Brazilian Feijoada (Slow Cooker)

One of the things that Scott remembers and loves from his mission to Paraguay was meaty beans, otherwise known as Feijoada. He found this recipe from Taste of Home and has been tweaking it over the years to make it perfect. I am not sure how it's never made it on the recipe blog before now, but here it is!

For the original recipe (which really isn't much like our recipe now), go here: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/my-brazilian-feijoada/?srsltid=AfmBOoroKYPhyHjl0UJQjZXi9ojNtrUtxghPJZY-YQR5ACL4DNgVdbE1

Brazilian Feijoada

Ingredients:

• 1.5 – 2 lbs pork chunks (chili verde meats)
• 6 strips precooked bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, diced (about 1.5 cups)
• 2 Tbs minced garlic
• 1 can chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• ½ c. water (additional water may be needed)
• 3 cans black beans, drained
• 14 oz. Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage rope (precooked), cut into ¼-inch slices
• Hot cooked rice

Directions:

1. Heat a small amount of oil in a large pan. Sear and cook pork chunks, bacon, and onion in the oil. When everything is nearly cooked, add the garlic as well. Dump the contents of the pan into a 6-qt slow cooker. Use a small amount of chicken broth to pick up the residue left in the pan; dump this into the slow cooker as well. Add bay leaves, salt, pepper, remaining chicken broth, and water. 
2. Cook on high, covered, for 2 hours. 
3. Stir in beans and sausage. Reduce heat to low and cook an additional 5-6 hours. Remove bay leaves. Serve over rice.

Marsha's Notes:

I made this recipe using our largest slow cooker, which has a small hole in the lid to insert a temperature probe. I don't know if it was because of this or something else, but by the end of the cooking time almost all of the water had either evaporated or been absorbed by the meat and beans. We serve this over rice, so if you want your feijoada to be more of a stew with some liquid to then absorb into your rice, you will need to add more liquid to your pot, as needed. Next time I make this, I am going to use 1 cup of water instead of just a 1/2 cup, and maybe an hour or two before dinner I will check the pot and see if I need to add any more liquid.