I use this recipe with black, pinto, or red kidney beans. It is a mix of my mother-in-law’s with my grandmother’s. You can always shortcut some steps, and make a few modifications, but following the whole recipe is delicious!


 

Ingredients

  • Bag of beans
  • Water for soaking
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 1 serrano pepper
  • 1 chorizo link
  • Oil or lard
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 TBS of powdered Chicken bouillon

Frijoles – Beans


Directions

Get the beans out of the bag, place in a tray and look for small rocks. Discard the rocks if any are found.

Rinse the beans in running water, and place in a bowl covered with water (enough for the beans to expand). Let rest for at least eight hours. If you forgot to do this, you can place the beans in a pressure cooker, cover them with water, add a TBS of salt, and cook for two minutes in the high setting (i.e. two minutes after the pressure cooking process has started). Release the pressure, rinse the beans and proceed to the next step.  

Discard the water and rinse the beans one last time.

Place the beans in a pot, and cover with Chicken broth (about 4 cups). If no broth is available, cover with water and add two TBS of chicken bouillon. I use an InstantPot.

If using an Instant Pot, cook on high pressure for 17 minutes and use the natural release method. 

If using a regular pot, bring to a boil, and lower the flame to cook until tender over medium low heat.

While the beans are cooking, place the chorizo in a skillet, and cook on medium heat while breaking the chorizo into smaller bits while it is getting cooked. Once the chorizo is almost cooked, add the chopped onion and cook until is almost burnt (not really, but this is how my mother-in-law used to say it, you want the onion caramelized), add the serrano peppers and cook until they are tender. During this process you can add more oil or lard if the chorizo did not have enough fat to sauté the onions and serranos.

Ingredients Directions