Homemade Refried Beans recipe – I highly recommend the crock pot method to get the beans cooked and bacon grease for frying after. Gives them a nice smoky taste, and if you do them correctly, they will NOT be greasy. I waited to salt the beans until after cooking them in the bacon grease, because I’m limiting my sodium intake.
Ingredients
16 oz (1 lb.) bag dry beans (I used pinto)
water
6-8 cloves garlic, divided
1 large or 1 1/2 medium onions, dice half
1 jalapeño, seeded
2 sprigs epazote or oregano
3 TB (at least) bacon fat drippings
Your fave hot sauce
Salt, pepper, and cumin to taste
Method
Rinse and sort/pick through beans. In a medium saucepan (3-4 quart), place beans and enough water to cover and about 1″ more, over medium heat on the stove. Bring to a boil, covered. Let boil, covered, about 15 minutes.
While beans are cooking, dice half the onion and peel all the garlic cloves. Smash 4-6 of the garlic cloves. Chop/mince the other garlic to your liking.
Drain beans after they’re finished cooking. Set them into a crock pot (at least 4 quart size) and cover with water and about 2″ over. Add half the onion (not the chopped half), the seeded jalapeño, the sprigs of herbs, and cover and turn to HIGH. Let the beans cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours, depending on how hot your crock pot runs. Check them after 4-5 hours for tenderness.
Once the beans are as tender as you’d like, but not too mushy (skins falling off most of the beans is a sign they are mushy, but skins being loose on a few is a good sign they are done), drain all but 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Throw out the herb sprigs, set the drained beans and cooked onions/pepper slices into a container suitable for stick blending, or into your blender’s pitcher. Blend the beans to your desired chunkiness or smoothness (I like mine sort of chunky), adding a little bit of the reserved cooking water/hot sauce as you go, to promote creamy and fluffy beans.
Once they are to your liking, add the bacon fat to a large skillet on medium-heat. Heat the fat til it’s melted, then add the remaining minced garlic and chopped onion, saute til tender. Once the garlic/onion are done and the fat is almost sizzling, add the beans, folding the fat into them with a plastic spatula or wooden spoon, working quickly to incorporate all the ingredients and make the beans fluffy, not greasy.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, hot sauce, etc. (I added some cumin and fresh cracked black pepper to mine), and serve.
These are supposedly very freezer-friendly. I started with a small batch, but you could make more.
