Red beans and rice is one of the few Southern comfort foods built mostly on beans, and its numbers show it. A cup has about 269 calories, 10 g of protein and 7 g of fiber, according to USDA data. The regular side at Popeyes lands close on calories, at 260, but carries 16 g of fat against about 7 g in the USDA cup. Snap your plate with Dietfit and Deep Scan tells the beans from the rice and the sausage, so a bean-heavy bowl and a rice-heavy bowl get their own numbers.
Red beans and rice at a glance
A cup (6 oz, 170 g) of red beans and rice has about 269 calories, 10 g of protein and 7 g of fiber.
At Popeyes, a regular side has 260 calories and 580 mg of sodium; a large has 640 calories and 1,420 mg.
Two cups of beans and rice have about the same calories whatever the mix, but a bean-heavy bowl has nearly three times the fiber of a rice-heavy one.
A New Orleans-style plate, with beans cooked with meat over 1 cup of rice, comes to about 650 calories.
Rinsing canned red beans cuts their sodium by about half.
How many calories are in red beans and rice?
Most versions sit between about 260 and 280 calories per cup. The number jumps when the beans are cooked with a lot of meat and fat, or when the serving is a full plate rather than a cup.
Red beans and rice | Serving | Calories | Protein | Fat | Fiber | Sodium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
With white rice (USDA) | 1 cup (6 oz, 170 g) | 269 | 10.0 g | 7.3 g | 7.3 g | 389 mg |
With brown rice (USDA) | 1 cup (6 oz, 170 g) | 264 | 9.9 g | 7.9 g | 7.7 g | 359 mg |
With meat (USDA) | 1 cup (6 oz, 170 g) | 275 | 12.7 g | 7.2 g | 7.5 g | 447 mg |
Popeyes, regular | 1 side | 260 | 7 g | 16 g | 6 g | 580 mg |
Popeyes, large | 1 side | 640 | 18 g | 40 g | 13 g | 1,420 mg |
New Orleans-style plate: beans with meat over 1 cup rice | 1 plate | 654 | 31.4 g | 18.0 g | 15.9 g | 1,102 mg |
Source: USDA FoodData Central; Popeyes Nutrition Guide (November 2026). The plate is built from USDA values for 1 cup of kidney beans with meat (9.2 oz, 260 g) and 1 cup of cooked white rice.
Brown rice barely changes the calories; it adds a little fiber. The bigger jumps come from the kitchen, not the rice: a regular Popeyes side has about the calories of a USDA cup but gets far more of them from fat, and a large side is close to a full meal on its own. If your Popeyes order also includes chicken, see our breakdown of fried chicken calories.
Beans vs rice: the ratio changes the bowl, not the calories
A cup of cooked red beans and a cup of cooked white rice have almost the same calories, about 225 and 204. What they bring is very different:
1 cup cooked | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Red kidney beans (6.2 oz, 177 g) | 225 | 15.3 g | 40.4 g | 13.1 g |
White rice (5.6 oz, 158 g) | 204 | 4.2 g | 44.2 g | 0.6 g |
Source: USDA FoodData Central.
So the mix in your bowl decides how filling it is. Here are three bowls of 2 cups each, built from those numbers:
Bean-heavy (1 1/2 cups beans, 1/2 cup rice): about 439 calories, 25 g of protein and 20 g of fiber.
Even (1 cup of each): about 429 calories, 20 g of protein and 14 g of fiber.
Rice-heavy (1/2 cup beans, 1 1/2 cups rice): about 418 calories, 14 g of protein and 7 g of fiber.
The calories move by about 20; the fiber nearly triples and the protein almost doubles. If your plate is mostly rice, asking for extra beans is the easiest upgrade.
What sausage and pork add
Traditional New Orleans red beans simmer with a ham bone or tasso and are often served with smoked sausage on the side. The meat adds flavor, protein, fat and salt:
Add-in | Amount | Calories | Fat | Sodium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Smoked pork sausage | 1 link (2.4 oz, 68 g) | 210 | 19.2 g | 562 mg |
Smoked pork sausage | 1 oz (28 g) | 88 | 8.0 g | 235 mg |
Smoked ham hock | 1 hock (3 oz, 85 g) | 228 | 19.4 g | 884 mg |
Source: USDA FoodData Central.
A link of smoked sausage on the side turns a 654-calorie plate into an 864-calorie one. Cooked into the pot and shared across several servings, the same meat adds far less per bowl; a few ounces for the whole pot is enough for flavor.
Is red beans and rice healthy?
Yes, for the most part. The beans do the heavy lifting: a cup of red kidney beans has 13 g of fiber (47% of the Daily Value), 58% of the Daily Value for folate and 29% for iron, with almost no fat. Rice adds energy but little else.
The weak spots are fat from the meat and salt from canned beans, stock and seasoning. Canned beans are the easiest to fix:
Canned red kidney beans, 1 cup | Calories | Sodium |
|---|---|---|
Solids and liquid, straight from the can (9 oz, 256 g) | 207 | 655 mg |
Drained and rinsed (5.6 oz, 158 g) | 191 | 329 mg |
Cooked from dry, no salt (6.2 oz, 177 g) | 225 | 4 mg |
Source: USDA FoodData Central.
Draining and rinsing cuts the sodium in a cup of canned beans by about half. Cooking beans from dry takes longer but leaves the salt entirely up to you.
Red beans and rice for weight loss
Red beans and rice works well in a calorie deficit because the beans make it filling: a bean-heavy 2-cup bowl has about 20 g of fiber and 25 g of protein for roughly 440 calories. Keep the plate in check with three moves:
Flip the ratio. Ask for more beans and less rice, or serve 1 cup of beans over 1/2 cup of rice.
Keep the sausage in the pot, not on the plate. Use a few ounces to season the whole batch instead of a full link per person.
Order the regular, not the large. At Popeyes, the regular side is 260 calories; the large is 640.
Red beans and rice is one of the lighter picks on a Southern plate; for the rest of the spread, see whether grits are healthy and how they compare.
Beans, rice and sausage blur together on a plate, which makes the bowl hard to estimate by eye. With an AI calorie tracker like Dietfit, one photo is enough: Deep Scan picks out each part, and Meal Score, a health score for each meal, shows whether the plate fits your goal.
In the example below, Deep Scan read a plate of red beans and rice with a square of cornbread as 788 calories: 380 for the stewed red beans, 260 for the rice and 140 for the cornbread. The beans were almost half of the plate.
FAQ
How many calories are in Popeyes red beans and rice?
Popeyes red beans and rice has 260 calories in a regular side and 640 in a large, according to the Popeyes Nutrition Guide (November 2026). The regular side also has 16 g of fat, 7 g of protein and 580 mg of sodium.
How much protein is in red beans and rice?
Red beans and rice has about 10 g of protein per cup, and about 13 g when made with meat, according to USDA. A bean-heavy bowl has more: 1 1/2 cups of beans with 1/2 cup of rice has about 25 g.
Is red beans and rice good for diabetics?
Red beans and rice can fit a diabetes meal plan in a measured portion. The beans bring most of the fiber, while the rice brings carbs with almost none, so a bean-heavy bowl with less rice is the better choice. People with diabetes should follow the carb targets their care team sets.
How many carbs are in red beans and rice?
A cup of red beans and rice has about 41 g of carbs and 7 g of fiber, which leaves about 33 g of net carbs. A full plate with 1 cup of rice has about 92 g.
How many calories are in a large bowl of red beans and rice?
A large bowl of red beans and rice, about 2 cups, has roughly 420 to 440 calories, depending on the mix of beans and rice. A New Orleans-style plate of beans cooked with meat over 1 cup of rice has about 654 calories, and about 864 with a link of smoked sausage on the side.
Is red beans and rice better with brown rice?
Red beans and rice with brown rice is only slightly different: about 264 calories and 7.7 g of fiber per cup, against 269 calories and 7.3 g with white rice, according to USDA. Adding more beans raises the fiber far more than switching the rice.
References
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2708993/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Kidney beans and white rice", FDC ID 2708993
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2709034/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Kidney beans and brown rice", FDC ID 2709034
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2708992/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Beans and rice, with meat", FDC ID 2708992
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2707386/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Kidney beans with meat", FDC ID 2707386
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/175194/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Beans, kidney, red, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt", FDC ID 175194
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/175195/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Beans, kidney, red, mature seeds, canned, solids and liquids", FDC ID 175195
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/175243/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Beans, kidney, red, mature seeds, canned, drained solids, rinsed in tap water", FDC ID 175243
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2708408/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Rice, white, cooked, no added fat", FDC ID 2708408
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/174584/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Sausage, smoked link sausage, pork", FDC ID 174584
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2705900/nutrients, FoodData Central, "Pork, ham hocks", FDC ID 2705900
https://plk-use1-prod.sites.rbictg.com/nutrition/PLK_Nutrition.pdf, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, "Popeyes Nutrition Guide", November 2026
https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/daily-value-nutrition-and-supplement-facts-labels, "Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels", U.S. Food and Drug Administration
By Khanh Phan