We've been making beans this way for nearly 40 years with minor modifications of tools and technique along the way (esp. the dip). This page includes the basic beans as well as a bean 'dip' that we use alone with chips, or as a quesadilla filling, a side for a Mexican themed dinner, etc. There's lots of words below, but it's really very easy. The beans are one of the only recipes here that could benefit from a slow cooker or one of the new fangled instant-pots. The beans and the dip freeze well if you get tired of eating it before it's gone. We like beans and usually buy a 25lb bag of pinto beans from Costco and keep them in the garage pantry with a more convenient canister in the kitchen (filled from the bag). Good to have on hand come the apocalypse ;-)
| 2 C | Pinto beans |
| ½ ea | Yellow onion, cut into 2-4 pieces |
| 2 cloves | Garlic, smashed |
| ¼ - ½ C | Crisco or oil (see instructions for notes) |
| To taste | Salt and black pepper |
These will cook on the stovetop for around 3-4 hours on low. There's no need to soak overnight or do any other pre-cooking prep. You could potentially use a slow cooker, but we don't have one. If you do, you'll definitely need to make sure there's enough water for the whole cooking period. Feel free to experiment.
Put the beans into a 4 qt sauce pan/pot, add water to cover and wash using your hand - grabbing a handful and rubbing them together. Drain, rinse again and then add water to cover by at least an inch. Put on a stove burner, add the onion and garlic, heat until it starts to boil. Then put the heat down low (like cooking rice) and cover. Check back in an hour or so to see if more water needs adding. If so, just add some and re-cover. Controlling the water amount is a learned skill. Too little and the beans can burn. There's little sadder (and smellier) than a batch of burned beans. The pot won't thank you either. Too much water means either runny beans or you'll need to pour some of the (good beany) water at the end. You can test for doneness by taking a bean out and blowing on it, if the skin curls up, that's a good sign. If you eat it, there should be no grainyness or chunkyness, just smooth bean.
Once the beans are done, you should have some water left, but definitely not covering the beans. If there's too much water, pour some out until the right level is achieved. Note that if you're making the dip below, you can cheat by leaving in the excess water and then evaporate it out during the dip heating.
At this point you need to add the 'fat' and mash the beans. Beans without fat are just wrong. The traditional recipes use lard. We use Crisco. We've known folks that use oil, even olive oil successfully.
We like to mash some of the beans and leave some whole, for texture. Note that you don't need to remove the onion and garlic at the end as they basically melt into the beans over the cooking period. We've used different techniques over the years - take some beans out to puree and then add back, use a potato masher in the pot, etc. But these days we use a wand blender - a very useful tool. Just add in the Crisco on one side of the pot, and blend that into the beans on that side. Remove the blender and stir to mix the whole and blended beans together. Add in the salt and pepper to taste, and you're done.
| 1 batch | Well-fried pinto beans, above |
| 1 ea | Yellow onion, chopped |
| 2-3 cloves | Garlic, minced |
| 2+ T | Ground dried chile (I use a mix of Ancho and smoked Spanish paprika) |
| 1 T | Chipotle in adobo, canned |
| ½ - ⅔ (11-oz.) can | Whole kernel corn, drained |
| To taste | Salt and black pepper |
Heat a 12" frying pan medium hot, adding a T or two of oil. Sprinkle in the dried chile and mix with the oil to whet. When the chile changes color and maybe foams a little, add in the onion and garlic. Stir to coat the onion and possibly add more oil, and continue stirring until the onion is done. When the onion is mostly cooked to translucency, add the Chipotle and the pinto beans. Stir well to get the chile mixed well with the beans, turning them a brick red. Now add the kernel corn and mix in. Test for salt and adjust. Lower the heat to low and let sit a bit to meld.