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Recipe for Good Luck Hoppin' John | Almanac.com

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Good Luck Hoppin' John

Photo Credit
Sam Jones/Quinn Brein
Yield
Makes 8 servings.
Category
Vegetables
Course
Side Dishes
Sources
Weekly Wisdom

Good Luck Hoppin' John
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Hoppin’ John is a traditional New Year’s Day dish. It is said that eating this black-eyed peas dish on January 1 will bring luck all year long!

Traditionally, Hoppin’ John is a one-pot recipe. The Southern-style classic uses thick-cut bacon as opposed to a ham hock (which can overpower the dish).

We’ve kept the recipe simple, but you can certainly add other ingredients, including: finely sliced celery, chopped green pepper, sliced scallions, and chopped garlic. For more flavor, use chicken broth instead of water.

No matter what your variation, these three ingredients make a Hoppin’ John: the pork, the black-eyed peas, and the rice.

Wondering why it is called Hoppin’ John? Learn more at our Hoppin’ John page!

Ingredients
4 thick-cut bacon slices, chopped
1/2 cup yellow onions, chopped
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas or 2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen black-eyed peas
1/2 cup white rice (Carolina Gold rice preferred)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or cayenne pepper)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions

In a Dutch oven, cook bacon. Add onions until bacon is crisp and onions are soft. Add black-eyed peas, rice, 1 cup of water, and red pepper flakes. Cover and simmer over low heat until rice is cooked, about 20 to 25 minutes. Toss with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

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Comments

Angelique (not verified)

1 year 1 month ago

Was quite interested to see the recipe for HOPPIN’ JOHN: A TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN DISH FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY. I'm from Guyana, South America originally, now living in Ontario Canada ..and this is a traditional dish cooked for New years day in Guyana also. The dried Black eyed peas can be used also. But it has to be washed and covered in water.. even overnight and then cooked with some salt.. when the beans start to get tender we add rice with seasonings and coconut milk...(milk squeezed fresh form the meat of the dried coconuts) you can also used the canned coconut milk.

Russell Fraley (not verified)

3 years 1 month ago

Can you prepare this in a crockpot or instapot?

Sure. You can prepare Hoppin’ John in any big pot. In terms of an instant pot, we don’t see why not. You’ll have to Google Instant Pot Hoppin’ John.

Delphine Kirkland (not verified)

4 years 1 month ago

I'm from deep in the low country of South Carolina. Where I'm from we would never, ever use black eyed peas for Hoppin'Johns! We used a small, red pea commonly referred to as Field Peas; very different texture and flavor. More flavor and fiber, less starchy. In fact, my momma never cooked black eyed peas!
On my daddy's farm these peas grew wild among the other crops. Apparently this was the case for hundreds of years.
This year, having moved to NC from PA, I decided to grow Iron and Clay, an old SC heirloom. It sprawled, climbed the neighboring okra and finally starting blooming and produced a late summer crop.
You can get real field peas dried in southern grocery stores. The frozen ones are fake! They're black eyed peas. When I was in the north I jumped through hoops to get field peas for "real" Hoppin'Johns!
Please try the recipes with some real southern peas! I like to soak them overnight so they taste more like fresh-shelled field peas.

Tracie Rainey (not verified)

1 year 1 month ago

I'm from the Low Country of SC and we've always made them with Black eye peas. 6 generations we've used the same recipes dating back to the civil war. Infact I'm using the same cast iron that my 4xs great grandmother used, that was passed down to the eldest daughter of the eldest son.