Pinto Beans for Burritos

"This is my attempt to re-create the beans at my favorite burrito place, Tortillas, in Atlanta GA. Unfortunately, they closed, so now I have to try to make my own burritos, because no other establishment makes a burrito that measures up. Also, I now live in NYC, which is a burrito desert. Do not pre-soak your beans. If you do this, they will already have absorbed a bunch of water and will not be able to absorb all the flavors from the spices and broth. Do not worry about the salt added at the beginning, it is an old wives' tale that beans will be tough if you add salt at the beginning. You want to add all the spices and seasonings at the start so the beans will absorb them."
 
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Ready In:
3hrs 5mins
Ingredients:
10
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Sort the beans to make sure there are no small rocks, screws, etc. in them. And yes, I have personally found these things in dried beans before. Sort or hope you have good dental coverage.
  • Put the beans, all the spices, and the olive oil in a large pot. Mix well.
  • Add the chicken broth and water, and stir to mix well.
  • Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook beans, uncovered, for 3 to 4 hours until done to your liking (It usually only takes me 3 hours, and sometimes less than 3 if I have it at a fast simmer. After 2 hours, take out a bean every 30 minutes or so and eat it to check if it is done enough for you).

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Reviews

  1. I'm from New Mexico, so I know good burritos! These are great!<br/><br/>Couple of tips:<br/><br/>-Rinse the beans while sorting them.<br/>-"Quick soak" to get the extra dirt off. This means you put them in a pot of hot water (6-8 cups per lb), boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover, and let sit one hour. Then drain and use fresh water with the broth and spices for the remaining cooking time. <br/>-Make sure the new water is hot! Going from hot to cold will make your beans tough.<br/>-Try adding a pound or so of cut chunks of stew beef. Boiling for so long will soften it. Oh, and the beef will look and taste better if you brown the edges first!<br/>-4 cubes of bouillon in a quart of water may replace the broth in the recipe. More or less cubes to taste.
     
  2. Thank you so much for this recipe! I love cracking out the cast iron and whipping up a batch of burrito beans. It is so fast and easy!<br/><br/>The recipe is awesome as it is but I double the garlic and onion because, well, I love garlic and onion. I also use all chicken stock instead of half water - and skip the salt as a result. <br/><br/>Sometimes at the end I add a bit of oil and mash the beans for a "refried" texture. <br/><br/>These make a great burrito bowl with lots of fresh cilantro, onion, tomato, avocado, jack cheese, Spanish rice and some tomatillo salsa. Yum! Thanks again!
     
  3. Thank you so much for this life-changing recipe, this is exactly the way they should taste. I love Mexican food but it's not easy to find Mexican restaurants in Germany. In the future, I'll make these beans and eat Mexican at home. I did change the procedure a bit: after washing the beans I put them in a pot with the other ingredients and let them soak overnight. Instead of chicken broth, I use chicken bouillon cubes. I also substitute a half an onion and two cloves of fresh garlic instead of the onion and garlic powders. The next morning, I just turn on the heat and bring them to a boil then simmer for about 50 minutes. Delicious. After making the burritos, I mashed the leftover beans and it made wonderful refried beans (with nothing added). I am very, very happy with this recipe!
     
  4. Made this for my son's grad party - burrito bowls - was a big hit. These beans were excellent!
     
  5. I have been married for nearly 20 years. I have usually left most of the cooking to my husband because I have found that he is not always in love with my cooking. This recipe absolute cracked it!! He loves it as do I. Kids won't try it but hey, at least we have found something we love!!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Still love this recipe! Now I use the Instant Pot -about 1.5 cups of liquid to 1c. dry beans. High pressure for 35 minutes. Natural release. Use immersion blender for "refried" beans. Cheap, healthy, delicious, fast and so easy my dog could do it. What's not to love?
     
  2. Nothing! Oh well, maybe using canned Pinto beans.
     
  3. I love this recipe and I played around with it a bit. I quick-soak the beans for an hour. Then, I cook 1 pound of beans in 1 qt regular chicken broth and 1 qt low-sodium chicken broth. I also use 1 tsp of garlic powder with 4 large cloves of fresh garlic, pressed, AND 1 tsp onion powder with 1/4 of a fresh large onion, cut roughly into semi-large strips. I use a little less than 1 tsp of black pepper and add in 1 small can each of hot and mild diced green chiles, well drained. Because of the addition of veggies and chiles, I still put in the 1 tsp of kosher salt. I like my beans to have more flavor because I usually eat them for breakfast in a burrito with eggs, salsa and cheese. If I use 2 qts of regular sodium chicken broth, I leave out the kosher salt. During the last 15 or 20 minutes that the beans are pre-soaking, I preheat the chicken broth in a large glass bowl in the microwave, so it will be hot and ready when the beans have finished soaking. Then to the large pot that I cook them in I add the 2 tbsp of olive oil to high heat and saute the onions until the soften. Next, I add in the garlic and then all the spices that I have already stirred together. I want the hot oil to hit all the veggies and spices first. Then I quickly add in a bit of the hot chicken broth, stir it a minute and then add the rest of the broth. I add the beans and green chiles, cover the pot and turn up the heat to high until the beans come to a rapid boil. Once they boil, I turn the heat down to a really low boil and cook my beans all day--generally 8 hours. The last hour or so, I crack the lid, raise the temp a tiny bit and stir them every 15 minutes or so to cook out extra broth until they reach the consistency I like, which is thick but slightly soupy. I like to leave some broth in them so they can be mashed without adding more fat to them. I have found that cooking the beans all day and breaking their fibers down seems to be the key to keeping the gas away. I can eat these beans every day with no problems.
     
  4. This recipe was a winner at our house. I made it in an electric pressure cooker so I made a couple of changes to accomodate it. First, I had to adjust the liquid, so I used 5 cups of water and added 5 granulated teaspoons of Knorr Chicken Flavor Bouillon in place of 1 quart chicken broth and 1 quart water. I did not add the Kosher salt because the granulated bouillion has plenty of salt. I put all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and used the beans/lentils setting which cooks for 30 minutes after the pressure is built up on my pressure cooker (takes around 10 - 15 minutes to build the pressure). When pressure cooker was finished, I cut up a package of Butterball Turkey Sausage (hardwood smoked) into bite size pieces and browned it, during which time the pressure cooker released its pressure naturally, while sitting. I then checked the release valve to make sure all the pressure was released and removed the pressure cooker lid. I then added the browned sausage, replaced the lid and cooked the beans and sausage for approximately 20 more minutes after the pressure had rebuilt. I released the pressure using the pressure valve and served up the best pot of pinto bean burritos we have had in a long time! (Note: there is still a fair amount of liquid in the beans when finished cooking using only 5 cups of water. If you add less water your beans could actually burn. Use a slotted spoon to remove the beans without the liquid. My son likes to make frito pie, so he uses the broth that is still in the pot.)
     
  5. Thank you so much for this recipe! I love cracking out the cast iron and whipping up a batch of burrito beans. It is so fast and easy!<br/><br/>The recipe is awesome as it is but I double the garlic and onion because, well, I love garlic and onion. I also use all chicken stock instead of half water - and skip the salt as a result. <br/><br/>Sometimes at the end I add a bit of oil and mash the beans for a "refried" texture. <br/><br/>These make a great burrito bowl with lots of fresh cilantro, onion, tomato, avocado, jack cheese, Spanish rice and some tomatillo salsa. Yum! Thanks again!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>I'm originally from Atlanta, GA, but I now live in Brooklyn, NY with my husband, cat, and dog. I'm a film and video editor, but cooking is my main hobby - if you can call something you do multiple times a day a hobby. <br />I enjoy all types of food, from molecular gastronomy to 70's suburban Mom type stuff. While I like to make recipes from cookbooks by true chefs, I don't turn my nose up at Campbell's Cream of Mushroom - I'm not a food snob. <br /> I love foods from all nations/cultures, and I am fortunate enough to live in NYC so I can go to restaurants which serve food from pretty much anywhere on the globe. Because of this most of my recipes tend to be in the Western European/American food tradition - I find it easier to pay the experts for more complicated delicacies such as Dosai, Pho &amp; Injera. I really enjoy having so many great food resources available to me here in NYC. One of my favorite stores is Kalustyan's http://www.kalustyans.com/ <br />they have every spice, bean, &amp; grain in the world. If there's something you can't find, look on their website. I bet they'll have it and they can ship it to you! <br />Many of my recipes are Southern, because that's the food I grew up on. I hope the recipes I have posted here will be useful to folks out in the 'zaar universe! <br /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/Adopted1smp.jpg border=0 alt=Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/smPACp.jpg border=0 alt=Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/PACfall08partic.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/IWasAdoptedfall08.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /><img src=http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e110/flower753/Food/my3chefsnov2008.jpg alt= /></p>
 
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