This easy recipe takes dried pinto beans and turns them into flavorful, refried beans in no time. No pre-soaking required—just add the dried beans and the rest of the ingredients into the slow cooker. Once the beans are cooked, all you need to do is blend them and you have creamy, refried beans ready as a side dish or a tasty addition to a burrito or quesadilla.
Ingredient Notes
An overhead view of the ingredients needed to make Slow Cooker Mexican Refried Beans.
Dried Pinto Beans: You can find dried pinto beans in the bulk section or packaged in the bean aisle at any grocery store.
Yellow Onion: Yellow onion adds a nice strong flavor, but white works too.
Garlic: Fresh garlic really brings this recipe to life. You could substitute with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder for each clove.
Salted Butter: If you only have unsalted on hand, just add a pinch salt (adjust to taste).
Jalapeño: A 2-3 inch long chili pepper with a mild-medium heat profile. If you want the flavor of the jalapeño with less heat, remove the white membrane and seeds from the inside of the pepper.
Adjust the Heat
This recipe is the perfect, base recipe to use as a side dish or in a burrito. If you’re looking for more spice, feel free to customize the flavor by adding spices like cumin, cayenne, or simply leave the seeds in the jalapeño that’s already in the refried beans. Adjust spices to your personal preferen
Blending the Beans
We are big fans of the immersion blender. Rather than handling hot liquid to get it into a blender, inevitably spilling, why not just blend in the pot? It seriously reduces our clean-up time.
If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can always carefully pour your soup into a blender fitted with a vented lid.
If you don’t have either, a regular old potato masher can put those arm muscles to work.
