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About the beans:
- Dried beans (NO CANS!): The key to authentic refried beans is using dry beans. Canned beans will not result in the same texture or flavor and it's just not the way Mexican refried beans are made! You can find dry beans in the Mexican food isle at the grocery store.
- Pinto beans: refried beans are usually made with pinto beans but black beans can also be used.
How to Make Refried Beans:
1. Rinse and soak beans. Sift through the dry beans, removing any unwanted pieces from the bag. Add the beans to a large pot, cover with water and soak overnight.
2. Boil beans. Drain beans, add them to a pot and cover them with fresh water. Add onion to the pot and a couple dashes of salt. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for one hour.
3. Fry beans. Heat lard or oil in skillet. Add the garlic and stir. Add the beans, cumin, oregano and ¼ cup of reserved water from the bean broth.
4. Mash. Gently smash the beans with a potato masher or fork as they cook. Continue stirring and mashing until you get the texture you like and the beans are the consistency of soft mashed potatoes. Add more bean broth liquid if necessary. Taste and season with additional salt if needed.
5. Serve. Top with shredded cheese, if desired.
For Instant Pot Refried Beans (No Soaking):
1. Rinse beans. Rinse in a colander, removing any unwanted pieces that may be in the bag.
2. Add to Instant Pot. Add the beans, onion, and salt to the instant pot and fill the pot with about 7-8 cups of water.
3. Pressure cook. Turn valve to sealed and cook on high pressure/manual for 45 minutes. Allow the pressure to naturally release for 25 minutes. Remove lid and test beans to make sure they are tender.
4. Sauté beans. Drain the beans, removing the onion and reserving ½ cup of the bean broth water. On SAUTE mode, add lard or oil. Once hot, add the garlic and stir. Add the beans, cumin, oregano and ¼ cup of the bean broth. (You could also chop the reserved onion and add it to the pan).
5. Mash. Cook, gently smashing the beans as they cook with a potato masher or fork. Continue stirring and mashing until you get the texture you like and the beans are the consistency of soft mashed potatoes. Add more bean broth liquid if necessary. Taste and season with additional salt if needed.
6. Serve. Top with shredded cheese, if desired.
For Crockpot Refried Beans (No Soaking):
1. Combine Ingredients. Add all ingredients to the slow cooker. Cover with fresh water.
2. Cook on high for 8 hours, or overnight.
3. Drain. Drain the beans, removing the onion and reserving ½ cup of the bean broth water.
4. Sauté beans. Add lard or oil to a hot skillet. Add garlic, beans, cumin, oregano and ¼ cup of the bean broth. (You could also chop the reserved onion and add it to the pan).
5. Mash. Cook, gently smashing the beans as they cook with a potato masher or fork. Continue stirring and mashing until you get the texture you like and the beans are the consistency of soft mashed potatoes. Add more bean broth liquid if necessary. Taste and season with additional salt if needed.
6. Serve. Top with shredded cheese, if desired.
Adaptations:
To use canned pinto beans: substitute 2 cans of pinto beans, drained but liquid reserved.
Cheesy refried beans: Top your refried beans with Mexican cotija cheese or stir in your favorite shredded cheese.
Refried black beans- substitute one pound of dry black beans.
Add bell peppers- Finely chop bell pepper and sauté it with the garlic in step 7 of the recipe.
Spicy refried beans- remove the stem from a jalapeño peppers and finely dice it. Sauté it with the garlic in step 7 of the recipe.
Consider serving these with:
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Homemade Refried Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry pinto beans, , about 2 cups
- 1 large onion, , quartered
- 2 Tablespoons lard or oil
- 3 cloves garlic, , minced
- 1-2 teaspoons salt, , or more, to taste
- ¾ teaspoon ground cumin, , or more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon Dried oregano, , or more, to taste
Instructions
Stove-top Refried Beans:
- Rinse pinto beans in a colander, removing any unwanted pebbles or pieces that may be in the bag.
- Add the beans to a large pot, cover with water and soak overnight.
- Drain soaked beans and return them to the pot. Add fresh water to cover the beans up to two inches above them. Add onion to the pot and a couple dashes of salt.
- Bring beans to a boil, cover and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally. Check the beans and if they’re not completely cooked after one hour, let them simmer a few minutes longer until they’re done.
- Drain the beans, removing the onion and reserving the bean broth water.
- In a large skillet (preferably an iron skillet), heat lard or oil over medium heat.
- Add the garlic and stir. Add the beans, cumin, oregano and ¼ cup of the bean broth. (You could also chop the reserved onion and add it to the pan).
- Cook, gently smashing the beans as they cook with a potato masher or fork.
- Continue stirring and mashing, adding additional bean broth as needed until you get the texture you like and the beans are the consistency of soft mashed potatoes. Taste and season with additional salt, cumin and oregano, as needed. Top with shredded cheese, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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*I originally shared this recipe March 2013. Updated February 2020 with process photos and instructions for making refried beans in the instant pot and slow cooker.
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
This recipe is AMAZING! I’ve never made refried beans before, mainly because I don’t like them, but I’m turning away from buying premade foods and I needed some for a recipe. I followed the recipe exactly (unusual for me) since it’s a new process. These things are delicious. I also saved the bean water and will freeze it when it’s cool so I have it for when I make soup. Thank you for a fantastic recipe. You’ve turned me into a convert.
Grace, so smart saving the leftover bean water for soup. Making this recipe now and stealing your tip! 😁
Be careful about doing this. While flavorful, this bean water can be filled with all the fun stuff that makes you gassy.
I’m in my late 40’s and had only the canned refried beans. Holy cow! This is so much better. I read the other reviews, but as with every ethnic food there is no one way to do “authentic” and recipes can vary wildly from region to region. I love this recipe. It’s simplicity makes it highly adaptable to one’s personal tastes.
Soooo so bland if the recipe is exactly followed. Not sure how this is rated as high as it is, especially looking at all the comments below.
Didn’t care for them. Perhaps if I had cooked the beans for 3 hours or so, it would have been better. I only cooked them for 1.5 hours. I prefer canned refried beans over this recipe.
I used your recipe with some additions. I used black beans instead of pinto beans. When boiling the beans, I added a bell pepper cut into 8 sections and 2 jalapeno peppers deseeded and cut in half and boiled that for around 1 1/2 hours. I removed the bell and jalapeno peppers along with the big pieces of onion left over and put them in my food processor and ground them fine. Instead of using the bean stock, I added this back to the beans along with the other seasonings and cooked it all down and they came out great. Thanks for the recipe.
The flavor was good, but even adding more than a cup of “bean broth” didn’t smooth out the beans. They were dry and crumbly no matter how mashed or how much liquid I added.
In my opinion too much salt….i ‘ll try again with less….on a different planet.
Can’t try other recipes because so far off
Delicious recipe! For those with the Oregano issues, you can buy Mexican Oregano thru Penzeys.com.
Made it today. Costwise, unless you’re making 10#, it’s negligible.
Taste, this is fresh, and I get to control the flavor (I decide to add onion powder and more cumin) more.
Will I make it again? Absolutely, but perhaps ill use bacon grease instead of lard next time. Thanks for the recipe.
simple and straightforward. told me everything I needed to know.
Absolutely horrible. The salt ratio is way too high for using with tinned beans. Also the garlic was excessive and ruined the beans.
This recipe is not used with tinned beans. This recipe uses dried beans from a bag. If you follow the directions correctly, it’s a delicious recipe.
Thank you for this authentic recipe. I’m an expat living in Germany and take many opportunities to bring American Recipes to the table – from scratch. I stuck to the double recipe to a T, just spiced it up a bit more. This will be my go-to recipe from now on!
Thank you!
Gave it a try but they were bland, not nearly enough seasoning. I’ll for sure try again but add more spices. And taking out the quartered onion was a pain. Would just putting in whole work? Maybe cut in half and placed in cheesecloth?