not talking about baked beans, but you know i wasn't. have baked a few, a few different ways.

but today's interest is original cowboy bean recipes. and what do you do to gussy them up if anything?

how hot are they, not off the fire, but with the peppers?

what kind of beans usually? or mix of beans? i've eaten lot's of pintos and black eye peas.

is meat mandatory? if so, beef only or use it if ya got it?

cornbread would be an accessory? what else?

Gus,
Check out this guys videos if your interested in cowboy cooking.
Here's one on beans.

2 cups of pinto beans cooked in a pressure cooker for about 10minutes or two cans of pinto beans
1 # diced ham
1 can diced tomatoes,
1/2 can tomatoe sauce
1-2 cups beef broth ( it all gets cooked away mostly)
1 medium size diced onion.
6 fresh roasted chilies, medium mild or hot,your preference or 4 cans diced green chili and a few diced jalapeno slices.
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon greek seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt depending how salty the ham is.

Makes about 4 servings

thanks guys. looks like we're off and rolling.

so far, it looks like pinto beans are de rigour and honorable mention to the anazasi beans.

one good recipe meatless, one with meat - ham. i like ham.

I just made these in my slow cooker last week:

1 lb uncooked pinto beans
6 slices bacon diced
3 all beef hot dogs diced
1 cup ham diced
1 pound Mexican chorizo (from the deli case - not a tube - or homemade)
1 small can Rotel with chilis
1/2 bunch of cilantro chopped
1/2 onion diced
2 jalapeños finely diced
2 chipotle peppers (or more depending on how spicy you want it)
3 cloves garlic chopped
pepper, oregano, paprika, cumin, and salt to taste.


Cook the Pinto Beans - Slow Cooker
Add the rinsed beans to a slow cooker with plenty of water, salt, and a small piece of onion.
Turn the slow cooker on to high and heat for 3 hours.

To Make The Charro Beans

Add the bacon to a large pot and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the chorizo and continue cooking until cooked through.
After about 5 minutes, add the ham, the beef franks, and the seasonings (including the garlic).
Next, add the Rotel, the cilantro, the onion, the jalapeno, and the chipotle pepper and cook for 5 additional minutes.

Finally, add the cooked pinto beans and the water that they were cooked in and let boil for about 15 minutes so that all of the flavors can combine.
If you want to thicken your charro beans, you can take about 30% out and mask them, then add back to the pot. Or you can combine 2 tablespoons
of corn starch with 1/4 cup of cold water and mix well before adding it to the pot.

Serve hot as a side dish or on its own. I live mine with homemade corn bread.

now we're talking. corn bread makes it to the table, and another vote for pinto beans. is there a pattern here?

so, are they (the beans) suppose to be hot as in spicy with peppers, or just mildly hot?

no mention of hamburger at least so far.

I'm not a fan of the tomatoes or tomato sauce in my cowboy/ranch beans.
Hot dogs?
I'll stick with the bacon or ham hocks.

ham hocks while containing some protein is more flavoring than a meat additive in my thinking?

so far pintos are the beans of choice.

here in the north ga. mtns we always ate them with salt, pepper and hog lard, or grease. and cornbread & a slice of onion, maybe a baked or fried porkchop.

allus thought the cowboy beans were spicy. baked beans are never bad, but different from cowboy beans.

Mine is simply a pound of pinto beans, soaked overnight if you don't pressure cook them, into the pressure cooker with one good size ham hock, salt pepper, garlic, and 1/2 of a medium onion chopped up. 45 minutes in the pressure cooker, let the pressure come down naturally, take the meat off the hock and shred back into the pot, and eat with a very large dish of cornbread. I have also heard that a good lager of one's choice adds to the flavor.

A pot of beans, like stew, are things I've not made the same two times. Hard to mess it up, unless you really try hard.

simple solutions to success means a lot to me, a simple man that i am.

it probably comes down to do we want to mostly taste the beans, and/or the complementary seasonings to the beans.

honestly, i figured folks would be loading on with beef products added to the beans and peppers.

so far, i'm off the mark. but we're not speaking of a version of chile. we're speaking of beans, cowboy type.

plain pintoes have been in my house, and the ancestors places for ages. now we're spreading out to the cowboy variety.

if i do it, i want to do it right. so far, pintoes, some salt, pepper, ham hock or similar. help me get it right.

Agree^^^^^^^^^^

I like smoked shanks best but bacon and/or hocks will work too.

Cowboy beans without smoked brisket or pork? I'm out.

At least put a bunch of jalapenos in the dang things.

Well, first would be the hat, then the tiny boots, followed by the little gun belt.....
https://cdn.drawception.com/images/panels/2016/11-12/BMac1fnfmL-5.png

Roger posted a recipe the other day that just has pintos, smoked brisket, onion, and spices that looks pretty dang good.

https://www.homesicktexan.com/2015/07/pinto-beans-aaron-franklin-barbecue.html

That Aaron Franklin recipe looks pretty darn good. I'm going to try beans with the beef; always used pork of some kind.

Don't know if these qualify as "cowboy beans", but they're good. Posted this in the what's for dinner thread too.
I usually omit the jalapeno.

Agreed....it does look good. I've never used beef either but I'm fixing to.

I like the looks of Ironbender's no meat recipe too.
The picture he posted of some of it a few days ago made my mouth water.

EdM was also kind enough to send me a bottle of Fiesta Brand pinto bean seasoning.


There is a recipe on the back.

pound of pintos,

4 ozs ham hock or salt pork

3 tablespoons Pinto Bean season


Simple and very good.


I did not soak my beans long enough and they were tough. Soak for the full time!

The first few times I made it was meatless.

My son about 15 at the time had a spoonful, looked at me and said.....where da meat??

The pic I posted had a meaty ham bone when cooking. Also, I used canned pintos as I did t have to e to soak.

Canned pintos!?


Pinto Purgatory for you!

And, no one has posted that clip from Blazing Saddles, thankfully.

it looks like pintos of one kind, type, sort or another are the bean of choice.

i thought there might be some mixed bean cowboy beans.

thankfully i've always liked pintos.

they fit right in.

If I am honest....pintos are okay....not something we ate growing up.

Not a lot of pintos up here.

He did add a ham bone Jim......how do you feel about a probationary period?

Speaking of Purgatory......this oughtta get me banned.


Try putting a bag of frozen cut Okra in your pinto's the last hour.

The first timers can use a 12oz bag but I like 16oz's of Okra in 16oz's of beans.

Tag

Most any simple bean recipe works for me.
I like Peruano Beans or Anasazi.
Add onion, garlic, black and white pepper chili peppers to taste, cumin.
charlee

Posted that with great trepidation. Just knew some jabroni would pipe up.

I will have to go look up what in the hell a Jabroni is......but I bet its closely related to a jackwagon.

Soak beans, boil, add jalapenos, onions, garlic, and bacon or hocks. When they cream, add butter. Adjust salt before serving.

Check with my good friend 2legit2quit.

He is King of the jabronis.

Get yourself a instapot and never worry about undercooked beans ever again!

Jim,

I like throwing a good bit of fresh cilantro in those beans.

Anyone else notice him feed that dog off his spoon.
And it looked like he was going to use it to eat some more.

Batchy.

Yes sir. I saw those when he posted them and made them the following weekend. I had a pound of smoke pork butt in the freezer, so used that instead of brisket. The jalapeno addition was necessary too. I'm eating them for lunch today.

Not many bean recipes out there that aren't loaded with brown sugar and ketchup (more sugar). These are relatively low carb except for the carbs bound to the bean fiber.

got my pot on now. no pics cause 'm a luddite among other things..

1lb. red beans from publix, soaked overnight.

fried 1 lb. of smoked center cut bacon, and chopped up.

1 lb. of ground beef, fried and drained.

all into a pot that wasn't quite big enough, so to a bigger pot it all went.

garlic, onion, 6 sliced green jalapenos, no seeds or veins.

been on a boil for 2 hours, they need a bit more.

everytime i tasted they tasted good. probably store in the fridge overnight, and skim the fat tommorrow.

the fat is flavor, but it might could clog an artery i don't know.

we'll use plain whole milk to make the cornbread, it's good either way.

Sounds good...

I keep a large bag of southwestern spices in a freezer bag. Typically just start beans w water. Strong boil. . Cook hard for 30”. At that time I add half a rasher bacon. I cook half a rope of smoked sausage. Fine chop first onion to Sacrifice. Burner to medium. First dump of spices to pot. Cover and cook an hour stir every 20”. When skins start to shrivel reduce heat. I use hot water as I need to add. Add seeded jalapeños to taste. Fine chop another onion and add. Continue until done. Cream a cup or so and add back to thicken.

I had never done dogs either until a lady friend "Latina" told me that is how all of the women from her area of Mexico make Charro Beans.

it's difficult to know where the borderlines are between chili w/beans, and baked beans with hotdogs & bacon, and cowboy beans.

to me, cowboy beans are a bit spicy and can include beef, bacon & hotdogs. or even include a basic smoked ham hock. it's all good.

some sugar in the base probably helps, but i don't do much sugar anymore, doctor orders.

my red beans are about gone, probably do pinto's next time. didn't have any last time, just the reds.

my gastro doctor people advises me to eat plenty of fiber. i reckon beans are fibrous enough.

Bored today, never had any better than mine.... On the smoker for 4 hours now...

yum. that looks like mixed-beans in the cowboy tradition.

last time at the store i got a 2lb. bag of mixed dry beans.

i've got pintos on the shelf too, just in case they are needed.

the first pot was dry red beans w/bacon & hamburger.

I like calico beans.

Hamms bean soup ......

we have dry bagged calico beans in our local kroger.

got them on the list to try.

should have bagged a bag when i procured the mixed beans & pintos.

Did not know calico was a variety!

We know it as a recipe.

tell us how y'all do it.

might be something we can add to the recipe box.

Think there’s 8 different types of beans, plus chick peas, 1 lb deer/elk/antelope, 1lb of bacon, cup of bourbon, brown sugar, ketchup, stone ground mustard, 1 onion vinegar, best I’ve ever had..

that sounds both simple and delicious. it don't get no better than that.

Made some cowboy, or ranch beans last night.

I lb. ground beef

1 package little smokies, cut into thirds

One large onion, diced

2 jalipanos, diced

1 cerrano pepper, diced

2 cans beef broth

2 cans pinto beans

1 can kidney beans


1 tsp black pepper


Fried up meat, etc. and added broth. Brought to a boil, then simmered for2 hours.

Turned out pretty darn good! Virgil B.