Charro Beans. A Tex Mex favorite, these pinto beans are tender and simmered in a flavorful bean broth seasoned with onion, garlic and bacon. Jalapeño adds just a touch of heat. This Mexican bean soup is the perfect side dish for any meal!
These Mexican Pinto Beans are perfect when served alongside some Chile Rellenos, Cheese Enchiladas, or Ground Beef Tacos.
What are Charro Beans?
This Mexican bean soup, is the best side dish for any Tex Mex meals. While the beans cook they create the most flavorful broth, which is the highlight of this dish. This bean dish is known by several names. Charro Beans. Frijoles Charros, or sometimes Cowboy Beans. And there is another version that involves beer called Boraccho Beans.
These beans can be made using any type of meat: beef, chorizo, ham, or bacon. Bacon is my favorite, it’s easy and gives great flavor.
Seasoned with onion, garlic and jalapeno which gives the dish just a small hint of heat. This dish is made with just a few basic ingredients, but it sure does pack a lot of flavor.
How to Make Mexican Pinto Beans:
How to make Mexican Pinto Beans with Dried Pinto Beans:
- First, Pre-soak the Beans! This method involves starting the recipe the night before you want to make this dish.
- Add the dried beans to a large bowl and add water just until the beans are fully covered with water.
- Let this sit overnight. Then follow the recipe below.
How to Make Slow Cooker Pinto Beans Beans:
- This method doesn’t involve prepping the night before, but does have a longer cook time.
- We don’t need to soak the beans. For this method, a quick rinse of the beans is all that is needed and they get added right to the slow cooker.
- Cook beans on HIGH heat for the first two hours to help make them soft
How to Make Mexican Pinto Beans with Canned Pinto Beans:
- This is the easiest method of all. I find that using 3 cans of pinto beans works well with this recipe.
- Cook up the bacon, onion and jalapeno.
- Drain the beans, rinse, and add them to a large pot on the stove top. Add remaining ingredients.
Important Tips
- If cooking on the stovetop you want to keep the lid on while simmering. This helps you to control the amount of liquid that evaporates.
- Jalapeno: if you don’t want to add jalapeno to your beans, you can use a milder Chile, a poblano, or you could use a can of diced green chiles.
Other Tex Mex Recipes to Try:
Charro Beans (Frijoles Charros)
Ingredients
- 1 pound pinto beans, dried
- 6 cups water, enough to cover the beans in a large bowl
- 4 slices bacon, sliced
- 1/2 yellow onion , diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 4 cups broth, chicken or vegetable, low sodium
- 2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Topping
- onion, diced
- cilantro, diced
Instructions
How To Make Charro Beans on the Stovetop
- Add the dried pinto beans to a large bowl. Pour in the water, ensure that the beans are covered completely with water. Allow to sit overnight or for at least 5 hours. Drain out any excess water and rinse the beans off.
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy. Remove the bacon and set aside. Drain the grease, reserving 1 tablespoon in the pot. Add the diced onion and jalapeno. Cook until the onion and jalapeno are soft and tender.
- Add the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds.
- Pour in the broth, water, rinsed beans, salt, cumin, oregano and the crumbled bacon.
- Bring the pot to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cover and allow the beans to cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. The broth will thicken and be flavorful and the beans will be tender.
- Serve with fresh chopped cilantro.
How To Make Charro Beans in the Slow Cooker
- Rinse the pinto beans in cold water, drain off any water. Add the pinto beans and 8 cups of water to a slow cooker and cook on high for about 2 hours.
- In a medium size pan cook the bacon over medium heat. Once the bacon is cooked, remove and chop.
- Add the onion and diced jalapeño and saute in the bacon grease for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and the jalapeño softened. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Add the onion, garlic and chopped bacon to the beans in the slow cooker.
- Cook beans for an additional 2 hours on high.
- Season with salt, cumin, and oregano. Cook for an additional 30 minutes on low.
- Serve with fresh cilantro. Enjoy!
Video
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Charro Beans first appeared on House of Yumm on September 11, 2016. This post has been updated with new images and additional instructions for different methods! The recipe is the same.
How do I triple this recipe correctly
Made according to directions (soaked overnight, cooked on stovetop), except I cut the salt in half. Delicious. Will definitely make again!
Tried this recipe last night and it was amazing! Used dried pintos/soak method. Added a can of Rotel tomatoes with green chilies and some fresh cilantro. Garnished with extra onions, cilantro, chopped bacon. Super easy to make! So happy to have found your website.
Kat from Dallas, TX
So glad you enjoyed them Kat! Thank you for the review.
I made this recipe today (used dried pintos w/overnight soak method)- TOTALLY DELICIOUS!! Beans were perfectly tender at 45 mins, and super flavorful! Extra crumbled bacon, chopped raw jalapeno and cilantro sprinkled on top took it to another level!! I will be keeping this recipe in rotation!
Thank you so much!!
So happy you enjoyed!
Looking forward to great food!
We used canned beans and followed the recipe as is. It turned out really nice. They were even better the second day as the flavors had some time to meld. Thanks for sharing!
Keep these delicious recipes coming!
Made this recipe today, wonderful! Had to substitute a couple things that we didn’t have on hand! Definitely a keeper recipe!
Absolutely love your style of writing. I am a professional Chef with many year of experience and a great interest in Mexican Food, i do find your article and your blog very inspiring. I was wondering if you know whats the main difference between Frijoles Charros and Borrachos. I am quite interested to know what you think. Keep the great work going!
Thank you. The difference between Charro and Borrachos beans is beer. Borrachos beans are drunken beans and the broth is made with beer. If you search on the site you will find a recipe for those also.
Can I make them with no broth, only 6 cups of water?
Yes you can, you just need to make sure the beans cook long enough to create their own broth.
If you want the flavor of the jalapeno, but not all the heat, cut a small slit in the side of the pepper and add it whole to the pot or slow cooker. Remove before serving.
Great tip! Thank you.
Loved these beans. I used the canned beans and I don’t know if the dried would have soaked up more salt? I think I will cut the salt to half next time. I loved them though.
Yes! Canned beans typically already have sodium, make sure you drain and rinse them, and definitely cut the amount of salt needed. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe though!
Just the way I would make them, oh your good
Excellent! I would add at least one more jalapeño or use the small can of green chiles. I use the crock pot. Took 6 hours on high. I will be making this from now on!
Wonderful! Easy to make.
Flavoring is perfect! Family loves it. Can’t wait to try other House of Yum recipes!
Just amazing my husband loved them!
I was brought up with beans cooked on top of the stove. Are beans cooked in the slow cooker as good?
They are good! One of the things I like about making this particular recipe in the slow cooker, is that I can let the beans cook longer on low, and I don’t need to use a broth, because the beans make their own really flavorful bean broth after cooking that long.
I’m such a knuckle head. For some reason I never read the entire recipe and it always bites me in the butt. Instead of cooking the bacon and garlic, I just threw everything in the crockpot and let it simmer. If it doesn’t turn out I can always take it out and cook afterwards I guess. Arg – it sure does smell good though!!!!!
Made these as a side dish to some grilled chicken and they were just what I had hoped they would be. Thanks for the recipe.