Most Southerners have eaten so many butter beans in their lifetime it’s hard to know if they’ a main dish or a side dish. If you haven’t made a meal of just butter beans over fresh cornbread, you haven’t spent much time in the right parts of the South.
Butter beans were in regular rotation at Peggy’s Restaurant. Not necessarily served up daily, but at least weekly.
Ingredients
- ▢ — 1 lb bag of large lima beans
- ▢ — water to cover, plus an inch
- ▢ — 1 cube chicken bouillon
- ▢ — ¼ cup butter (½ stick)
- ▢ — 1 tbsp salt
- ▢ — ¼ tsp black pepper
- ▢ — 4-6 cups water
Instructions
- ▢ — Rinse and sort beans.
- ▢ — Place beans into stockpot with just enough water to cover them, plus about an inch.
- ▢ — Bring to a boil.
- ▢ — Cover and turn off the burner.
- ▢ — Let the beans soak covered for one hour, drain and set aside.
- ▢ — Pour 4-6 cups of fresh water over the beans.
- ▢ — Add chicken bouillon.
- ▢ — Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and let simmer for about 1 hour.
- ▢ — Stir in the butter.
- ▢ — Continue cooking on a low simmer an additional hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until beans are tender and sauce thickens.
- ▢ — Add additional chicken stock or water only if needed.
User Tip
- “Add the salt only after the beans have softened. Adding before can thicken the skin and result in longer cooking time.”
~ Guy Fuller *
Carol A Ogle
February 6, 2021 3:21 pmI haven’t tried the recipe yet, but they all look great!