Is there anything more glorious in this world than a plate of rice and beans? It was always my go-to meal in college during senior year, when I was way lazier and tended to just pop open a can of black beans, dump it in a pot along with some salt, pepper, chicken stock, and one of those neon orange Sazón seasoning packets, and just boil it for 20 minutes while my rice was bubbling away in the rice cooker. The thing is, even the laziest possible version of rice and beans is good.
Which brings me to the subject of feijoada.
What Is Feijoada?
Feijoada is a Brazilian black bean stew with pork and sometimes beef. It is often served with rice, julienned fried greens, and orange slices. It’s also Brazil’s national dish!
If you’ve never heard of this dish before, think of it as a major upgrade from my spartan college meal, but without much more effort involved.
Recipe Variations
There are a ton of different ways to make feijoada. I’ve seen recipes that involve lots of different types of smoked meats, and recipes that use much more, let’s say, adventurous parts of the pig. I’ve even had a family friend from Brazil who made her Feijoada with kielbasa.
As I mentioned, most versions are served with rice or farofa, as well as orange slices (to cut the richness of the dish). You may also see sautéed greens on the side. I totally intended to make some for this post, but I was too distracted by the pot of beans boiling away on the stove that I totally forgot. #derp
This feijoada recipe is a relatively simple one, and I think it has a good balance of smokiness (from the addition of smoked bacon and ham hocks) and meatiness (two words: pork. shoulder). Ideally, if you cook your feijoada low and slow enough, everything––the meat, beans, onions, and garlic––will all meld together perfectly.
ONE caveat before we begin: please, for the love of all that is holy, do not use canned beans in this feijoada recipe. Use dried beans (that have been soaked overnight). I can’t exactly explain it, but dried beans will always result in a better feijoada. As someone who’s made the mistake before and used the canned stuff, just trust me.
Feijoada Recipe Instructions
In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the bacon and cook until the fat has rendered out a bit.
Add the pork shoulder and cook until browned.
Then stir in the onions and garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
Rinse and drain your beans, and add to the pot, along with the ham hocks and bay leaves.
Cover with water and simmer (without a lid) for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, until the stew has thickened and the meat is falling part. Skim any foam off the top of the stew if needed.
Season with black pepper (and salt, if needed) and serve over rice, with orange slices.
Feijoada
Ingredients
- ½ pound smoked bacon (225g, chopped)
- 4 pounds bone-in pork shoulder (1.8 kg, cut into 2-inch chunks)
- 2 onions (chopped)
- 10 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 pound dried black beans (450g, soaked in water overnight)
- 2 smoked ham hocks
- 5 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- cooked rice and orange slices (to serve)
Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the bacon and cook until the fat has rendered out a bit. Add the pork shoulder and cook until browned. Then stir in the onions and garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
- Rinse and drain your beans, and add to the pot, along with the ham hocks and bay leaves. Cover with water and simmer (without a lid) for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, until the stew has thickened and the meat is falling part. Skim any foam off the top of the stew if needed.
- Season with black pepper (and salt, if needed) and serve over rice, with orange slices.
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
Add some sliced kielbasa counting back twenty minutes from target time, and also some baby back ribs (counting back 40 mins) after the ribs are browned a bit (separately, just so they lose their raw color). You can skip and/or replace a lot of the meat ingredients but don’t skip the smoked ham hock, the smoky flavor is crucial. Also, usually in Brazil we don’t use the garlic at the start of the dish (we believe its flavor gets ‘washed out’ if you do.) At the end we do a simple sofrito of oil and minced/pressed garlic in a small frying pan until garlic is golden and add that to the big pot. At that point if you like your stew a bit thicker you can also add a ladleful of beans and liquid to the small skillet with the sofrito, let it commingle a bit and smash the beans a little bit with a fork. Return the whole mixture to the big pot.
For rice the Brazilian way is a pilaf-style rice frying some chopped onions until translucent, add minced garlic, fry for half a minute, add washed and drained rice and fry that a little bit, then add hot water to the pan. Once it goes back to boiling, cover. 15-20 mins without disturbing or mixing the rice until water is all absorbed.
Thanks for sharing these cooking tips, Claudia! Will have to give them a try next time I make feijoada!
You are welcome!! Of all that earful the essential tip is really the after-the-fact garlic sofrito, as the garlic flavor does get muddled after the long bean-cooking time. I love this site, btw.
Hi Claudia, totally agree about the garlic. Over the years I have also learned to appreciate the flavor of raw garlic at the end of the dish, but you do have to love it. ;-)
Maybe you could change the pork shoulder, and put others part of pork like: sirloin, ribs, smoked sausage “calabresa”, tail, ear, skin and foot. I like to cook everything with one whole orange, and after it won´t go to the plate.
Have to pay attention for the time, because ears and foot need more time to cook.
My english is not good, but I’m brazillian who like a lot thewokslife.com . I’m trying to cooperate.
Thank you so much for your cooking tips, Lucas. I bet pig ear, tail and foot are all great additions.
I’m excited to try this recipe! Do you have any tips for making Brazilian rice as far as seasoning goes?
Hey Tim, I like to add a little bit of oil and salt to my rice when I make this dish––it just adds a little extra something to the experience I find. Not sure if that’s how they do it in Brazil, but there’s my two cents. :)
Made this yesterday, a 1.5x batch actually (that makes a LOT of Feijoada!) in a large dutch oven. Aside from increasing the recipe, followed it precisely.
It took the full two hours for the beans to begin to break down enough to thicken the dish to the stew like consistency the recipe called for.
This was amazing. The flavors were bigger than I thought they would be and the entire family loved the dish. We not only ate it for lunch, but again for dinner (with plenty left over still!).
Awesome, Kevin! Leftover idea: I really like making Feijoada into tacos and burritos. All you need is some avocado, tomato/onion, maybe a little hot sauce. Some people might fault me for that, but they’ve never tried a feijoada taco.
A chiffonade of collard green is conspicuous with its absence.
Hahaha i know! I don’t know if you read the entire post, but I did mention that I’d totally intended to do greens and completely forgot. Alas!
Try this topped with a dollop of sour cream and sliced banana! Sounds a little weird but is delicious and, I believe, traditional.
Interesting! I’m not sure if it’s traditional at all, but I would love this with fried sweet or savory plantains.
This sounds glorious. Adding it to the menu queue.
Haha you’ll love it, Sara!
I like to throw beef jerky in my feijoada to approximate the carne seca (like a dried meat that is halfway to jerky) that is supposed to be in there. And could not agree more with the no canned beans disclaimer.
I love that idea! Can you give some more details such as when you add it and what kind/flavor? Thanks!!
This looks so simple! I’ll definitely try it as I love feijoada! A couple of questions:
Do you drain off the bacon grease or use it to brown the pork?
About how many servings? 8-10?
Thanks for the recipe!
Hey Sophia, I didn’t drain off the fat, since I generally…don’t. Haha But you can if you want!
As for the serving amount, I would say that it’s about 10-12 servings!
This recipe looks YUMMY. However I don’t eat pork. Is there something else I can substitute pork for? Thanks.
Hey Tina, you could substitute beef––I would try chuck steak (like what you would use to make a pot roast or beef stew).
What does Feijoada mean and in what language?
How is it pronounced?
It’s Portugese for “bean stew”. I”ll try my best to spell the pronunciation: fay – zhou – ahdtha
Portuguese girl here. Fay-jus-ada (like Adam without the m)
Thanks Sarah. What about the ham hocks? What can I substitute for that?
Tina, I’ve know people to use smoked turkey wings to sub for ham hocks in other recipes.
Great idea, Marcy!