These Refried Beans get their amazing flavor from a smoked ham hock, several aromatic veggies and a bit of bacon drippings. I lick the spoon every time!
I am completely crazy about high quality Mexican food. I do like some of the canned refried beans in the store but none of them come close to this amazing recipe.
My husband loves Mexican food but dislikes beans in general. The notable exception to that rule is this refried bean recipe. He loves these and is always happy to see them on the table.
The secret to excellent refried beans is flavor. Beans are bland. They are a simple, wholesome food but for them to also be delicious you have to add a few things. I experimented with a few different versions before settling on this one. The combination of ingredients gave me the most flavorful refried beans I had ever had. Make sure you drop me a note and let me know what you think!
Happy Cooking!
Tools In This Post: Over the last few months I have become quite fond of my Instant Pot. The 6 quart size works for most families. I cook for big groups and opted for the 8 quart size.
The other tool I love for refried beans is my Cuisinart Immersion Blender. They are inexpensive and easy to store. I use mine to make nice, smooth beans for this recipe and also when making jam and some of my soups. They are handy to have around.
If you are making refried beans take five more minutes and make this amazing salsa too. Friends have told me it is the best salsa they have ever had!
Instant Pot Refried Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry pinto beans picked over
- 6 cups water
- 1 smoked ham hock
- 1 bunch of cilantro stems see note
- ½ sweet onion cut into four chunks
- 1 jalapeno pepper optional
- 1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
- 2-3 Tbsp. bacon drippings
- 1-2 tsp. salt add after beans are cooked
Instructions
- Including time to come to pressure, my Instant Pot has these done in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Look through beans and make sure there are no rocks etc.
- Put the beans, water, smoked pork hock, cilantro stems, onion, and black pepper into the pressure cooker. If you want to add the jalapeno remove the seeds or leave them in. Cut the pepper into 4 chunks and add it to the pressure cooker.
- Use a spoon to make sure all the beans are submerged in the water. Put the lid on the Instant Pot in the locked position. Make sure your vent is set to “sealing”.
- Select “Manual setting” and then “+” to increase the cooking time to 40 minutes on High Pressure. The display will show “on” after a few seconds and then the pot is coming up to pressure. Eventually the display will start counting down showing you how much time is left.
- When the pot is done cooking flip the vent to the “venting” position to do a quick release. When finished remove the lid.
- Remove the ham hock and eat or discard. Use an immersion blender to puree the beans.
- Stir in salt and bacon drippings and taste for seasonings. Add additional salt, bacon drippings or pepper as desired.
- Serve warm with your favorite foods. For bean dip I like to stir in some mixed Mexican cheese and serve hot.
Helpful Recipe Notes
Your Rating Matters
When you leave a comment or star rating, it means more than you might think. It helps me understand what you’re enjoying, builds trust for other readers, and supports real, tested cooking content. If you have a moment, I’d truly appreciate you sharing your experience. - Mirlandra
Nutrition Estimate
A Note on Nutrition
Nutritional info is an imperfect estimate. Please take it with a grain of salt.
Brittny says
In ingredients list it says “one bunch of cilantro stems (see notes)
there isn’t a note anywhere though?????
Mirlandra says
Whoops! Thanks for letting me know. The note missed my cut and paste and never made it to the recipe. I’ve fixed it now. Hope that helps!
mmmebert says
Amazing! Utterly amazing! I was using older beans, which can be very hard to cook until they’re uniformly soft – without having them disintegrate.. But with this recipe the beans are all tender -, yet they stayed whole so I was able to pour off some excess liquid. Sadly, I don’t have an immersion blender so I just mashed up everything with a potato masher in about a minute. I didn’t have to use my big blender and then wash it.
Please, please tell me I can do this with other varieties of beans as well.
Mirlandra says
I’m glad it worked so well for you! All beans lend themselves quite well to pressure cooking. I’m glad you had success with old ones – that can be frustrating to figure out.
Stacie says
These were really runny. Like bean soup. Flavor was great though. Next time I’ll use 5 cups water
Mirlandra says
Hi Stacie,
I’m sorry it was too runny for you! I find that as it cools a bit it gets super thick so I start it a bit runny. But everybody has their own preference! You can cook it with less water or take some water out before mashing. I’m sure you will find the perfect way to make it 🙂
Angela says
I’m so excited to make this! If I double the recipe will I need to readjust cook time on my pressure cooker?
Mirlandra says
Hey Angela – Great question! I have an 8qt pressure cooker and this recipe fills it at least half if I remember correctly. I’ve not made a double batch so I googled it quickly and didn’t find anybody who says you can do 2 pounds of beans at once. That would be 16 cups of water! I think you might get a crazy mess. The usual rule of thumb for beans in the IP is not more than half full for beans. The recipe does make a lot and I would suggest just doing back to back batches if you want a bunch to freeze. Good luck!
Angela says
Thank you for the info! I’m new to the pressure cooker world and got an 11 qt Nesco given to me but I don’t know how to navigate everything quite yet! I will work in batches!
Mirlandra says
Hey Angela – I’m so glad I could help! They are great tools but I feel like there is a lot to learn when you are getting started. Maybe I need to write a guide to getting started post 🙂 If you like corned beef that is one of my husband’s favorite IP meals. It makes such wonderfully tender corned beef! Let me know how your batch process works out! Happy cooking!
Samii says
Why do you not soak the beans first?
Mirlandra says
In a pressure cooker you don’t need to! This recipe turns out perfectly without soaking. No hard chunks or other problems. That is one of the reasons I love it! I never have to remember that I need to soak the beans before hand!