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These simple Refried Beans are thick, creamy and powerfully flavorful with just a handful of ingredients. You will never want to eat the canned version again! This recipe has been passed through the Herrera family for generations and are guaranteed to become your new favorite recipe.
I love serving these refried beans alongside some homemade Mexican rice with our meals. Or using these in some Wet Burritos. Or even in some tacos with the best taco meat.
Why We Love these Refried Beans
- Simplicity: This is such a simple recipe, only a handful of ingredients are needed. Plus you can skip the frying step and still enjoy flavorful refried beans.
- Family Recipe: This is a recipe that has been made in the Herrera family for several generations. Perfected in it’s simplicity. One of the most common experiences is walking into Gramma’s home and seeing a large cast iron pan of refried beans simmering away on the stovetop.
- Customizable: thanks to how simple this recipe is, it’s easy to adjust and make your own. If you want a bit of heat add a dash of cayenne. Add more garlic, or more salt. Maybe you want a dash of cumin. But with this base recipe you can make it your own.
- Healthy Side dish: beans are full of fiber and are a great option for serving alongside all your favorite Tex Mex meals.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Pinto Beans: this recipe calls for dried pintos and walks through how to soak and prepare them. You can skip that step and use canned if needed, just make sure to grab cans that have no Salt. Drain and rinse the canned beans, season and mash while frying.
- Oil: Use an oil of your choice for frying in the last step, use a mild tasting oil since it will give flavor to the beans. Some common choices include: lard, corn or canola oil, vegetable oil, or leftover bacon grease (which has a strong flavor, but can be a tasty and fun option.) Pick what works for you, just keep in mind that what you use will flavor the beans, so keep it mild. For this reason, olive oil is not recommended.
Find the complete recipe card below with measurements and full instructions.
How to Make Refried Beans
- Soak the pinto beans, it’s easiest to soak them overnight. If you did not soak them, you can still make this recipe by increasing the water and cooking time.
- Cook the pinto beans covered, then continue cooking uncovered for an hour until they are completely softened.
- Heat oil in a large skillet and fry them while mashing up. Spoon in the leftover broth as needed to reach desired consistency.
Storage
- Storing: Store refried beans in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. As they cool and sit the beans will thicken, you may need to add some broth during re-heating to get them back to the desired consistency.
- Freezing: Store beans in the freezer for 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
Expert Tips
- Soaking: Soaking can save some time when it comes to cooking though. So if you soak them overnight, then you don’t need to cook them as long. If you decide the day of that you want to make this recipe, still go for it. Cooking time will be increased.
- Hot Water: If you are cooking your beans over too high of heat, then you may find that your water is evaporating too quickly. At this point you can add more water, just make sure it’s hot water so that the cooking process isn’t stopped or slowed by adding cold water.
- To mash or not to mash: If you do mash them, use a potato masher and really it’s up to you how much you mash them. Do you want them lumpy? No lumps? Not mashed at all? It’s completely up to you. Or add them to a blender or processor to make them completely smooth.
- Bean Broth: As the beans cook, the water will become broth-like. This is what you will spoon into the beans while mashing to get the consistency you want. If you want a thicker consistency, then use less water. If you want a thinner consistency, then you will use more broth.
- Save the leftover broth and use it to stir into your leftovers. As they sit in the refrigerator and chill, they will thicken. Using the broth when you reheat will ensure that you don’t lose any flavor when thinning them back out.
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Authentic Refried Beans
These Authentic Refried Beans are so simple, only a handful of ingredients are needed. These are the perfect side dish to any Mexican or Tex Mex meal.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Prepare: Sort through the beans to ensure that they are good and no rocks are mixed in.
- Soak: Rinse with water in a stainer to clean. Or if soaking the beans, place in a medium size mixing bowl and cover completely with water. Let sit overnight. Strain the beans the next day after soaking.
- Cover: Add the beans smashed garlic and onion to a large pot or pan. Pour the water in. Beans should be fully submerged in water.
- Cook: Bring to a boil, stir in the salt, then turn the heat to low and continue to simmer covered. Allow to cook for about 30 minutes, remove lid, stir, and continue to cook an additional 30-60 minutes until the beans are softened and easily mashed.
- Fry: Once the beans are soft, heat lard or oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is heated, carefully ladle the beans, garlic and some of the bean broth into the skillet. Allow the beans to "fry" in the oil while mashing. Add more bean broth as needed to get desired consistency to the beans.
Video
Notes
- Pinto Beans: this recipe calls for dried beans and walks through how to soak and prepare them. You can skip that step and use canned beans if needed, just make sure to grab cans that have No Salt.
- Soaking Beans: Soaking the beans can save some time when it comes to cooking though. So if you soak them overnight, then you don’t need to cook them as long. If starting with dried beans, increase cooking time to 2 -2.5 hours.
- Beans not softening: If the beans are old, they will take longer to cook and might not become soft enough to mash.
- Hot Water: Very important to this recipe. If you are cooking your beans hotter, then you may find that your water is evaporating too quickly. At this point you can add some more water, just make sure it’s hot water so that the cooking process isn’t stopped or slowed by adding cold water.
- Oil: this is used for frying the beans in the last step, use a mild tasting oil since it will give flavor to the beans. Some common choices include: lard, corn or canola oil, vegetable oil, or leftover bacon grease (which has a strong flavor, but can be a tasty and fun option.)
- To mash or not to mash: If you do mash them, use a potato masher and mash to desired consistency. You could also use a blender for a completely smooth texture.
- Consistency: save the bean broth from cooking the beans and spoon into the beans while mashing to get the consistency you want. If you want a thicker refried bean, then use less water. If you want thinner beans, then you will use more broth.
- Save the leftover bean broth and use it to stir into your leftover beans. As they sit in the refrigerator and chill, they will thicken. Using the broth when you reheat the beans will ensure that you don’t lose any flavor when thinning them back out.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 90kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 5g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Fiber: 3g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
The recipe for Homemade Refried Beans was originally published on January 29, 2016. Updated July, 16, 2021 and April 9, 2024.
Original instructions did not include any frying of the beans.
Photography done by the talented @KJandCompany.co
Delicious! My neighbor gave me this recipe many years ago, and it was lost. Never made them since. Will be for sure now. Definitely authentic!
I didn’t even fry them after mashing them I added Mex style cheese and they were fantastic.
Hi, Serena,
I read lots of recipes and watch lots of cooking shows. I happened on a bean, Mayocoba, they said it was used a lot in Mexico. So loving the culture and the food, I had to find these beans. I am bred and born in Texas only recently moving to Alabama to take care of a relative. Found them at Walmart. Cook some and they seemed milder than pintos. Have you ever used them. Do you have special recipes for them?
I used to work for a California based Mexican restaurant chain. We prepared our beans in a giant pressure cooker. We didn’t mash them. We had a drill and a three foot long bit with a propeller on the end. We immersed the bit in the beans and chopped them with the drill.
Then we poured them into large plastic pans (about two inches deep), covered them and put them in the refrigerator. The next day we put them in a roasting pan with lard and reheated them until they were ready to serve. I’ve often wished I had one of those drill bits LOL.
I’m curious, does coolng them overnight and frying them the next day change the flavor profile much?
I add 3 or 4 slices of salt pork and skip salt
More flavorful.
These beans turned out amazing! I omitted the garlic because of allergy and used an emersion blender until smooth. Delic!!!!
While I was looking for a recipe for homemade refried beans oh, your recipe was the only one that did not use canned beans! No matter how many spices or how you fix it up you cannot get the taste of a canned Bean out! I was looking for the recipe originally because my friend told me all refried beans have cheese on them. I told her no they don’t! I’m a frijolera! I love my pinto beans cooked without any meat just like my grandma used to make every Sunday.
I think you just solved a mystery for me! I’ve been making a pot of beans each week in the instant pot and have trouble getting them soft enough for whole beans, let alone mashed. They must be old! Good to know! Guess I’ll try significantly increasing the time and see if that does it.
I’ve also found that I have to do the natural release to let the beans finish cooking or else they are not soft enough when I use my instant pot.
I made these in my Power Pro XL 10-quart Pressure Cooker. I first soaked them in my pressure cooker pot over night and changed the water twice. Theni I added water to cover and did a 5 minute cook with the lid locked down. Stopped the cooking, did a quick release and changed the water and started fresh again. This helps to get rid of any gas in the beans. Next, I added the onionnn, garlic and a teaspoon of salt and cooked them on the beans/lentels icon for 20 minutes. I did a natural release for 10 minutes. They were super soft and ready to fry. These beans are so good – I will never go back to canned again. I also make my red beans this way. but of course add either ham hocks or linquisa to them and then bake them.
I was excited to try making this recipe and soaked the beans overnight. In the morning, I discovered the peels started to come off of the beans. Should I remove the peels? I wasn’t sure. I appreciate your answer. Thank you!
I think what happened is that the beans you are using might be old. Don’t peel them, you can continue to cook them. Some advice I’ve heard when dealing with older beans is to salt the water when soaking, and this helps keep them from splitting or peeling.
These are delicious!! I made a double batch for a dinner party and I wanted to have leftovers. So glad I did! Due to a pork allergy of a diner guest, I had to leave out the lard but it really wasn’t missed. Double bonus is that they are even healthier without it. I added a little more salt and 2 T of cumin per the recommendation of others. If you are making a single batch, just use 1 T of cumin. After the beans were nice and soft, I scooped about a cup of liquid out, mashed the beans and then let them simmer for a while to thicken them up. Delish!!