You have a can of beans and what you want is a delicious side dish that you can prepare using simple steps thereby turning this simple can of beans into something really delicious! Here is the Best How to Cook Canned Pinto Beans Recipe (Easy). Your entire family will love these delicious bean s.
Do you love an easy side dish? How about a tasty Main Dish? This recipe is the great thing you are looking for!
You might have tried my easy recipe for dry beans or even my recipe for how to season Pinto Beans. But this delicious recipe will having you dipping your tortilla chips, sprinkling some fresh cilantro and using your favorite seasonings like garlic powder, or ground cumin to make a pot of beans!
It's a LONG way from a plain can of pinto beans! You may also enjoy one of my black beans recipes too!
Cooking canned pinto beans on the stove is a simple yet satisfying way to add flavor and nutrition to your meals.
Simple Side Dish
To start, open a can of pinto beans and rinse them. In a medium sized pot, heat the beans over medium heat, adding a splash of olive oil for richness.
Season with salt, pepper, cumin, paprika or chili powder. Heat for 10-15 minutes until heated through. Serve as a versatile side dish or add them to tacos, salads, soups, burrito bowls or make ranchero beans, frijoles, charros, Mexican pinto beans or many other favorite recipes.
A Great Way to Improve Canned Pinto Beans
For an Easy Recipe,
- Add some olive oil or butter or both.
- Add flavor with bacon, onion, garlic, etc.
- Definitely add some seasoning like salt and pepper, chili powder and other pantry staples.
- Most canned veggies need a little sugar, seriously, add just a tad.
- That’s it! You are good to go!
Tips and Tricks for a Can of Pinto Beans
- It is important to do your cooking math! One can of beans feeds about 2 people, so if you are feeding more people simply divide the number of people you have by 2 and that's how many cans you need for a great side dish.
- Just increase the other ingredients by however many cans of beans you need to use to feed your family.
- Always drain the liquid off of the pinto beans before doing anything else. Some might say there is flavor in that liquid, but honestly, that liquid doesn’t taste very good. It isn’t the type of flavor I look for in my bean recipes!
- Rinse the beans too if the liquid looks really thick and sticky. Sometimes it does. I don’t know why this happens, but if you are in question, then put your beans in a colander or strainer and rinse them off with cold tap water.
- In the recipe card, I give instructions for adding onion, garlic and bacon. All of those are great ingredients but not entirely necessary if you don’t have them available. What is necessary is salt, pepper and a tiny bit of sugar.
PRO TIP:
To make your beans extra creamy, use an immersion blender once they are heated through and the cooking process is done and give them a short zap and then mix well with a spoon. This will give a creamy texture.
Information About Canned Pinto Beans
- According to the USDA, canned beans are already cooked enough. You actually could just eat them right out of the can but who would want to do that? We want to add a little flavor here instead.
- When you serve your pinto beans, keep in mind that a lot of people like fresh chopped onion and hot sauce with their beans. This adds a little crunch and spice to the beans and is a nice addition. How about adding some crunchy bacon sprinkled on top for another nice addition?
- You are going to be asking yourself, “Why in the world would I add sugar to beans?”. I’ll just give you the final answer, our tongues like to taste a little something sweet combined with salty and smoky. You'll notice that this makes flavorful beans with a home-cooked beans taste.
How To Handle Leftover Beans
Storage - Store leftover pinto beans in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days.
Freeze - You can freeze your leftover pinto beans in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months.
Reheat - To reheat, place into a microwave-safe bowl or into a sauce pan, add a bit of water to loosen and heat. In the microwave, heat for 1 minute intervals. Heat on the stovetop over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until heated through.
Serving Suggestions
Pinto Beans are a hearty side dish and work well on top of salads too.
Excellent with Rice. Terrific mashed as refried beans.
Great as a side dish to any country style food you prefer like mac and cheese, fried chicken and more!
Watch Me Make This Dish
I would love to see what you have created with your pinto beans! Leave me a comment below, drop me an email or find me on social media and drop a note. I always answer back as quickly as I can.
If you can leave a 5 STAR comment in the comment section, that helps others to find the recipes at Loaves and Dishes and I appreciate it so much!
How To Cook Canned Pinto Beans (Easy)
Ingredients
- 1 tbs cooking oil
- ½ inch slice of yellow onion - chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 slice of bacon - cut into 1 inch pieces
- 15 oz can pinto beans
- ½ cup water ***See Pro Tip***
- 1 tbs unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon white granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon cooking oil over medium heat. When the oil is shimmery on the top add the chopped onion and garlic and saute until soft and nearly see through (about 2 minutes)
- Add the bacon and cook together until the bacon is soft and nearly done.
- Drain the liquid from the can of pinto beans
- Now Add the pinto beans to the sauce pan and continue to heat over medium heat.
- Add ½ cup fresh water to the pinto beans
- Put the butter, sugar, hot sauce, salt and pepper in and heat till bubbly.
- Taste before serving and add more salt and pepper if needed. Garnish with chopped onion and hot sauce
Notes
- It is important to do your cooking math! One can of beans feeds about 2 people, so if you are feeding more people simply divide the number of people you have by 2 and that's how many cans you need.
- Just increase the other ingredients by however many cans of beans you need to use to feed your family.
- Always drain the liquid off of the pinto beans before doing anything else. Some might say there is flavor in that liquid, but honestly, most of the time I think that liquid doesn’t taste very good. It isn’t the type of flavor I look for in my bean recipes!
- Rinse the beans too if the liquid looks really thick and sticky. Sometimes it does. I don’t know why this happens, but if you are in question, then put your beans in a colander or strainer and rinse them off with cold tap water.
- In the recipe, I give instructions for adding onion, garlic and bacon. All of those are great ingredients but not entirely necessary if you don’t have them available. What is necessary is salt, pepper and a tiny bit of sugar.
Nutrition
This article was originally published on Loaves and Dishes on April 14, 2018 and has been updated to include new information about canned pinto beans and to be much more helpful to the reader.
A VERSE TO SHARE
Luke 6: 27-36
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Kathy says
This was soo good and easy! I had the smallest bit of ham so I used this in place of the bacon and soo glad I did! Thanks for a keeper recipe!!
Wendi Spraker says
I'm so glad that you loved it! 🙂 Thanks for leaving a comment!
Catherine says
Oh, my goodness! I made your canned pinto bean recipe and they are the BEST beans that I ever had! In fact, I will apply the ingredients to fresh pinto beans (that you have to soak), when I make these again. The sugar makes them! To think that I was a skeptic about the sugar! The sugar was a perfect subtle taste balancer. Because I am a vegetarian, I used a vegan/vegetarian broth from a condensed cube and I waited until it was time to serve the cooked beans to add vegan bacon bits and some fresh uncooked yellow onions even though I did cook the bulk of the onions as called out in your receipt. Thank you so much! My life is richer now.
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Catherine, Thank you so much for such a kind comment. I was a vegetarian for 7 years and I completely understand the joy of finding something that add a lot of flavor without adding meat. I hope you'll check out some of my other recipes too.
Brianne says
This is a nice and simple recipe, but I would say the beans taste amazing without adding sugar. There’s no need. I added the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and hot sauce and added the fresh onion on top to serve and they taste amazing.
Wendi Spraker says
I'm glad you enjoyed them Brianne!
Brianne says
Thank you 🙂 I forgot to add I use bone broth in place of water. Lots of flavor 🙂
Wendi Spraker says
Great!
Karolina says
Hi Wendi!
Thank you for the recipe! I did however make a few changes to it! Here is what I did:
Olive oil
2 shallots
1 garlic clove
I mixed Pinto beans and white beans
Provencal herbs
Cayenne pepper
Paprika
Georgian Salt mix with some cumin in it and pepper
A bit of water to make a sauce and...
Ketchup to replace the sugar!
It was delicious!! 🙂
Wendi Spraker says
Karolina, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Sounds like you really doctored things up! I bet it was delicious!
Karolina says
Hi Wendi!
Thank you for the recipe! I did however make a few changes to it! Here is what I did:
Olive oil
2 shallots
1 garlic clove
I mixed Pinto beans and white beans
Provencal herbs
Cayenne pepper
Paprika
Georgian Salt mix with some cumin in it and pepper
A bit of water to make a sauce and...
Ketchup to replace the sugar!
It was delicious!! 🙂
Tracy Verardi says
These are delicious! I make them with every Mexican meal we have. Thank you for sharing Wendi.
Wendi Spraker says
Thanks Tracy! I'm glad ya'll love them!
Debbie Simmons says
I made this and thought it was delicious!! I will be making it again!
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Debbie! Thanks for letting me know! I appreciate it so much!
Cat says
I searched for CANNED pinto beans and rice recipes, so I can use up some pantry items. I'm glad I found Loaves and Dishes! For rice and beans, should I add the rice and more water to the beans, or cook them separately and spoon the beans over rice? Thank you!
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Cat,
Thanks for asking. What I do is to cook them separately, add some tomato sauce and Adobo seasoning to the rice and then spoon the beans over the rice. I'll look into a recipe to cook them all together. 🙂 . That's a great idea.
Mack says
Born and Raised on pinto beans and cornbread daddy will always have it full of Buttermilk and onions though me after he gets done with the Cornbread his mama showed him it's pinto beans cornbread and vinegar for this guy
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Mack! Thanks for leaving a comment. Vinegar is always a welcome addition to beans in my opinion! 🙂 Have a good one!
Veronica E Williams says
Hello. I use a tablespoon of bacon grease, onion powder, salt, and liquid smoke in my canned pinto beans and black eye peas. I used canned today, and added a slice of cooked bacon chopped, bacon grease, a pinch of salt, onion powder, and liquid smoked. I had a 30 ounce can of pinto beans from Aldi. I made some corn cakes, and voila. I loved your recipe. Thank you.
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Veronica! Thanks so much for leaving me a comment! Sounds like you are totally on top of the recipes! Sounds wonderful!
Larry Adams says
I learned how to cook pinto beans on the stove top. Have since gone to the pressure cooker. My addition would be smoked ham hocks. Nothing flavors pinto beans like ham hocks. There isn't much meat on hocks so I add some diced ham. The hocks also give off a lot of fat, so I wrap them in cheese cloth to keep them from falling apart and having to fish out the pieces of fat, and the dish can be cooled to skim the liquid fat released. Makes for great pinto beans.
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Larry, Thanks for leaving a comment! I'm so glad you stopped by! Have an excellent week!
Eileen Hightower says
Great recipes. If you want thickened pinto beans. Take about a cup of pinto beans from the slow cooker and mash them. Add them back to the pinto beans to finish cooking. They will thicken nicely.
Ann says
Don't laugh, but if you drain all the liquid and rinse the beans, where is that delicious pinto broth that I remember ladeling over my grandma's cornbread? Do you just have beans? So sorry, I am a novice and recipe follower when it comes to cooking, so do I add water somewhere along the road???
Wendi Spraker says
Hi Ann,
You add a half cup of water back to the beans. It's in the recipe. If you want a lot of "pot liquor" (that's what I've always grown up calling it), you'll want to cut the heat down and simmer your beans for a longer time. If you REALLY want to add MORE flavor, add about 3/4 cup chicken stock instead of the water. Of course, you are always free to simply use the bean juice that is in the can. It is a personal preference. I think it has a tin can taste others probably don't taste it at all. Thanks for asking Ann! Have a wonderful day!
K says
I do not find adding water anywhere in this recipe. You must have missed it
Wendi Spraker says
Good catch K. I've gone in and corrected that and added a couple of "pro tips" that will make your pintos extra special good! 🙂
Rebecca says
Thank you for sharing!!! I'm a super busy mom with two boys in school, I work till 6 and attend church 3 days a week needless to say it is sometimes hard to get a decent meal in a hurry... My kiddos love red beans and rice but I'm not always the best at prepping ahead.... both of these recipes sound yummy thanks for sharing!
Wendi Spraker says
Awww. Wonderful. Bless you busy mom. I was there for so many years. Hang in there. 🙂
Moxie says
You are absolutely the Pinto Bean Queen of the internet!
Sharon says
We love Walmart Brand pinto beans! They are so nice and firm and don’t get mushy after cooking a while with the add-ins. Sauté 3 slices of bacon cut into half inch pieces; add and sauté diced onion and bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic minced and 1 jalapeño minced. Add 3 or 4 cans of beans with liquid along with a can of Rotel tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Add chopped cilantro before serving. Best pinto beans ever says my husband.
Wendi Spraker says
Thanks Sharon for sharing how you "doctor" up some pinto beans! I love that the most about this family at Loaves and Dishes. Always willing to share. 🙂
Linda says
Aren't these beans spicy hot with the hot sauce?
Wendi Spraker says
No, they are less hot than the salsa at my local Mexican food restaurant.