Slow Cooker Refried Beans (Frijoles Refritos)

Name: Slow Cooker Frijoles (Refried Beans) with a Mexican Round-up For Cinco de Mayo
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 540 min
Total time: 545 min
Ingredients: 5 cups dried pinto beans (rinsed and picked over); 7 cups water; 2 2/3 cups Chicken (beef or vegetable stock (2 - 11 oz. cans)); 1 medium white onion (chopped); 2 tablespoon garlic, granulated; 2½ tablespoon ground cumin; 1 tablespoon Chili powder; 2 teaspoon dry adobo seasoning; 2 teaspoon pepper to taste; 2 teaspoon salt to taste; Garnishes:; grated cheddar cheese ((optional))

Posted on April 7, 2021 By Beth Neels

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These Slow Cooker Refried Beans take only 5 minutes prep, turn on the slow cooker and leave them! No soaking the beans is required.

Bowls filled with mashed beans. Refried beans style. — Slow Cooker Frijoles

I don’t know if you are like me, but if you are, you hate cooking dry beans! I have tried them so many times. They are soaked over night and rinsed thoroughly. Then I place them in new water or stock.

They are then brought to a boil, the heat is reduced and then they are simmered. For 1 hour, taste them, they are not even close to done. For 2 hours they are a little better but still not even close.

So I let them go for 3 hours and they are still slightly crunchy. It drives me nuts, so I just end up using canned beans to make frijoles.

The only thing that draws me back to dried is that dry beans are so cheap and being the cheap-skate that I am, I always want to give them another try.

I usually end up disappointed. For this reason when I learned to cook the beans in the slow cooker, I was elated. Feel free to tweak the spices to suit your taste.

Here is a quick YouTube Video to show you how to go about the process.

What you need

dry pinto beans
water or chicken broth
white or yellow onion
mild pepper (optional) or substitute jalapeno pepper if you’d like the beans hotter
granulated garlic or fresh cloves garlic
cumin
chili powder
adobo seasoning
salt & pepper

Ingredients for beans. Pinto beans, garlic, bay leaf, pepper, onion, salt, pepper.

How to make them

Rinse and sort beans. Remove any small stones or foreign objects.
Place beans in slow cooker.
Chop vegetables.
Add remaining ingredients.

Cook beans on low for 6-8 hours until tender. Drain, reserving liquid. Mash beans with a potato masher or use an immersion blender, adding enough of the cooking liquid back to the beans to make them the desired consistency.

Traditionally, after the beans were cooked they were “refried” in a frying pan with lard (you can substitute olive oil).

How to serve them

Beans are delicious served with shredded cheese and used as a bean dip for tortilla chips. Use them in tacos, taquitos, burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas and more.

Serve with all of your favorite Mexican dishes. See a list below.

In a hurry for beans? Check out these Instant pot pinto beans. They are as easy as these but take about 30 minutes total to cook. A perfect time saver when you’re in a hurry.

Here are more delicious recipes to serve with frijoles.

Burritos with Leyden Cheese Sauce

Cumin spiced Leyden Cheese makes these burritos extra special!

What you need

How to make them

How to serve them

Slow Cooker Frijoles (Refried Beans) with a Mexican Round-up For Cinco de Mayo

Ingredients

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