Newlywed Hares: Fall Recipes: Boiled Peanuts

Everyone loves some hot, boiled peanuts, or at least my husband and I do. It might be a southern thing, but it should be an everybody thing! They are delicious. I decided to try my hand at them one football-filled Saturday. My side of the family and I are Auburn fans, my husband is a Tennessee fan, and my husband's side of the family are Alabama fans. It's a wonder we all get along so well. :) My husband and I have a truce though. When Auburn is playing, we cheer for Auburn. When Tennessee is playing, we cheer for Tennessee. When they play each other, we try to keep the peace. :) And if I make boiled peanuts....then everybody's happy!

We picked up a 5 lb. bag of peanuts last time we were at the grocery store. My husband actually thought they were roasted and was disappointed to when he got home to find that they weren't. No worries though; it just means I get to boil them!

I didn't actually use the whole 5 lb. bag. Probably more like 2 or 3 lbs. at the most. I set 2 pots out on the stove because I wanted to make 1 batch of regular salted and 1 batch of cajun.

First, I made sure to rinse the peanuts really well using a strainer.

Then I filled both pots. I made sure not to fill the pots all the way, because I needed to add enough water to be able to cover the peanuts.

This is how much I put in each pot.

Next, I filled each pot with water, and I set the stovetop to boil.

After the water began boiling, I added salt to each batch. For the regular salted peanuts, I added about 1/2 a cup. I ended up adding a little bit more later, but it probably totaled about 3/4 of a cup.

For the cajun peanuts, I only added 1/4 cup of salt. (Not pictured.)

I also added a 1/4 cup of cajun seasoning to my cajun batch.

This is actually a grill rub from Aldi, but it worked great as a seasoning.

About 1/4 cup of cajun seasoning.

Then, I covered the peanuts (not pictured) and let the boil for about 3 hours. This is the max time you want to boil them if you are using the stovetop. Too much longer, and you will just have mush. I tested the peanuts at 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours, and I found that 3 hours made the peanuts just soft enough. They were still too raw before the 3 hour mark. If you were going to cook the peanuts in a crockpot, it would be best to let them cook at least 5 hours, or better yet, overnight. Since I didn't begin my batch til 11:00 a.m., stovetop it was.

After 3 hours, I turned off the heat. You can tell that the peanuts are done if they sink after the heat is turned off.

Finally, using a strainer, just drain the water out of the pot. Peanuts are ready! Unfortunately, I don't have a proper final result photo since my husband and I had to dig in at this point, so here is one I borrowed!