Hoppin John Recipe {Carolina Peas and Rice} Gonna Want Seconds (2024)

Add southern pizzazz to your rice with my Hoppin John recipe! The holy trinity of onion, celery, peppers, black-eyed peas, and bacon all come together in a delicious southern way to serve rice! Hearty and smoky, full of veggies and spices layered with buttery Carolina Gold rice, this recipe is great served hot or cold, and as a main course or a side dish.

This Southern classic is as popular as KFC coleslaw recipe, sweet potato casserole, and Southern chicken and dumplingsfor its iconic flavors.

Let’s get cooking!

What I Love About This Recipe

• Bring some Southern tradition to your table!
• Black-eyed peas are loaded with good nutrients
• Carolina Gold Rice is the standard in rice flavor!
• Big hearty portions to combat end-of-holiday doldrums

What Is Hoppin John

What, exactly, is Hoppin John? It’s a classic Southern dish made from black eye peas and rice. Traditionally, it’s served on New Years’ day and is thought to bring a year of prosperity.

Here’s a bit of history for you: no one knows where the name originated — one of the more believable stories is that it comes from a mishearing of the French Creole translation of “pigeon peas,”pois a pigeon, pronounced “pwah pee-jon.”

Hoppin John Recipe Notes

• Vegetarian: Transform this Hoppin John recipe to vegetarian in a snap! Just leave out the bacon (or swap for your favorite faux bacon!) and add a bit of cooking oil instead. Also, switch out the chicken broth for vegetarian stock.
• Dutch Oven:Dutch ovens are great for cooking soups, stews, and other brothy recipes because they are durable, high volume, conduct heat well, and keep food heated for extended periods of time. If you don’t have one, though, a large pot will do just fine!
• Carolina Gold: Named after the color of its harvest-ready fields, Carolina Gold is a Southern heirloom and every rice aficionado’s favorite. It’s known for its versatility and flavorful potential. BBC Travel has an interestingarticle on the grain’s complex economic history if you care to learn more!
• If you can’t find it, you can use long-grain white rice.
• Toasting the Rice: Frying rice before boiling has a number of benefits. You reduce the cooking time by heating the rice, diminishing the stickiness of the final product, and adding an extra layer of flavor with the oil and caramelized starches. While it’s not the end of the world if you skip this step, it really adds something to the dish!
• Rice Texture: Achieving the perfect rice texture is a fine art! Many cooks waffle between that underdone crunch and mushy slop.
  • Some common mistakes to avoid when cooking rice are lifting the lid, stirring, skipping the pre-rinse, including too much or too little water, and forgetting to let the pot sit for a few minutes after cooking.

Storing + Freezing + Make-ahead

• How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? This recipe does great in the fridge as leftovers! Seal it up, and let it sit for up to 3-5 days. Toss any leftovers after that point — the rice will have lost its integrity, and you risk bacteria growth.
• Can You Freeze This? Yes indeed! Portion the leftovers from your Hoppin John recipe into sealable containers and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months.
  • To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then warm slowly on the stovetop, adding water as necessary and seasoning to taste.
• Make-Ahead Tips: You can whip together this recipe months in advance if you plan to freeze the recipe and a couple of days in advance if you want to keep it in the refrigerator. Some say it tastes even better after a day of sitting!
• Food Safety:If you’d like more info of food safety check out this link forcooked rice and this link for black eyed peas.

Serving Recommendations

This Hoppin John recipe is a great side dish along with a delicious, hearty roast like Mississippi pot roast or ham– but it makes a great main meal too! Serve it with some Southern classics like Creole sauce or my fluffy, Southern cornbread, or spicy jalapeno cornbread.

Recipe Variations

1. Use sausage or ham instead. Swap that bacon for sausage or ham to make this even more of a main meal!
2. Add okra. Go full Southern with this classic veggie staple.
3. Use ground beef. Ground beef is a great meat substitute for bacon — or use both!
4. Add greens. Pack on the veggies with more South charm like collard green and kale!
5. Add shrimp. Give a nod to gumbo with shrimp! It goes great with the bacon too.

Step By Step How To Make Hoppin John

1. Cook the bacon
2. Saute the vegetables with the bacon until tender.
3. Add broth and black-eyed peas. Boil and simmer.
4. Drain the mixture. Reserve all the cooking liquid.
5. Toss the rice in oil.
6. Stir in 3 cups of the reserved cooking liquid and salt. Simmer until the rice is tender.
7. Add the rice to the black-eyed pea mixture. Add the remaining cooking liquid.
8. Serve.

***See full instructions below.

More Delicious Southern Favorites

• Shrimp Dip
• Texas Chili
• Jambalaya
• Chicken Lazone
• Smothered Chicken
• Black Eyed Pea Soup
• Arkansas Green Beans
• Southern Collard Greens Recipe

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