Slow Cooker Cajun 15 Bean Soup with Sausage, Chicken and Bacon

This flavorful slow cooker Cajun 15 bean soup with sausage, chicken and bacon is a hearty meal that is perfect for winter nights, game day or any time you want a taste of New Orleans. Serve with a scoop of rice and garnish with parsley.

You read that right…. 15 beans, sausage, chicken AND bacon.

BAM!

I pulled out all the stops on this recipe. This soup makes me happy. Very happy. I “might” have been witnessed doing the happy dance a few times while this soup was doing its thing all day in the slow cooker. The smell was AMAZING y’all.

I’d like to thank Hurst Brand for sponsoring this Cajun inspired slow cooker bean soup recipe. All thoughts are my own.

If you’ve seen my recent recipes for Italian bean soup, BBQ cowboy beans, and cowboy chili it’s pretty clear I’ve been craving comfort foods. This new Cajun bean soup recipe really hits the spot. It is similar to one of my favorite Louisiana dishes, jambalaya, a spicy one-pot rice dish featuring chicken, andouille sausage, shrimp, and a whole host of Southern flavors.

I kind of have a thing for Louisiana…. New Orleans in particular. Some of my people are from there. I have quite a few relatives from my mom’s Cajun side of the family who still live in New Orleans, but not as many after Hurricane Katrina. The devastation was too much. I was last there for Thanksgiving, a few years ago. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Tableau, located off Jackson Square. The meal was incredible. All of the wonderful meals I’ve had in New Orleans inspired this Cajun 15 Bean Soup recipe. It has been much too long since I’ve experienced the good food, good people and good music of The Big Easy.

Slow Cooker Cajun 15 Bean Soup with Sausage, Chicken & Bacon

Loaded up with smoked sausage, chicken, bacon and 15 VARIETIES OF BEANS this soup means serious business. But, don’t be intimidated by this. This slow cooker soup comes together very easily thanks to Hurst’s HamBeens Cajun 15 Bean Soup Mix.

The 20 oz. package contains a delicious Cajun seasoning packet and 15 of these bean varieties: northern, pinto, large lima, yelloweye, garbanzo, baby lima, green split, kidney, cranberry, small white, pink, small red, yellow split, lentil, navy, white kidney, black bean.

WHERE CAN YOU BUY HURST’S CAJUN 15 BEAN SOUP MIX?

Hurst’s Cajun 15 Bean Soup Mix is widely available in the dry bean section of the grocery store. Each package contains the bean mix and 1 seasoning packet. I do most of my grocery shopping at Publix, and they do carry this product. However, if your local grocer doesn’t you can always ask them to start carrying it (I’ve had some success with this!) or order online at HurstBeans.com.

How to make Cajun 15 Bean Soup with Sausage, Chicken and Bacon Recipe

You’ll need at least a 6 quart slow cooker to prepare this recipe. It yields a lot of soup.

To make my easy slow cooker Cajun 15 bean soup with sausage, chicken and bacon, start by using Hurst HamBeans Cajun 15 Bean Mix. Remove the seasoning packet, rinse the beans and pick through them to make sure they are clean before adding them to the slow cooker. If you prefer, you can soak your dried beans overnight. They still are just as delicious without soaking them when I cook them in the slow cooker.

To the beans, add in celery, bell pepper, onion, chicken broth and water.

Once you add the broth and water, stir all of the ingredients together so that they are well combined, pop the lid onto your slow cooker and set the timer for 6 hours on high. You may need to adjust the time for your specific slow cooker, but I’ve found that the beans are tender at 6 hours on high in my 6-quart as well as 7-quart slow cookers. You’ll be adding an additional hour of cook time, after adding the remaining ingredients.

After 6 hours is up, add the sausage, chicken, bacon, tomatoes and seasoning mix to the slow cooker. Give it all a good stir to combine the flavors. Cook for an additional hour on high heat.

As the beans are finishing, cook your favorite rice according to the package directions.

Add soup to each serving bowl and top with a scoop of rice and parsley for serving and devour!

I have to say, it is quite hard to resist this big pot cooking away throughout the day. The smell is out of this world!

What kind of sausage do you put in bean soup?

Ideally, you would use andouille sausage in this recipe. However, andouille is a little too spicy for my daughter so I used a smoked beef sausage instead. Any smoked sausage would be tasty.

You can easily change this recipe up by using different proteins. I used smoked beef sausage, leftover chicken breast, and bacon. Any kind of smoked sausage would be good or turkey. You could even toss some shrimp into the soup at the very end to make it more like a jambalaya.

Is Cajun bean soup with sausage spicy?

The Cajun seasoning packet that comes with the beans has a whole lot of wonderful flavor, without being spicy. If you want to add a little heat, opt for using andouille sausage and/or add a few drops of hot sauce toward the end of the cook time.

How to Make Garlic Butter

For additional flavoring, I of course used the Holy Trinity- onion, green pepper, and celery. I also used a mixture of chicken broth and water, and added a can of fire roasted tomatoes at the end.

Do you need to soak the beans overnight?

The Hurst bean mix package says no soaking required. I’ve used a variety of Hurst bean mixes, sometimes I soak and sometimes I don’t. If I think about it the night before, I soak the beans out of habit. Honestly, though I haven’t noticed any difference. Especially when using the slow cooker, the beans are just as tender and delicious without soaking overnight. (If you DO soak the beans, reduce the water in this recipe by one cup.)

Does everything go into the slow cooker at once?

The packaging on the Cajun 15 Bean Mix suggests not adding anything acidic until the end of the cooking time, doing this ensures the beans will tenderize. Therefore, I add the diced tomatoes during the last hour of cook time along with the three meats and seasoning packet.

How many servings does this recipe make?

This recipe will easily serve 8 people. If you serve it with plenty of rice and a salad, I think you could stretch it to 10.

Here’s my Slow Cooker Cajun 15 Bean Soup with Sausage, Chicken and Bacon Recipe. I hope you love it as much as my family does!