People Are Comparing This Aldi Rice To Popeyes
Fast food fried chicken company Popeyes brands itself as serving real deal, New Orleans-style Southern food straight from Louisiana. Given this claim, many Southerners were curious to see how the chain's version of the New Orleans classic dish red beans and rice compared to the homemade versions they grew up eating. It turns out, Popeyes actually did a pretty good job with the menu item, earning it the respect of many customers looking for a quick and easy taste of home. Thrillist even ranked the red beans and rice the fourth-best menu item out of the whole Popeyes menu, beating out other Southern classics like jambalaya and their seafood po-boy.
Recently, Reddit user 515chiefspride posted to the message board r/Aldi stating that their local Popeyes closed down and they had been seriously craving the chain's red beans and rice for a while. On a whim, they picked up a box of the Earthly Grains New Orleans style red beans and rice mix from Aldi to see if it could fill the void left by the fried chicken restaurant's departure.
Earthly Grains makes a few different box mixes of Southern classics
In their Reddit post on the Earthly Grains New Orleans style red beans and rice mix, user 515cheifspride stated that they found the box mix to be surprisingly similar-tasting to Popeyes version of the dish. Initially, they said that they weren't expecting much out of the boxed red beans and rice from Aldi, but the product really delivered on flavor — and was incredibly cheap! Another commenter agreed with the post, saying that they found these to be the second-best pre-made version of red beans and rice on the market — just after the one from Popeyes themselves.
Reddit users also offered suggestions on how to improve the box mix, advising you to add extra beans and a meat, like sausage or beef. The original poster said that they are definitely going to pick up another box and not only add sausage to the mix, but also celery and bell pepper. User endlessburritos stated that the Earthly Grains brand jambalaya is pretty good as well if you are searching for boxed mixes of even more Southern classics at a budget-friendly price.