I received this recipe from a friend. Even if it takes a little more effort, the taste of real refried beans is worth it. Beans can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 15 |
| Yield: | 1 – 9×13 inch pan |
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry pinto beans
- 2 onions, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons pepper
- ¾ cup butter
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Soak pinto beans overnight in 1 quart of water.
- Place beans into a large saucepan, and add water to cover. Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium-low heat until beans are tender, about 1 to 2 hours. Add additional water to the pan as needed to prevent burning.
- Mash the beans with a potato masher, and mix in the butter. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and the butter is absorbed. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread the bean mixture into a 9×13 inch baking dish, and sprinkle shredded cheese over the top. Bake for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 224 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 21 g |
| Cholesterol | 32 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 427 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Worst beans I have ever made. Zero flavor.
Too much butter and pepper. It’s missing something but I’m not sure what
I’m a Texan Hispanic and when my Mom made beans, we we’re always excited for them to be done. Remember to clean and sort your bean before you cook them. Just pour them on your counter or table and spread them out in a single layer. Remove the small rocks, half (not whole) or wrinkled beans. I’m a clean freak, so I always give mine a quick rinse. We never soaked our beans, we just started them off with cold water. As for flavoring, it’s all to personal taste. We included a meaty ham hock, which helped flavor the beans and the cooking liquid. When the beans come to a boil, turn down the heat to keep them at a rolling simmer, add some salt, put on a lid. As it cooks, taste the cooking liquid for saltiness, add more salt if it’s bland. Add water, if needed, to make sure they’re covered or you’ll burn them! You DON’T want that smell in your house! When done, serve them up in a bowl, with fresh black pepper, piece of the ham hock and cooking liquor. Yum! We never drained our beans. We stored it all together in the fridge. You can easily mash the beans right after cooking them, add some cooking liquid to thin them out to your preferred thickness. The reason for a bit of oil, butter, or margarine when making “refried beans” from cold beans is so that the beans don’t stick to the pan. Skip the fat if you include some of the cooking liquid. When the beans are heated, they’ll be soft enough to mash. We just used a potato masher. Mash them to your preferred texture.
This is my favorite staple. I’ve made this so many different ways. I just made it with black beans and I cut the butter to 1/2 a cup. Adding bacon fat makes these to die for!! I leave the cheese off until serving, so they last longer in the fridge.
Made these in an Instant Pot and they came out perfect. For ease of serving I placed the beans in individual ramekins, topped with cheese and melted it in the oven.
I followed this recipe as written, except I added 1 cup of pepper-jack cheese. If I’d not used the pepper-jack, 2 cups of cheddar would still be the correct amount for our taste. I’m only guessing, but I think the use of lard instead of the butter would push my rating to 5 stars. This was very simple to make, delicious, and I see no need to ever buy this in a can again.
This is a very tasty side dish. I will admit that I used canned beans to speed up the process a bit but it turned out great. I would definitely cut down on the butter next time though.
These were tasty. I used less butter and only one onion and they turned our perfect!
It was very easy to make. I found a similar recipe that was done in a crockpot so I decided to try that and it was great. I just have to watch the “helpful friend” who caused it to be a little to salty.
I followed the recipe measurements, except adding 2 garlic cloves rather than one, sprinkled a little chili powder in it, substituted coconut oil for the butter and used less cheese on top. This made it healthier and we loved the taste!
Very impressive recipe. I followed all the directions except instead of doing just butter, I did 2/3 of what the recipe called for in bacon grease and the rest in butter. When buying the pinto beans it didn’t look like enough, so I used 1 1/2 pounds instead of just one pound. Big mistake! The taste was really good, but we had a lot left over. Resist the urge to buy more when it doesn’t look like enough. Since I don’t have a potato masher, I used our blender, and I’m really glad we did, because I was able to get the texture just perfect. Remember to drain the water before mashing it (the recipe didn’t really clarify that). Instead of soaking it overnight, just boil the beans and let them sit in hot water for an hour and they soften up. We served these on nachos and they tasted so good. Great recipe, Karen!
great dish, thank you
I cut back the amount of butter but it still just tasted too buttery for me. My boyfriend liked them and they weren’t too difficult to make but I’ll pass on them in the future.
I made these fat free because that is what I am used to from the store. I omitted the butter, and added some cumin and a little chili powder for extra flavor. I also added the cheese in the beans instead of on top so my picky non-cheese eating child would eat it. It worked out fine and all loved the beans. I froze the extra in quart sized freezer bags to use as needed for recipes. If you buy the beans in bulk it is less expensive and tastier to make these yourself and freeze them instead of buying the stuff in the cans.
use less pepper! my mouth is burning. it’s pretty good. i will try some soyrizo in it next time. it’s missing something.
Delicious! I cooked them in the crockpot on low for 8 hours while at work. I added some chili powder and cumin. This was a simple recipe with excellent flavor.
Okay, so I’ve tried to make this one twice this week already. I checked the recipe several times and all I can figure is I must need to COVER the pot while simmering because the beans are still way too chewy!
Delicious! I can’t stop eating them. Nutritious, delicious, and inexpensive – what more could you want? I added some chipotle Tabasco and the juice from a jar of jalapenos for extra flavor.
I had never made refried beans before and this was a great place for me to start. I have made a version of this three times now and each time used a different *oil* I used butter the first time, bacon grease the second time and vegetable oil the third time. I have come to the conclusion that it is just a matter of personal taste preference. Everyone really liked all three. I think I will probably use vegetable oil from now on because it is the least expensive. So glad I tried it
We really didn’t care for these. The butter flavor was just really strange. We are not used it butter flavored pinto beans. If you are this might work for you.
These were okay, but lacked flavor. I added a lot of extra spices. Also, The texture was sort of weird – I cooked the beans for 3 1/2 hours after soaking overnight and they still seemed a little under-done. ***update the next day – I just made enchiladas with the leftover beans and they were incredible. No weird texture or anything. I will definitely make this again!