diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/config/settings/production.py b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/config/settings/production.py
index c13f1aeb..6edc4ada 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/config/settings/production.py
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/config/settings/production.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ CACHES = {
             # Mimicing memcache behavior.
             # http://jazzband.github.io/django-redis/latest/#_memcached_exceptions_behavior
             "IGNORE_EXCEPTIONS": True,
+            "PARSER_CLASS": "redis.connection.HiredisParser",
         },
     }
 }
diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements/base.txt b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements/base.txt
index c2d5babf..1783c8c1 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements/base.txt
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/requirements/base.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ argon2-cffi==19.2.0  # https://github.com/hynek/argon2_cffi
 {%- if cookiecutter.use_whitenoise == 'y' %}
 whitenoise==5.0.1  # https://github.com/evansd/whitenoise
 {%- endif %}
-redis==3.4.1 # https://github.com/andymccurdy/redis-py
+redis==3.4.1  # https://github.com/andymccurdy/redis-py
+hiredis==1.0.1  # https://github.com/redis/hiredis-py
 {%- if cookiecutter.use_celery == "y" %}
 celery==4.4.2  # pyup: < 5.0  # https://github.com/celery/celery
 django-celery-beat==2.0.0  # https://github.com/celery/django-celery-beat