Smoked Sausage and Black-Eyed Peas
By Kath Dedon
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Update January 1, 2018: This recipe takes about 2 hours, start to finish. You can shave off some time and have excellent results if you make it in an Instant Pot. I made it in my 6-quart Instant Pot yesterday. It took about 1 1/2 hours and was really delicious! Click here for the Instant Pot version.
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Carrie told me about Emeril Lagasse’s Smoked Sausage and Black-Eyed Peas recipe a couple of years ago. I finally made it. I must say, I think it’s the best recipe for black-eyed peas that I have ever tasted! The seasoning is perfect. As a bonus, it is very easy to make.
I used a 12-ounce Hempler’s Kielbasa sausage which was great! If you’re making the Smoked Sausage and Black-Eyed Peas for New Year’s, it’s best to use a pork sausage. Pork is said to bring good luck because pigs root moving forward. Thus, if you eat pork, you will move forward in the New Year. Chickens scratch backwards so chicken is not recommended for your New Year’s meal. This is not the time for chicken sausage! 😉
We ate collard greens on the side to cover all the bases. Emeril suggests corn muffins, which also would have been a good accompaniment.
Happy New Year to all!
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Smoked Sausage and Black-Eyed Peas
(Adapted from Emeril Lagasse’s recipe)
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Serves 4 – 6
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12 – 16 ounces smoked sausage
1 cup chopped yellow onion
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne
4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
3 teaspoons finely chopped Italian parsley
8 cups chicken stock
1 pound dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Minced green onions, to garnish (optional)
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1. Slice the sausage and cook it in a large pot over medium heat to render some of the fat. (Mine didn’t yield much.)
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2. Add the onions, salt, cayenne, whole garlic cloves, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until the onion begins to soften.
3. Add the chicken stock, black-eyed peas, and minced garlic.
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4. Bring to a boil, and simmer, covered for about 1 ½ hours, until the peas are tender. Serve garnished with green onions, if desired.
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In the kitchen with Kath 
I’m making this tonight!
It’s SO good! Thanks for recommending it! 🙂
my favourites beans!!! o yes!!!! Happy 2013 and happy cooking!
Thanks, Cle, and happy 2013 to you!
Love it! My sweet mom makes black eyed peas each New Years. These look so delicious. Thank you for sharing. 2013 is off to a delicious start. I hope you have a relaxing and joyful weekend, my friend!
We have to have black-eyed peas for New Year’s, Monet! Happy New Year; I know it will be extra special for you and your family. 😉
Looks Yummy. Can I do this recipe in the crock pot??
I think it would work well in a slow cooker. In fact, I recently looked up black-eyed peas in my Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook and they had a similar black-eyed peas recipe.
I would follow the first two steps of the recipe (cooking the kielbasa and then the onion, salt, cayenne, whole garlic cloves, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley). Then put everything in your slow cooker and cook on low for
9 – 118 – 9 hours.Thank you so much Kath. I will give it a try.
A lot of the newer slow cookers cook hotter than the one that America’s Test Kitchen used for their Slow Cooker Revolution recipes. If your cooker cooks hot, it may take less time. I’d love to hear how it works for you! 🙂
Hi Kath,
The Black Eyed Peas in the crockpot turned out wonderful. I will definitely try it again.
Thank you for the recipe and the good advice.
Happy new Year.
Thank you for the tip! I was thinking as I was looking at the recipe if I could do it in a slower cooker 🤗
@Cindy
Thanks for letting me know! I actually liked your idea and tried it in my slow cooker, too, on the 1st. It did turn out great! My cooker does cook hot, so it was definitely ready after 8 or 9 hours.
this recipe doesn’t call for the peas to be soaked over night……i’ve never made these before — is that implied? or do you not have to do it for this recipe??
Kim, the black-eyed peas do not need to be soaked over night. 🙂
thanks so much for your reply! i’m gonna give this a shot 🙂
Has anyone ever tried adding collard greens into this recipe?????
I haven’t, Lisa, but I’m sure it would work well.
If I was to use collard greens how would I incorporate them to the recipe? Any ideas would be helpful as I have never cooked collard greens or with them.
I would remove the tough stems and ribs from the collard greens and then coarsely chop the leaves. I’d stir them into the pot during the last 15 – 20 minutes.
hello, i only have stew meat (the ones that are sold in cubes) – could I use that instead of the sausage?
Hi Lilian,
The result would be quite different, but I think it could be delicious! I would toss the meat in some seasoned flour (maybe some Cajun spices stirred into flour) and then brown the meat in a tablespoon or so of oil. Do the beef in batches, if you have to, so the meat won’t be too crowded in the pan. Remove the beef from the pan. Add a bit more oil to the pan and proceed with Step #2 – cooking the onions and seasonings. Add the beef back in in step #3 when you add the chicken stock, black-eyed peas, and minced garlic.
I’d love to hear how it works if you try it! 🙂
This looks good, will try it next week. I am not superstitious good food is for always.
So true, Dennis! It’s good at any time. Thanks for your comment!
This looks good, I will try this next week. I am not superstitious good food is to be eaten any time.
What if I used frozen peas? What would the liquid and time difference be?
I’m not really sure, Amber. I would use the directions on the bag of frozen black eyed peas as a guide. I’m guessing you would want to reduce the amount of chicken broth, perhaps to 6 cups. And cooking time would probably be about an hour. I’d love to hear how it works for you, if you try it. 🙂
I did 2 bags of frozen peas (12 oz) 1 can chicken broth and about 3 cups of water.
I cooked some bacon and cooked my sausage in that with the rest of ingredients in some bacon. And cooked about an hr or so. I like mine with a lot of broth so I will probably do 2 cans next time. Either way it was delicious!
I don’t eat pork. Would turkey sausage work with this?
Yes, turkey sausage should work just fine.
Sounds like a great dish makes me hungry let’s eat
Thanks, Allen! It is a favorite around here. 🙂
I love this recipe! I do soak my dried beans overnight and after sautéing the sausage, veggies, and seasoning, I throw it all in the slow cooker. About half an hour before I serve it, I dump in a package of fresh spinach. It’s delicious and even better on the second day. This is not just a New Year’s Day recipe.
Oh, I like the idea of adding spinach, Heather! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
This is really good I made it in the beginning of this month and I’m ending the month with this recipe as well. I had mine with white rice and corn bread and it was perfect! I can’t wait to have a bowl tonight!
I’m so glad to hear that you’re a fan of this one, Shaquana! We love it. White rice and corn bread sound like great accompaniments. 🙂 Thanks so much for your comment.
This is akin to the hopping John receipe I use but I do believe I will try this for my family.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do, Ida! 🙂
Hi, I was just checking to see if this recipe is spicy with the addition of the red pepper? I will have young children eating it so I just needed to double check. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Amanda, I don’t think this recipe is especially spicy. I used a Kielbasa sausage that is not very spicy. There are varieties of smoked sausage that would add heat. Andouille sausage is often very spicy. The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. You could eliminate it without affecting the flavor too much. Then you could serve it would Tabasco for the adults who might want to add a bit of heat to their own bowls.
Made this dish yesterday and it was a hit with my husband!! A few changes out of expediency, i used dried thyme and parsley. I also used andouille but added 1+ tablespoon of bacon fat for sauteing. I also, after tasting, had to add an additional 1 tsp of salt in the end for flavor. Thank you for sharing Emeril’s recipe. It’s a keeper!!
I’m so glad to hear that you and your husband enjoyed it, Lori! Your substitutions sound great. 😊 Thanks for your comment. It reminds me that I need to pick up some dried black-eyed peas for New Year’s. They can be hard to find if you wait too late!
Have you done this in a crock pot or instant pot? If so; any changes?
I have cooked in in a slow cooker, but I haven’t tried it in my Instant Pot.
In the slow cooker follow the first two steps of the recipe (cooking the kielbasa and then the onion, salt, cayenne, whole garlic cloves, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley). Then put everything in your slow cooker and cook on low for 8 – 9 hours.
Absolutely the best black eyed peas that I have ever made
Thanks so much for your comment, Adriene! Happy New Year! 🙂
Amazing! We doubled the sausage and ate with cornbread. Happy New Year!
Doubling the sausage and serving with cornbread sound like great ideas!
Great recipe but I added collard greens I had cooked a few weeks ago frozen.
That sounds great, Andrea! I might try that sometime. Thanks for your comment, and Happy New Year!
Any thoughts on adding shrimp?
What an interesting idea! Yes, you could add shrimp, but don’t put them in until about 5 – 10 minutes before you’re going to eat. They cook quickly.
Instead of plain salt I used creole seasoning and I used dried parsley instead of fresh.
I bet it was great, Natasha! Thanks for your comment. 🙂
Excellent taste. I did make one alteration. Rather than doing the initial boil/soak in water I used beef sock so that the liquid being absorbed into the peas was full of flavor. The peas then had that intensity of flavor within them. I then did the final 1.5 hours simmer in beef stock as well. Again, it just adds a ton more flavor than plain water. The rest was done as written. It is a winner!
Thanks for your comment, Jason. The beef broth sounds like a great idea. 🙂
I made these last year & everyone loved them so I’m making them again this year & I’m excited to use the blacked eyed peas I grew in my garden this fall! We add a little dash of hot sauce along with the green onions as our garnish.
Mine do not seem to be as thick as it looks in the pic, any ideas what I did wrong?
I’m not sure, Jen. Did you use dried black-eyed peas? Frozen peas would not absorb as much of the stock.
That’s so great that you grew your own black-eyed peas, Debbie! I bet they were fabulous.
My daughter shared this recipe with me today and I am so excited to try this Wednesday for New Year!! It sounds so delicious!
Hope you like it as much as we do, Suzanne. I’ve made it every New Year’s since 2013. It wouldn’t be New Year’s at Chez Dedon without it! 😉
So do I just put the whole clove in there? Do I cut it up? Sorry I’m new at this lol
Yes, just add the 4 whole peeled garlic cloves in step 2. They just kind of dissolve as it cooks. Then add the additional tablespoon of minced garlic in step 3. I am just trusting Emeril Lagasse on this and following his instructions. The finished product is delicious, so it works! 🙂
I started this recipe today but didn’t have smoked sausage so I substituted a pound of diced bacon. Oh my goodness but this is good! Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea, Karla! Thanks for sharing it.
I made this last year for New Years, along with Southern Style Collard Greens. By far the BEST black-eyed pea recipe EVER!
I’m so glad to hear that you liked it, Cynthia. Thanks so much for your comment!
Brilliant! Thanks for the recipe. I really love black-eyed peas. I will definitely try to make this dish.
Can you use canned peas? Would it thicken up?
I have never tried using canned peas, Linda, but I think they would work. You’d probably only need to simmer it for about 30 minutes. The canned peas may not thicken it as much as dried peas, but you’d probably still have a tasty soup. Let me know if you try it.
I would love you to provide a print option.
Thank you
Sounds yummy. In Michigan we would use navy beans and call it bean soup.