Happy New Years to you all. MrsForensicBBQ and I were blessed this year to have your support and kind words as we share our dishes with you all. As we wrap up this 2022, I was hoping to find a good way to cap things off. Those in the South know how it’s done, and lets try to do them right. Here comes the Hoppin’ John.
Sure, I made it in October, but I’m sharing it with you now. We’re breaking out an old friend in the RecTeq Matador for this one. It’s sat for awhile, so we gave it a nice clean scrub and got ready to go. If you’re ready to go, click that recipe link below and it’ll take you right there. Want to come along for the ride? Let’s go!
The Prep Table
We’re combining a lot of my favorite things with this one. We got sausage, bacon, peppers, onion, cajun seasoning, hot sauce.. and of course black-eyed peas. Of course I’m going to smoke the bacon.. I did this a day before and just re-heated it. 2 hours at 225 for the bacon – everytime.
Perfect bacon – everytime. Eat a slice or two for quality control and save the rest to cook it up. If you’re going traditional and throwing it all in a high skillet the day of – Cook up the bacon, and use some of that bacon grease flavoring to cook that sausage. Once the meats are cooked, we’re ready to combine.
That sausage link was my last of the wild boar, deer, bear and who knows what else. If you remember, I made it for the Game Sausage Italiano Sandwich – and it was mighty good. Chop up that garlic, peppers (green/jalapeno), onion, and celery and get ready to mix her all up.
The Process
I fired up the Matador and threw the chopped bacon in there and warmed her up. Pushed it off to the side and added the sliced sausage in there to get it cooked. If you’re as blessed as I was to have that wild game sausage, snag a piece or two and enjoy what those animals gave us. Was so damn good.
My matador has the setting of HOT and that’s all it really does. I’ve heard they changed the regulator out on later models, but this old beast only has one no matter which way you turn that dial. I think they give you a lid now too! Anyway, the oil had a little too much grime on there, so I scooped out a lot of it and went fresh for the veg. Put a saute on there and get ’em soft.
Toss in the broth, cajunseasoning, black eyed peas, thyme, a bay leaf and get them flavors mixed in. When I got the Matador, I ordered up this chuan & hoak set and it works perfect for it. Like I said, my Matador runs hot, so I’d give it a swirl, let it cook, swirl some more until it’s reduced down.
That there is your Hoppin’ John, ready to go! Didn’t go with the collard greens, but we’re throwing it on a bed of rice and topping with some hot sauce.
The Result
Man, you want to start the year off right.. this is how it’s done. You Southerners kept it from us up here for far too long. We’re taking it – giving you the credit – but it’s fantastic.
You all saw the praise I gave The Spicy Gnome a couple posts ago – 4N6BBQ Presents The Spicy Gnome – and I’m not all talk. Those sauces were killer and knew exactly the flavor I wanted for this one.
Again, Happy New Years to our Forensic Family from us over here and we’ll see you in 2023!
The Recipe
The Hoppin’ John
Ingredients
- 1/2 Lb Bacon Thick-cut, chopped
- 2 Sausage Links Thin, Long Slice
- 1 Sweet Onion Chopped
- 2 Stalks Celery Chopped
- 1 Green Bell Pepper Chopped
- 4 Jalapenos Seeded/Chopped
- 5 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 Can Black-eyed peas Glory seasoned
- 32 oz Chicken Stock
- 1 Tbsp Thyme
- 1 Tbsp Cajun Seasoning
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 2 Cups Jasmati rice What I had on hand
Instructions
Optional: Smoked Bacon
- I cooked the bacon a day before, 2 hour smoked and put her in the fridge for the next day. Then just did a re-heat when I added the sausage. If you're going all at once, cook the bacon for about 3-5 minutes and then add your sausage and continue.
Rice
- Cook the rice before getting the rest of this rolling. I did 2 cups of dry Jasmati and set aside while I whipped up the rest of this.
Hoppin John
- Use a large sauté pan over medium heat or the RecTeq Matador like I did. I put a drizzle of oil in the Matador and browned the sausage before adding the rest. Since I already pre-smoked the bacon, I added the chopped pig when I was heating up the sausage and when warmed up, put it along the side while the sausage cooked.
- Push the bacon and sausage to the sides of the Matador. I scooped out the hot oil and did a very slight drizzle when I added in the onions, celery, bell pepper, jalapenos, and garlic. Sauté to soften the vegetables, maybe another 3-5 minutes or so.
- Pour in the black eyed peas, chicken stock, thyme, Cajun seasoning, and bay leaf. My matador runs hot, so throughout the reduction, I let it go.. killed the flame and restarted it.. I did it twice throughout about 15-20 minutes.
- Reduce until there's a little bit of sauce left, but not soupy nor dry.
- Serve warm over rice and hit it with a lil hot sauce if you're like me. (The Spicy Gnome's "Fine Hot Sauce" worked great!)
Yep…going to try this!