Chipotle Refried Beans

Refried beans are a ubiquitous side dish with Mexican food. Although Natalie asks for her dinners “without beans and rice,” I enjoy a side of refried pinto beans with a little cojita cheese on top. These Chipotle Refried Beans add smokey heat from canned chipotle peppers in adobo as a base to our Tostadas, or as an even more flavorful side for Mexican dishes.

Chipotle Peppers in Adobo

So this ingredient gets a little confusing. Chipotle peppers are actually jalapeño peppers, which are smoked, dried, or pickled to preserve the ripe jalapeño. Adobo is a seasoning mix, typically a marinade for meats. By combining the smoked jalapeños with the adobo seasoning, and adding some tomato sauce and vinegar, you get the canned Chipotle Peppers in Adobo sauce. A chipotle pepper, then, is a smokey, seasoned jalapeño. For less than a dollar, you can get a can or two at most grocery stores.

Simply fish out a couple of peppers from the can, and check for any stem pieces. It’s not uncommon to find a piece of stem or hard bit at the end of the pepper. Then roughly chop into small pieces. You can take out seeds if you like. Using two peppers and a tablespoon of the adobo sauces still leaves about half of the can. Generally, we put the rest of the canned chipotles in container in the refrigerator until we throw it out a couple of weeks later. But, this step is optional.

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Refried Beans

There are lots of different varieties of refried beans, like any other grocery items today. Pinto beans are traditional, but black beans – frijoles negros – are commonly found as well. For this recipe, the base refried beans from pinto beans works really well. Low-salt or fat-free versions are fine, for the chipotles and adobo sauce carry most of the flavor

Chipotle Refried Beans are simply mixing in a couple of chopped chipotle (jalapeño) peppers and a tablespoon or two of the accompanying adobo sauce to give a richer, smokey flavor to the beans. Heat the can of pinto beans at a medium-low heat, which will thin out the bean paste. Mix in the peppers and sauce and stir until heated through. It’s a very simple recipe, but a little messy to prepare. But the heat and the smokey flavor are worth it.

These Chipotle Refried Beans put a solid base to a tostada, helping hold the ingredients together, and works extremely well with the fire-roasted salsa, adding more smoke and heat to the fired sweetness in that salsa. This works in burritos, tacos, and any other preparation where holding together the ingredients while eating is important.

This recipe is part of our Tostada Week