My grandmother brought this recipe back from Czechoslovakia. It is known as “aluski capusto.” I hope you enjoy it because it’s one of my favorites.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 8 hrs 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 16 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry pinto beans, sorted
- water as needed
- 6 slices bacon, chopped
- 4 medium Roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
- ½ bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer (such as Shiner® Bock)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Place pinto beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let soak, 8 hours to overnight. Rinse and drain.
- Place beans in a slow cooker with just enough water to cover.
- Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until almost browned and crispy, 5 to 7 minutes. Add tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, jalapenos, cilantro, and garlic. Saute in bacon drippings for 2 minutes, then slowly pour in the beer. Add salt, pepper, chili powder, and cumin. Bring to a boil. Add this mixture to the beans and water in the slow cooker.
- Cook on Low for 8 hours. Serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 278 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 43 g |
| Cholesterol | 8 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 10 g |
| Protein | 16 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 763 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made exactly as directed. Turned out amazing after 7 hours in crock pot. Usually when you make pinto beans they their flavor overtakes all other ingredients but these beans had so much flavor. Exactly what I have been looking for and tastes just like my favorite Mex. restaurant’s Drunken(Charro) Beans. Thanks so much for recipe!!
I did not make it, but my friend Groover made it and was delicious. As good or better than restaurant style. I will be making them too.
Very good. Use various colors of bell pepper for more visual appeal. Red is nice. I used tomato concassee (blanch to remove skin so you don’t get quills floating around, scoop out seeds–they add nothing).
4.17.20 I used the slow cook function on my Instant Pot®, checked at 5 hours, and the beans were cooked and tender. I did scale the recipe down to 4 servings, so that may have something to do with the beans cooking sooner. The only change I made to the recipe was using Campari tomatoes instead of Romas; they just never have much good tomato flavor. I had about an inch of water covering the beans at the start, and when the recipe submitter says “…just enough water to cover,” do that. You’re adding more liquid with the beer, and I ended up with way too much liquid in the cooker at the end. I then had to cook it down. I just read recently that you’re not supposed to add salt to beans early on because the skins will be tough, so I did wait until the end to season the charro beans with salt. I also want to say that my beans held their shape very well, few burst or little breakage. I used a large jalapeno today, and the level of heat was just about perfect for us. I have a number of recipes that I use for charro beans, and this was quite good. The next time that I make this recipe, I know that I will use the Instant Pot® where you don’t have to presoak the beans, and they’re cooked start to finish in less than 1-1/2 hours. So if you have an Instant Pot®, you may want to give it a try. If not, just stick with the slow cooker, it simply takes much, much longer, but I feel certain that you’ll enjoy these beans as much as we did.