Pinto beans are the standard beans used in chili recipes. Cooking pinto beans for chili is simple. If you have a pressure cooker the total time for cooking can be cut to less than an hour, but even the traditional method only takes three to four hours and requires very little work. If you soak the beans overnight, the time required to cook the beans can be even less.
Instructions
Presoak the Beans
1. Sort the beans by placing a small amount of beans in your hand and making sure that there are no foreign objects, such as small pebbles or bean plant stems in the package. While this doesn't happen often, this should be done just to make sure that you are cooking nothing but beans.
2. Place the beans into a stockpot or the base of your pressure cooker.
3. Fill the pot with water, cover and let the beans soak overnight or for at least six hours.
4. Drain the water from the beans. You will see that the beans have plumped to about twice the size of the original dried beans.
Cooking in a Stock Pot
5. Place the beans back into the stockpot and cover the beans with enough water so that the water level is 3 to 4 inches above the beans.
6. Add in any chili seasonings you desire. This could be several tbsps. of chili powder, a tsp. of cumin and hot pepper flakes to taste. These flavors will be absorbed into the beans as they cook.
7. Bring the water in the beans to a boil and then turn the heat down to where the water is simmering a slow boil.
8. Let the beans cooks until soft, stirring occasionally to make sure that the beans are not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
9. Drain the beans and add the remainder of the chili ingredients and cook according to the chili recipe.
In a Pressure Cooker
10. Place the beans in the pot of the pressure cooker.
11. Add any desired seasonings to the beans.
12. Fill the pressure cooker with water to the fill line marked inside the cooker pot.
13. Lock the lid of the pressure cooker in place.
14. Cook the beans over medium heat until the pressure gauge begins to jiggle.
15. Turn the heat to medium low and continue to cook for 45 to 50 minutes.
16. Remove the pressure cooker from the heat and allow the cooker to cool.
17.Unlock the lid of the cooker and use the cooked pinto beans in any chili recipe.
Tags: pressure cooker, beans chili, Place beans, sure that, chili recipe