Feijoada is a Brazilian black bean stew made with pork, smoked sausage, and often salted beef, slow-cooked until thick and velvety, then served with rice, farofa, orange slices, and sautéed greens. It’s widely recognized as Brazil’s national dish, and once you understand a few key techniques, this feijoada recipe becomes completely manageable at home — no restaurant trip required.
At its heart, feijoada is a one-pot meal that transforms humble ingredients into something deeply layered. The traditional base is black beans, cooked with pork shoulder, bacon, ham hocks, and linguiça (a garlicky smoked sausage). Many versions also include carne seca, salted dried beef that adds real savory depth.
Historically, feijoada used nearly every part of the pig — ears, tail, snout, feet — alongside carne seca and black beans. These cuts contributed the natural collagen that gave the stew its classic thick, glossy body. Most home cooks today lean on more accessible cuts like pork shoulder, ribs, and ham hocks instead, which is a completely legitimate approach — you just have to build that same richness a different way (see the thickening techniques below).
Black beans are the standard in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, but in Goiás and Bahia, brown or red beans are often preferred instead. There’s no single “correct” bean — it comes down to regional tradition, and either works well with this same technique.
8
cups20
minutes2 hours 30
minutes1 lb (450g) dried black beans, soaked overnight
½ lb carne seca (salted dried beef), or substitute corned beef or boneless short ribs
½ lb bacon, cut into lardons
1 lb linguiça or other smoked sausage, sliced
1 lb pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
1–2 smoked ham hocks
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5–6 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Brown the meats separately. In a skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until the fat renders and it's browned but not fully crisp. Remove and set aside. In the same fat, brown the sliced sausage, then the pork shoulder, removing each to a plate as it finishes. Browning separately (rather than all at once) keeps each piece properly seared instead of steaming in a crowded pan.
Build the aromatic base. Add the olive oil to the same pan and sauté the onion and garlic until golden, about 5–8 minutes, scraping up the browned bits left behind from the meat.
Combine everything. In your large pot, combine the soaked beans, desalted carne seca, ham hocks, bay leaves, and the browned onion-garlic mixture. Cover with water by about 2 inches.
Simmer gently. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce to a gentle simmer — small, lazy bubbles, not a rolling boil. Boiling too hard splits the beans and leaves the stew thin and watery instead of thick and velvety. Partially cover and simmer for 2–3 hours, checking the water level occasionally and topping up as needed.
Add the sausage and pork back in. Return the browned sausage and pork shoulder to the pot during the last 45 minutes of cooking, so they don't overcook and fall apart too early.
Season at the end. Taste and season with salt and pepper once everything is tender — the smoked and cured meats release plenty of salt on their own, so it's easy to overdo it if you season too early.
Build richness without the traditional collagen cuts. If you skipped the pig's ears, tail, or feet, use one of these instead: mash 1–2 ladles of the cooked beans and stir them back in, pulse briefly with an immersion blender, or stir in 1 teaspoon of bloomed unflavored gelatin during the final 20 minutes. Any of these gives you that classic thick, restaurant-style body without changing the flavor.
Finish and serve. Remove the bay leaves, shred the meat off the ham hocks, and stir it back into the pot. Serve hot with white rice, farofa, orange slices, and sautéed collard greens for the full feijoada completa spread.
Feijoada completa is the full traditional spread built around the stew: white rice, farofa (toasted cassava flour), sautéed collard greens, and orange slices, which help cut through the richness of the meat. It’s traditionally served on Saturdays as a long, leisurely family meal — not a quick weeknight dinner.
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days — feijoada genuinely tastes better the next day, once the flavors have had more time to develop. Freeze for up to 3 months; thaw in the fridge and reheat gently on the stovetop, adding a splash of water if it’s thickened up too much.
Historically, pig’s ears, tail, feet, and snout, along with carne seca and black beans. Most modern home versions use more accessible cuts like pork shoulder, ribs, bacon, and linguiça sausage instead.
No — corned beef or boneless short ribs are common substitutes if carne seca isn’t available locally, and they don’t require the desalting process carne seca needs.
Traditional feijoada gets its thick, glossy texture from collagen-rich cuts like pig’s feet. Without them, mash some of the cooked beans, blend briefly with an immersion blender, or stir in a small amount of bloomed gelatin near the end.
Yes — it can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat gently, adding water as needed to loosen the consistency back up.
Yes. Resting overnight allows flavors from ham hocks, linguiça, and beans to deepen and integrate.
White rice, farofa, sautéed collard greens, and orange slices make up the classic feijoada completa spread.
A great feijoada recipe comes down to patience and a few key techniques: properly desalt your carne seca if using it, keep the simmer gentle rather than boiling, season at the end, and build richness through mashing or gelatin if you’re skipping the traditional collagen cuts. Get those right, and you have a stew that holds its own next to any restaurant version, made entirely in your own kitchen.
