Gold
Sprinkling in the Good Stuff
The Final Cooking Stage
Mixing in the Black-Eyed Peas
The final stage, after combining and wetting everything, is to simmer for around 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and the black-eyed peas, and put the bacon back into the pot. Give a good stir and let it simmer gently again for around 10 more minutes. This just helps everything meld together, and you will build a smell that dinner is almost ready.
I always tend to cook by feel rather than strict timing. You will get used to visually seeing how a dish looks when it is ready. This is a great cooking style. I could go off stews and cook a lot of stews in this same style, in stages.
Building That Rich Soul Food Fragrance
Making the Bacon Extra Crispy
Creating Your Perfect Hoppin’ John
Final Flavor Touches
Recap of the final assembly. Remember to take the bay leaf and put the peas and your bacon back in, with a gentle simmer for around 10 minutes to finish cooking your rice. Try to use a flat edge wooden spoon, this will help you scrape everything from the pot, the bottom of the pan. This recipe should serve around 6-8 people.
A wood spoon is perfect for getting all the flavor from the bottom of the pan. Everybody needs a good wooden spoon in the kitchen. When I am cooking, I usually cook for around four people, so dishes like these are ideal for scaling up to feed a crowd. The most important thing is to make use of the bacon fat and the fond on the pan.
Feeding the Family and Presentation Ideas
Tomorrow’s Treasure
Spreading Joy and Making Memories
Bringing Together Loved Ones
This hopping John is a great budget-friendly dish that you can easily feed a crowd with and is great for getting families into the kitchen. Every family will have their own version and memories associated with the recipe.
Everyone loves the smell of bacon, and it's amazing how it brings everyone together in the kitchen. I make a pasta bake using ground beef, topped with crunchy panko, which is budget-friendly and brings my family together. There's nothing quite like some good home cooking.
