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Quick and easy restaurant style refried black beans made right in your instant pot! The best part, you don’t even have to presoak the black beans!
From scratch refried black beans coming at you today!
Restaurant style refried black beans right in your instant pot. Yes, you read that right.
These can be served 1 of 1000 different ways, starting with plopping it right on to your plate and serving it as a side dish to a burrito or enchiladas. But you can also load them into bean and cheese quesadillas, tacos, make Crunchwraps, layer it in a 7-layer bean dip, and serving it with tortilla chips, amongst so many others.
I shouldn’t even have to state the obvious, but homemade refried beans are undoubtedly better than the canned version.
If you’ve had classic refried pinto beans at your favorite Mexican restaurant, they taste just like those, only we’re making the simple swap of black beans for pinto beans here.
Ingredients for creamy refried black beans
- Black Beans: The best part about this modernized traditional refried beansrecipe is that you do not need to soak the beans. You can if time permits and it does cu the cooking time in half, but it’s not at all necessary.
- Spices: I use ground cumin for smokiness, chipotle chili powder for a little heat, and dried oregano to give this plenty of flavor.
- Ghee: I like to use ghee because I don’t typically keep beef tallow on hand and do not use lard. If you’re making refried beans vegan, just swap this for oil.
- Onions: I like to use white onion for this recipe, but you can also use yellow onions here. Feel free to add some minced garlic as well, I typically don’t/
- Jalapeños: add just the right amount of heat. Feel free to omit these if you don’t want ay heat
- Kosher Salt: gives the beans plenty of salt that they demand
- Toppings: you’ll need cilantro to add a burst of freshness and cotija cheese or queso fresco make great toppings.
Recipe Tip
- Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave. For long term storage, you can pop them into freezer safe bags or a box and freeze up to 6 months.
Other recipes you might enjoy
- Easy Blender Salsa
- Huevos a la Mexicana (Scrambled egg bowl)
- Charred Corn Avocado Salad with Pickled Onions
- Tex-Mex Migas Breakfast Tacos
- Restaurant-Style Mexican Rice
Refried Black Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry black beans (~2½ cups)
- 6 cups water
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ -1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano Mexican if you can find it!
- ¼ cup ghee or beef tallow or lard
- 1 cup white onions diced
- 1-2 minced jalapeños seeds + ribs removed
- 2 teaspoons salt
- fresh cilantro, queso fresco or cotija cheese for topping
Instructions
- FILL: Add the dried beans, water, ground cumin, chipotle chili powder, and oregano to the instant pot (or a stove top pressure cooker), secure the lid.
- PRESSURE COOK: Hit the bean/chili button and let cook for 45-48 minutes if you're beans are about 1 month old or newer. If they've been in your pantry for a while, set for 47-48 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally or turn the knob to 'vent'.
- SAVE: Reserve 2½ cups of liquid in a measuring cup, drain the rest of the liquid from the beans.
- STOVETOP: Heat ghee/beef tallow/ lard in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and jalapeños and allow them to cook until they just start to brown, about 8-10 minutes. Pour the ghee and onion mixture into the cooked black beans and stir to combine. Add the salt and stir.
- BLEND: Use an immersion blender for smoother beans or a potato masher to mash the beans along with ½ cup of reserved liquid. Add more liquid to achieve your desired consistency. I used about 1 cup liquid total. Taste and adjust seasonings to taste.
- TROUBLE SHOOT: If beans become too thin, hit the saute setting and let cook for 5-7 minutes or until thickened to desired texture. Remember, beans will thicken as they sit so if you aren't serving immediately, consider leaving them a little thinner.
- SERVE: Top with fresh cilantro, jalapeños and cotija cheese before serving!
Notes
- I like to use ghee for this recipe which makes these beans vegetarian, you can use oil for vegans or rendered animal fat for meat eaters!
- Beans can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
How long would you cook this if you did soak beans. I already soaked and prefer them that way and then looked for a recipe. I’ll try this one and maybe 13 min is my guess? Thoughts?
Excellent recipe! Very easy to make. I added about 10 roasted garlic cloves since I have them & will need to use them. Added great flavor. Will definitely make again since I love refried beans.
I make this several times a month – it’s a favourite in our house! I do make a few modifications:
1. I replace the water with vegetable broth.
2. I sauté 3 chopped garlic cloves with the onions.
3. I omit the jalapenos to keep it kid-friendly.
4. I omit the salt as my vegetable broth has salt.
Marzia, thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe!
Very tasty recipe. Great for something a bit different.
Fantastic! Doubled in my Duo 6 quart. Drained beans then sautéed onions and jalapeño in the pot and added beans back in. Used immersion blender to thicken but kept some texture. Delicious with toppings and lots left over for the freezer. Next time I will reduce the water because I had lots that I didn’t use.
Couldn’t you just use sautéed fearure first to sauté onions and jalapeños in ghee then add beans and liquid and cook? One pot easy peasy.
That works and you can certainly do that! To make authentic refried beans, you traditionally add the fat/onions once the beans are cooked 🙂
Do you know if the Instant Pot could handle double the recipe? I need to make some refried beans for a potluck, and this sounded like a fun recipe to try.
Hi Gwen! That’s actually a great question. My original thought was yes, but after doing a little research, it turns out that you should only fill a pressure cooker ½ way full when cooking beans or rice. A single batch of this recipe does that so unfortunately if you decide to make this recipe, you’ll have to do it in batches.