Cowboy Pinto Beans With Bacon Food

COWBOY'S PINTO BEANS

Steps:

• Spray a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
• Cook bacon until just crisp, pat with paper towels, and crumble. Reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon grease.
• In reserved bacon grease, sauté onion and garlic until tender, about 10 minutes.
• Put undrained pinto beans, onions and garlic, bacon pieces, and rest of ingredients into the casserole dish and mix well.
• Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 350°F oven for 1 hour.

COWBOY BACON BEANS

Steps:

• Rinse the beans under cold water, sorting out any rocks/particles. Set aside.
• In a heavy pot (cast iron), saute the bacon pieces until halfway cooked and the fat is rendered. Add the green peppers and onions to the pot and cook until starting to get brown, about 3 minutes. Add the beans and cover with water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, and then add the brown sugar, ketchup, mustard, chili powder, salt, pepper and garlic. Reduce the heat to a simmer, place on the lid and cook until the beans are tender and the liquid is thick 3 to 4 hours.

PINTO BEANS WITH BACON

Steps:

• Soak the pinto beans in water overnight in a large mixing bowl.
• Drain the beans and set aside.
• In a dutch oven or other large vessel put the oil, onions, bacon, garlic and green chilies and cook over medium or medium-high heat until the onions are transparent and the edges of the onion have very lightly browned. Stir in the cumin powder.
• Add the beans and 6 cups water. Increase heat to high, bring liquid to a boil, decrease heat to medium or medium-low and cook until the beans are very tender, adding more water as needed. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
• I like to serve these beans in ramekins. They make a nice side dish to any Mexican meal.

COWBOY BEANS

Steps:

• Soak the beans overnight in lots of cold water. (Most recently, I have been using the Cook's Illustrated recommended method, soaking the beans in 4 qts water mixed with 3 tbl. table salt). Drain off the soaking water and rinse.
• Put beans in a very large pot. Pour in the beer and enough fresh water to come up 2 inches over the beans. Add remaining ingredients except salt. Cover, heat to a boil, reduce heat to very low - just enough to bubble the liquid a little. Simmer until beans are tender, 2 to 3 hours.
• If using ham hocks, remove, discard bones, chop and return to pot. Add salt to taste.
• Note1: I've noted the comment regarding the time - I made this again, and it took me just under two hours to get to tender beans. It is important to soak the beans well, and older beans may take longer. The beans should be tender but whole - they should not start breaking down.

EASY COWBOY BEANS

Steps:

• Cook bacon until crispy. Drain and crumble. Put in large pot.
• Brown ground beef and onions together. Drain. Add to pot. (Bacon can be cooked with the ground beef and onions if cut into chunks. I use kitchen shears to just cut through all the slices--into about 1-1/2" chunks.).
• Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. DO NOT drain the beans! Stir everything together.
• Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for about an hour. If you're going to let it simmer, don't add the lima beans right away, as they tend to fall apart.
• These are generally better the next day, but are might fine the same day!