Learn how to cook pinto beans on the stove using two simple ingredients – dried pinto beans and water! Cooking pinto beans on the stove is easy, cheaper than buying the canned version, and makes the best creamy and tender pinto beans ever!
Dried pinto beans are staple in my pantry. Not only are they cheap and affordable, but they’re easy to make, nutritious, filling, and super versatile! They can be eaten on their own, as a side dish or incorporated into recipes like soups, stews, chilis, and easy dinners like burritos and tostadas.
If you’ve never cooked dried pinto beans before, don’t fret! It’s literally as easy as pouring water into a pot and letting the beans simmer. Once you learn how to make them at home, you’ll never buy canned beans again!
The essential ingredients
To cook pinto beans on the stove, there are only 2 ingredients you need:
- 1 pound dried pinto beans
- water
Anything else you want to add is optional and extra. This is how I typically make my beans. Once they’re cooked, I use them in different recipes which is when I like to add other ingredients and seasonings.
Other seasonings and aromatics
If you plan on eating your pinto beans as is and aren’t going to use them in any other recipes, you can season them while they’re cooking. Here are a few ingredients you can add to the pot to enhance their flavor:
- 1/2 onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt, plus more to taste
Cooking pinto beans from dried
First, sort and sift through the dried beans. Do this by pouring them in a large bowl and sifting through and discarding any beans that are shriveled up or split. Also look for any little rocks that may have been mixed in with the beans and discard those.
Next, soak the beans. Fill the bowl up with enough water for it to be at least 2 inches above the beans. Then let them sit on the counter for 8 hours or overnight.
After soaking, drain and rinse the beans. The beans will have plumped up and doubled in size during this time!
While soaking beans takes patience and time, the end result is well worth it. Soaking cuts down on the overall cooking time, and helps them cook more evenly so they’re tender through and through.
To cook the beans, transfer the soaked beans to a large pot or Dutch oven along with 10 cups of water. (This is also when you can add the optional seasonings and aromatics.) Bring the beans to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, then cover and cook for 2 hours.
Check the beans after 2 hours and give them a taste. They should be tender and creamy. If not, let them cook for another 15 to 30 minutes until they’re fully cooked.
That’s it! Easy, creamy and tender pinto beans are perfect on their own or ready to be used in other dishes.
Ways to use pinto beans
While I love eating pinto beans plain, I typically use them to make some of my favorite recipes like:
I also like eating them in burritos, with scrambled eggs, in breakfast tacos or as a simple side.
Want more bean recipes? Check out these 25 Bean Recipes Using Dried or Canned Beans!
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried pinto beans
- water, for soaking and cooking
Optional ingredients*
- 1/2 large onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Pour the beans into a large bowl. Pick out and discard any beans that are shriveled or split as well as any small rocks that may have made their way into the bag.
- Fully cover the beans with water (at least 3 inches over the top of the beans) and set on the counter to soak for 8 hours or overnight.
- Drain and rinse the beans under cool water. (They will have doubled in size during the soaking process!)
- Transfer the beans to a large pot or Dutch oven. Add 10 cups of water (and the optional ingredients if using them).
- Bring beans to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (I recommend checking them at the 2 hour mark and giving them a taste. They should be tender and fully cooked through, but still a little firm and not mushy. Cook a little longer if they're not quite done.)
- Remove from heat and use them in recipes like refried beans and charro beans, or let cool completely and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Isabel’s Tips:
- 1 pound dried beans = about 6 cups cooked beans
- 1 1/2 cups cooked beans = one 15-ounce can cooked beans
Nutrition Information
This is a great recipe, but I need to try it again to get it right. I checked them at the 2 hour mark, and they were really overdone (I’ll use your recipe for refried beans for these, instead of the recipe I was going to use them in), but I’m pretty sure I was cooking them at too high heat. I haven’t cooked beans very many times, so am grateful I learned something and look forward to trying it again. Maybe by my adding my comment, someone else won’t make the same mistake I did!
Love making a big pot of pinto beans and eating with onions and cornbread. Planning on adding some leftover BBQ pork that was smoked to my beans with a bunch of peppers, red, orange and green. The leftovers will go into chili. So many great uses for leftovers.
That sounds delicious!
After soaking my pinto beans overnight, and rinsing them, and cooking them to the first boil, they foamed up. Is that normal? Lots of white foam. Are my beans ruined?
Hi Richard! That’s normal! Your beans should still be good.
I grew up eating beans and cornbread every week and loved it. My mother soaked the beans overnight and slowly cooked them with a ham hock or a piece of salt pork. Delicious and a favorite childhood food memory. ❤️ And… they taste even better and get thicker the next day.
Cant wait to try some of the recipes
Great recipe!
How so you get pinto beans to be creamy when done and not just watery? Someone told me to use corn starch, but that does not sound appetizing to me. Yours look so good! Thank you.
First off, you drain the water off. All of it. You can mash them up a bit with a fork or a potato masher, or if you want them totally creamy, you can use a food processor with a little broth and some spices. Look up “refried beans”.
My Momma would take the lid off the beans for the last 20 minutes to let some of the water evaporate and make them nice and creamy.
Nice
Followed the recipe exactly and there was still so much water left once the beans were done cooking. I had to drain some of it which obviously takes away a lot of the flavor. Not sure what went wrong or if they’re supposed to be that watery? I’d use probably use half the amount of water next time.
Hi Shelby! Thanks for the feedback. The recipe recommends the amount of water so that the beans don’t dry out and can cook thoroughly and evenly. You can definitely try using the half the amount of water and just watching it to make sure they cook through. Let us know how it goes!
Easy-peasy
They are cooking as we speak.
Hi,
What if no soaking is involved? Will it take an extra hour?
Hi Nikki! Yes, if the beans are not soaked they take longer to cook. Soaking the beans allows them to be cooked faster and more evenly. I hope this helps!
I add curry powder and turmeric…in the water…( yea, I’m from India..)
I love tumeric in everything so now I am going to add it to my beans. Thanks for the tip. Might have to give curry a try as well.
Thanks again so much
Thank you so much for the help I will be useing this page again
I’m simmering pinto beans on the stove after soaking over night. They are still hard as a rock. I know they were old but I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for softening them up?
Hi Betty! Sometimes they can take awhile to cook, even on the stove top. Do you mind elaborating, maybe we can help!
Thanks! They came out perfect. Will garnish with grated cheese and tortillas. Leo.
My whole family loves these, so simple and good!
Packages call for soaking the beans, and every recipe I find on line calls for soaking the beans. I’m 66 y/o, and when I was a child, my mom rinsed the beans, picked out the rocks, put them on the stove with a slab of salt pork just after we ate lunch, did NOT soak them ahead of time, simply brought them to a boil, reduced to simmering, then just kept an eye on them and added more water as needed until it was dinner time, about 6:00pm. They tasted great, the liquid was thick, dinner was ready! So, what’s the advantage of soaking IF, of course, you’re home all afternoon to keep an eye on them?
Hi Michael! Soaking the beans helps reduce the amount of time they need to cook. If you’re home all day to watch them, soaking can be omitted.
They was delicious
My husband was dying to eat this up tonight, once the aroma made it’s way up the stairs. But I made this for tomorrow’s breakfast burritos, so he’ll just have to wait! 🙂
Thank you! – Kathleen
Thank you for clear instructions.
Not something I prepare very often so it is nice to find a clear easy to follow receipe.
Followed and they came out great.
Can you freeze pinto beans after you cook them for making refried beans? I like to cook in bulk and freeze things for later use.
Hi Brenda. Yes, you can!