Southern Butter Beans cooked in the slow cooker. Serve with fried chicken, fried okra, and cornbread for a very traditional southern dinner.
Fresh, green butter beans. What a southern summertime delight! Served alongside fried chicken with cornbread and sliced tomatoes on the side, butter beans are a perennial favorite at many a southern table.
I've read many opinions about butter beans and Lima beans and whether they are the same thing. It appears that they are.
However, they certainly don't taste anything alike to me. Lima beans, in my opinion, have a horrible mealy quality that I dislike. Butter beans, on the other hand, have a luscious creamy texture. Limas are pale grey to white when cooked and butter beans keep their pretty green color.
We always had a garden when I was a child, and we always grew butter beans. We shelled and cooked them fresh during the summer and froze the excess to enjoy the rest of the year. I still "put up" some butter beans almost every summer, so I have them on hand whenever we want them.
These were frozen last summer and are still just as delicious as they were when fresh.
Old-time southern cooking has a bad reputation when it comes to preparing fresh vegetables. We tend to cook our vegetables for a longer time and season them more highly than other regions of the country. I like them both ways.
I like the bright taste of quickly cooked vegetables, but I also enjoy the homestyle taste of longer cooked, well-seasoned vegetables. In my opinion, butter beans are one vegetable that really benefits from the hours-long cooking time.
Because of the long cooking time needed for butter beans, I cook mine in a slow cooker. They can happily simmer away for the afternoon with little to no attention from me.
In traditional southern cooking, butter beans are seasoned with a bit of fatback or a smoked ham hock. To cut back on the fat, I use chicken bouillon and a butter substitute for my seasonings.
For a truly delicious, real southern dinner, serve these Southern Butter Beans along with fried chicken, fried okra, sliced fresh tomatoes, and cornbread. That is one yummy meal!
How to Cook Southern Butter Beans
Place butter beans, butter substitute, chicken bouillon, and water to cover in a small slow cooker. Cook on high for 1½ hours.
Turn cooker to low and cook for another 2-3 hours or until butter beans are tender.
Add a small amount of additional water during cooking only if needed.
These cooked all afternoon and are still pretty and green and firm. If you can get your hands on some fresh, green southern butter beans (not Limas!), give this method of cooking a try. It also works very well for field peas.
Enjoy!
This post was originally published in 2009.
Update: Since this post was published, several people have emailed me with comments about the differences between Lima beans and butter beans.
They all insist that the big, white mealy beans are known as butter beans and the small green tender beans are called Lima beans. Well, where I come from in the south, it's the exact opposite.
The big, white beans are called Lima beans and the little green ones as I have shown in the blog post are called butter beans. That’s what I've heard them called all my life. Everyone that I know calls them the same thing.
Yes, I’m aware that they are related. No, I'm really not ignorant nor stupid. Yes, butter beans and Lima beans are, horticulturally, the same.
Perhaps the post wasn’t written clearly, but the point I was trying to make is how different they seem. Not that they are actually two different unrelated things. Can we let this rest, please?
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Southern Butter Beans
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh or frozen green butter beans (or substitute baby lima beans - also called "petite" lima beans)
- 2 tablespoons butter substitute such as Butter Buds
- 1 ½ tablespoons chicken bouillon (or 1 cube of Knorr chicken bouillon)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- Water to cover butter beans by one-inch
Instructions
- Place butter beans, butter substitute, chicken bouillon and enough water to cover the butter beans by one inch in a small slow cooker.
- Cook on high for 1 ½ hours.
- Turn cooker to low and cook for another 2-3 hours or until butter beans are tender.
- Add a small amount of additional water during cooking only if needed.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your health care provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
Dixie Burch says
Lana, GOYA has a product called Ham [Jambon] Seasoning that has saved me 1000’s of calories with no loss of flavor……..I use it in Blackeyed Peas, green beans & new potatoes, and ALL kinds of my cooked greens………..as well as Butter Beans. Usually in Hispanic area in grocery store but I order from Amazon because I use so much of it.
Lana Stuart says
Oh yes, I use that seasoning too. It's very good!
Cris says
Big ones are Limas. Of course you knew that. :-)
Lana Stuart says
I did :-)
Carolyn Alford says
Do the butter beans break down cooking them this long? I like butter beans that are not mushy. Anxious to try this recipe.
Lana Stuart says
The fresh/frozen, green butter beans like I use in the post do not get mushy. That's exactly why I don't use the dried, white type of butter beans.
Jessie says
How many pounds of beans is this recipe for?
Lana Stuart says
As stated in the recipe, this is for one quart of fresh or frozen green butter beans.
CGC says
Whoever says the big white beans are called butter beans and the small greens ones are called Lima’s are completely incorrect. It’s a southern recipe, stick with what we call it!!!! BUTTERBEANS!!!!
Also love the recipe. This was my first time doing it in a crock pot, my gramma always cooked her butter beans on the stove with tons of chicken buillon, but to try to make it a bit healthier for the kids (.... okay fine for myself, i probably shouldn’t be consuming so much sodium) I used chicken broth instead. So they are in the crock pot right now and we will see how this goes!!!!
MJ Pratt says
Anyone who is arguing with you about a butter beans vs a Lima are obviously not blessed to be Southern and have no idea what they are talking about. I don't care what anyone says, the butter beans my Papa grew in his garden are nothing like Lima beans. My Memaw would boil them and drain the water and salt and pepper them and add butter to melt. That's how we ate them and now that I am an adult who no longer lives in the South (I'm hurrying back just as soon as I can) I can tell you that I miss butter beans, hot water cornbread and sweet tea -- these folks here have no idea what they're missing.
#teambutterbean
Chris says
I grew up North of the Mason-Dixon line and now live South of it. You are correct - the smaller ones are butter beans, the larger are limas. Either way, they're delish!
Ashley says
Butter beans and lima beans are the same thing butter beans u use the large lima beans instead of the navy beans (small lima) and this recipe is interesting bc this is no where near how we cook butter beans in the south
Lana Stuart says
Yes, they are the same thing. One is a more mature version of the other. I have lived in the deep south my entire life (63 years worth) and have always known the green, young version to be butter beans and the large, white, mature ones as lima beans. And this method, with a few adaptations, is how everyone I grew up with cooks butter beans. I never knew anyone who cooked the large white lima beans so I can't comment on them.
Marshall says
Lana,
Honey you just ignore those haters out there making rude comments to you about whether or not butter beans and lima beans are the same!
I grew up in the south as well and I am in a hundred percent agreement with you. They ARE VERY different! These are southern butter beans!!!
Delicious recipe! I made some today. Yummmmy! Thanks so much for sharing!
Lana Stuart says
:-)
Sherry says
I am a Southern gal myself and have always considered "butterbeans" to be the big whitish beans and the smaller green ones as Limas. You can buy frozen Limas here at the grocery store and add a bag of frozen Limas with a bag of frozen corn and voila you have succatash. My grandmother raised me and she would cook and serve a big pot of Butter beans (the big whitish bean. We never heard the term Lima back then (in my family that is).