Charro Beans are pinto beans cooked with bacon, onion, garlic and spicy tomatoes. They can be a meal on their own or served as a side.
Charro Beans
These flavorful Mexican beans make such a great side dish or even a meal on their own. I love serving mine with Chicken Empanadas or Margarita marinated chicken.
If you need a good pinto beans recipe, these are a must make! Using canned pinto beans means these can be made in 30 minutes. Serve them for taco Tuesday or upcoming Cinco de Mayo!
The bacon in these charro beans adds so much flavor and meatiness to the dish. If you are out of bacon, you could substitute chorizo or even diced ham.
What are Charro Beans
They are a Mexican style pork and beans. Pinto beans cooked usually with bacon, spicy tomatoes and served in a broth. Charro roughly translates to “cowboy” but they are not to be confused with these Cowboy Beans made with ground beef.
How to make Charro Beans
- Start with bacon. Shouldn’t every recipe start like that?! 🙂 Make sure to cut it up into small pieces. I used 7 strips of bacon for this recipe.
- Brown the bacon in a skillet over medium heat. At this point you can drain some of the extra bacon fat but I like to keep it in for added flavor. Add in diced onions and cook until they start to get tender. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Add in some garlic, a can of tomatoes with green chilies, 2 cans of pinto beans and some beef broth. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes.
- These beans are served in a little broth. So they will be a little soupy. Add a little cilantro if you like or even some shredded cheese.
- I like eating these in a big bowl but they are also fantastic on top of nachos!
Charro Beans
Ingredients
- 6-7 pieces of bacon, chopped into small pieces
- 1 cup sweet onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can tomatoes with green chilies (I use Rotel)
- 1.5 cups beef broth
- 2 16 oz cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Instructions
- Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until starts to brown and add diced onion.
- Cook onion for about 5 minutes and then add garlic. Cook for another minute.
- Stir in tomatoes with green chilies, pinto beans and broth. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Serve warm.
Nutrition
Leave a Reply