Use your Instant Pot or pressure cooker to make these delicious charro beans! A simple recipe that pairs well with a Mexican-themed meal.
Beans, beans, the hard-to-cook fruit. Usually, beans are required to soak, and soak some more, and then cook for two plus hours. A real pain, if you ask me, so I typically avoid the endeavor.
With the Instant Pot, however, you can take beans from hard little rocks to soft, creamy bliss in about one hour!
My favorite bean is the pinto, so I decided to fashion a recipe after a local Mexican food joint.
El Charro is a popular Tucson restaurant that serves up (you guessed it) charro beans like no one's beeswax.
A bit of olive oil, onion, and garlic lend all the flavor necessary. It's truly surprising how incredible these beans taste with such a simple list of ingredients.
We've been enjoying these with a side of Mexican rice.
Jade and Nat like some homemade salsa on the side, along with a good sprinkle of cheddar on the beans.
I like my beans on the softer side, so I set these to 47 minutes. You can always set the pot to 45 minutes, taste them, and restart for another minute or two, using MANUAL mode.
Instant Pot Charro Beans
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped (yellow or red both work well)
- 1 jalapeno chopped (add in seeds as desired for heat; I leave them out)
- 3 large garlic cloves minced
- 1 pound dried pinto beans rinsed
- 5 ½ cups water
- ½ tsp cumin
- 1-2 teaspoons sea salt to taste
- handful cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Hit the SAUTE button on the Instant Pot.
- Add the oil, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and a good sprinkle of salt, and cook 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in the beans, water, and cumin.
- Secure the lid and vent on the pot.
- Cook the beans on high pressure for 45 minutes (see Notes please).
- Let the pot naturally release pressure for ten minutes to avoid a big shooting stream of steam.
- Release remaining pressure, remove the lid, and salt the beans to your taste.
- Stir in the cilantro and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
If you have a chance to try this recipe, please leave a star rating and a comment below letting me know how you liked it!
Kurt
I LOVE this recipe!!! I am a huge fan of the pressure cooker. Thank you for sharing recipes for this awesome cooking tool!!:)
Msamy
The prtion size is 1 gram? Is that right?
Lauren
Hi there,
The info is for one serving, and there are about eight servings. I'm in the process of dealing with a glitch, so it's reading wrong, sorry about that!
Jaime
I cooked for 40 minutes to start with a quick release, but there were still too firm. Added an additional 5 minutes and allowed for a 10 minutes quick release, and they were heaven! Great recipe, and great tip about being able to just start the IP over again if they are too firm--for some reason that would not have occurred to me! Thanks!
Lauren
I'm glad it worked for you Jaime, thanks for the comment!
Courtney
If I use less water will it be thicker
Lauren
I've tried using less and usually, the beans don't cook through as well/fast. You can just pour off any excess liquid at the end, if you like.
Courtney
If I soak the beans should I still cook for 45 minutes
Lauren
I'm honestly unsure, as the beauty of the Instant Pot with beans is that there is no soak time, lol. My guess is yes, but I'm unsure by how much, sorry!
Pati
Frijol perfection EVERY TIME. This is my go-to saved recipe for frijoles charros. It is a great base recipe. I love adding some flair depending on my mood and refrigerator inventory.
Shellie
I cannot get enough of this recipe. It's perfect.