bbq accessories ad
Amazing Ribs Logo

Meathead the Barbecue & Grilling Lover CartoonRead Smoke Signals, our free eletter. No spam. Guaranteed. Enter your email here:

bbq ad

If you like all this free info, please use our links when you shop. Amazon and others pay us a small referral fee when you click our links and purchase from them. It works on anything from grills to diapers and it has zero impact on the price you pay.

http://tinyurl.com/amazingribs

Please save the link above and use it every time you go to Amazon.

Please use the search box above and use it when you search for things on eBay.

Meathead's Award Winning
Meat Temperature Magnet

bbq magnetClick for more info and how to order.

GrillGrates Take You To
The Infrared Zone

BBQ_grill_grates

Hot Stuff Barbecue & Grilling AwardGrillGrates amplify heat, eliminate hot spots, and block flareups. This is the concept behind the expensive new infrared grills. A must add-on for all gas grills. Click here for more about GrillGrates.

The Smokenator:
A Necessity For All Weber Kettles

smokenator

Hot Stuff Barbecue & Grilling AwardIf you have a Weber Kettle, you need the amazing Smokenator and Hovergrill. The Smokenator turns your grill into a first class smoker, and the Hovergrill can add capacity or be used to create steakhouse steaks. Click here to read more.

Digital Thermometer: Stop Guessing!

small thermapen for bbq

Hot Stuff Barbecue & Grilling AwardA good thermometer is why I never serve overcooked or undercooked food. This one has a very thin tip with a tiny thermocouple so it gives an accurate reading in just six seconds. I cannot recommend it more highly. It will improve your cooking overnight and pay for itself in a hurry. And it is inexpensive. Click for more about thermometers.

The Best Steakhouse Knives

knife set small

Hot Stuff Barbecue & Grilling AwardThe same knives used at Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's. Machine washable, high-carbon stainless, hardwood handle. And now they have the AmazingRibs.com imprimatur. Click for more info.

conversion calculator
BBQ Central Ad
BBQ Gift Shop
Big Poppa Smokers ad
texas beans

Grannie's Texas Butter Beans Recipe

The regional beans of the US

Beans are an important part of American culinary heritage. This section contains the canon of American bean dishes, always found accompanying local versions of barbecue.

Boston Baked Beans

New Orleans Red Beans & Rice

Kentucky Bourbon BBQ Baked Beans

Drunken Frijoles from California

South Carolina Hoppin John

During hard times, beans have kept many Texans alive. For more than a few, the bean pot contained simply beans, salt, pepper, and maybe a little pork fat or bacon. You can go crazy with additions, but this is the classic, simple, home style recipe. When you visit classic Texas pitstops, beans are almost always on the menu, and outsiders, particularly Yankees, are often surprised to discover that "Texas Caviar" is simple and not sweet.

There are a million ways to vary this recipe and every Texan has her own twist. Some start with the stripped down recipe below and add potato chunks, bell peppers, anchos, hot sauce, ham hocks, leftover meats, or herbs. Sweeteners, such as molasses, common in Yankee bean dishes such as Boston Baked Beans, rarely appear in Texas beans.

Some cooks play with garnishes at the table, but I keep it simple, just a little jalapeño, if I garnish at all. Sometimes I go crazy and add chopped tomato and raw onion. For a luxe treatment when company's coming, I put a pat of butter or dollop of sour cream on top of each serving.

Below is my version of Texas beans, the kind you might find Grannie dishing out in a farmhouse or at her barbecue joint. You can use just about any bean, but butter beans, pintos, or black-eyed beans (a.k.a. black-eyed peas) are the most common in Texas.

This is a common everyday dish, but in Texas it is traditional to serve black-eyes on New Year's Day to bring good luck for the coming year.

Recipe

Makes. 8 servings as a side dish
Preparation time. 3 hours (plus 6-12 hours soaking if using dried beans)

Ingredients
2 strips bacon, chopped
2 cans (15 ounce each) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 (14 ounce) cans reduced sodium chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can whole, diced, or crushed tomatoes
2 fresh jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method
1) Click here to read my article, The Zen of Beans, for tips on working with beans and equivalents for dry, canned, and cooked beans. Decide which you will use. If you plan to use dried beans, follow the instructions there for peparing them. If you plan to use canned beans, move on to the next step.

2) Heat a Dutch oven or a heavy pot with a medium heat and add the bacon. Cook until it starts to brown and the fat starts to melt. Add the onion and cook until limp.

3) Add the pressed garlic, cumin, bay leaves, and black pepper and cook about 2 minutes.

4) Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, and the beans. Bring to a boil for about a minute and back the heat down to a simmer. Scrape any bits off the bottom. Stir gently. Simmer about 3 hours with the lid on, stirring every 15 to 30 minutes to make sure things don't stick to the bottom.

5) Some folks serve their beans after most of the liquid has been absorbed, others like it more like a thick soup, and some folks like it thinner. You can add water to thin it or smash a few beans if you want to thicken it. Your call. Add cumin, salt, and pepper if you think it needs it. Just before serving remove the bay leaves and add the chopped jalapeño. The reason we wait til the end to add the chile is so its flavor and heat will remain intact and add crunchy little bursts when you eat.

Leftovers
If you have leftovers, smush them up completely. Throw some bacon grease or other fat into a frying pan, cast iron preferably, and when it's hot, add the beans and stir frequently until they are the thickness you prefer. Them's refried beans, partner (in Spanish the prefix "re-" means "well", so "frijoles refritos" means "beans well fried", not "beans fried again").

This page was revised 5/30/2010

Please please please read this before posting a comment or question:

1) Please use the table of contents or the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Please click the "Follow Conversation" button or the "Email" button below your comment so you will be alerted when we reply.
3) Please don't ask any questions that involve temperature unless you tell us that you are using a digital thermometer! Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F! If you are not using a good digital you have no idea what the temp really is so we can't help you. Please read this article about thermometers, then buy one of our recommendations, and then, if the problem persists (chances are it won't), hit us with your questions.
4) Please tell us everything we need to know to answer your question like the type of cooker you are using.

5) If you are shopping for a grill or smoker and need help, tell us your budget!

About this website

AmazingRibs.com is all about the science of barbecue, grilling, and outdoor cooking, with great BBQ recipes and tips on technique. Learn how to set up your grills and smokers properly, the thermodynamics of what happens when heat hits meat, as well as hundreds of excellent tested recipes including all the classics: Baby back ribs, spareribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, burgers, chicken, smoked turkey, lamb, steaks, barbecue sauces, rubs, and side dishes, with the world's best buying guide to barbecue smokers, grills, and accessories, all edited by Meathead.

Advertising on this site

AmazingRibs.com is far the most popular barbecue website in the world and one of the 50 most popular food websites in the US according to comScore and Quantcast. Visitors and pageviews increase rapidly every year. Click here for analytics and advertising info.

LeaderDog.org Ad on BBQ site

© Copyright 2013 by AmazingRibs, Inc. AmazingRibs.com is published by AmazingRibs, Inc., a Florida Corporation. Unless otherwise noted, all text, recipes, photos, and code are owned by AmazingRibs, Inc. and fully protected by US copyright law. This means you need written permission to publish or distribute anything on this website. But we're easy. To get reprint rights, just click here. You do not need permission to link to this site. Note: Some photos of commercial products such as grills were provided by the manufacturers and are under their copyright.