Butter beans, or lima beans, are the perfect Southern comfort food. The ingredients are inexpensive, the recipe is simple, and the flavors are delicious!
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 8 hourshours
Servings 8cups
Equipment
1 slow cooker or instapot with slow cook function
Ingredients
1cupdiced carrot
1cupdiced celery
1cupdiced onion
¼cupfinely diced jalapeñoseeds removed
2Tbolive oil
16ozlarge lima beans
1ham hock
2bay leaves
1tspgarlic powder
½tspground black pepper
10-12cupschicken stock
¼cuppepper juice*optional garnish
Instructions
Optional: Saute the diced vegetables for 5-7 minutes over medium heat.
Add diced veggies along with all of the other ingredients (except for pepper juice) to a slow cooker or Instapot with a slow cooker function. If you don't have either, check out the notes for stovetop instructions. Add enough chicken stock to cover all the ingredients by 2 inches.
Set your slow cooker to high and cook the beans for 7-8 hours. Remove the bay leaves before serving. Ladle into a bowl and add 1-2 tsp of pepper juice.
If you don't have a slow cooker, you can prepare the beans on the stove in a large pot or dutch oven. Once you have added the chicken stock, bring the liquid to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover with a lid. I like to leave the lid cracked open just a bit to let some steam escape. The beans will take 5-6 hours on the stove but will need to be stirred every 20 minutes to prevent the bottom from burning. *Pepper juice is the brining liquid from any jarred pepper like banana or pepperoncini.