Chef Lupita
Arroz a la Oaxaqueña
Oaxaca's red rice, stained with tomato and fried in lard, steamed with carrots, ejotes, black beans, and epazote. The side that anchors a Oaxacan family meal and earns its place beside the main.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Black Beans with Chipilin (Frijoles con Chipilin)
Created by
Chiapas black beans finished with fresh chipilin, onion, garlic, and manteca de cerdo, a budget pot with green fragrance in the broth and the plain authority of a southern home kitchen.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
2 hr cook•2 hr 20 min total
Yield6 servings as a side
Chiapas, especially the Central Depression around Tuxtla Gutierrez and Chiapa de Corzo, is where this pot belongs. Black beans, fresh chipilin, white onion, garlic, and manteca de cerdo. Nothing decorative. Nothing pretending. This is the kind of food that keeps a household fed when the money is tight and the mercado still has good greens.
Chipilin is the ingredient that makes the dish Chiapaneco. The leaf is small, fragrant, and stubbornly southern, used in beans, tamales, soups, and masa dumplings from Chiapas into Tabasco and Guatemala. I learned this version from a woman in the Mercado Juan Sabines who sold chipilin tied in damp green bundles. She told me, 'No lo hiervas hasta matarlo.' Don't boil it until you kill it. She was right.
The beans cook first. The lard, onion, and garlic season the broth later. The chipilin goes in at the end, because its perfume is the point. This is not a chile-heavy dish. If you want chile amashito, put it on the table with lime and salt. Do not bully the pot. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Chipilin (Crotalaria longirostrata) is a Mesoamerican leaf used in Maya and Zoque home cooking across Chiapas, Tabasco, and Guatemala long before modern borders divided the region. Chiapas joined the Mexican federation in 1824 after years of political connection to Guatemala, which helps explain why its bean pots, tamales de chipilin, and masa dumplings share as much with the southern Maya kitchen as with central Mexican cooking. In Chiapas, cooks still debate whether chipilin should be simmered longer for a deeper broth or added near the end for fragrance, and this version protects the leaf's perfume.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried black beans (frijol negro)
Quantity
1 pound
picked over and rinsed
water
Quantity
8 cups, plus more as needed
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
left in one piece
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
peeled and lightly crushed
kosher salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
finely chopped
fresh chipilin
Quantity
2 small bunches, about 3 packed cups leaves
leaves picked and washed
warm hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
fresh chile amashito crushed with salt and lime (optional)
Quantity
for serving
queso doble crema de Chiapas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
crumbled
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beans (frijol negro)picked over and rinsed | 1 pound |
| water | 8 cups, plus more as needed |
| white onionleft in one piece | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovespeeled and lightly crushed | 3 |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo) | 3 tablespoons |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely chopped | 2 |
| fresh chipilinleaves picked and washed | 2 small bunches, about 3 packed cups leaves |
| warm hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional) | for serving |
| fresh chile amashito crushed with salt and lime (optional) | for serving |
| queso doble crema de Chiapas (optional)crumbled | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •4-quart clay olla or heavy Dutch oven
- •Wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet for the lard seasoning
- •Large bowl and colander for washing chipilin
- •Comal for warming tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Start the beans
Put the black beans in a heavy olla or Dutch oven with the water, the half onion left in one piece, and the crushed garlic cloves. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat, then lower the heat so the pot bubbles gently. Do not add the chipilin yet. Fresh leaves cooked for two hours lose their perfume, and this dish lives from that perfume.
- 2
Cook until tender
Cook the beans partially covered for 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes, depending on their age. Add hot water if the level drops below the beans. When a bean presses easily between your fingers but still holds its shape, add the salt. Old beans are stubborn. That is why you buy from a market stall with turnover, not from a forgotten supermarket shelf.
If your beans are older than one year, soak them overnight in plenty of water, drain them, then cook as written. A soak is not weakness. Bad beans are the problem. - 3
Clean the chipilin
While the beans cook, pick the chipilin leaves from the tougher stems and wash them in two changes of water. Let the grit fall to the bottom of the bowl, then lift the leaves out instead of pouring the dirty water over them again. Chipilin should smell green, nutty, and a little wild. Spinach is not a substitute. Cilantro is not a substitute. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
- 4
Fry the seasoning
In a wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook only until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Do not brown the garlic. You want sweetness in the broth, not bitterness. La manteca es el sabor.
- 5
Finish with chipilin
Remove the cooked onion half from the bean pot and discard it. Pour the beans and their broth into the cazuela with the lard, onion, and garlic. Stir well, then fold in the chipilin leaves. Simmer 10 to 12 minutes, until the leaves turn deep olive green and the broth smells like the southern market after rain. Taste for salt. The broth should be dark, glossy, and herbal, not watery.
- 6
Rest and serve
Turn off the heat and let the beans rest 10 minutes before serving. Beans need that pause. The broth settles, the lard rounds the edges, and the chipilin stops tasting raw. Serve family-style in the cazuela with warm corn tortillas, chile amashito with lime if your table wants it, and a little queso doble crema if you have good Chiapas cheese. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Buy fresh chipilin at a Mexican or Central American market and ask for it by name. Frozen chipilin works if it is packed plain, but it loses some of the green perfume. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Use real pork lard from a butcher or a market vendor if you can. The shelf-stable hydrogenated block will cook the onion, yes, but it will not give the same roundness to the broth.
- •This dish is not about heat. Chile amashito belongs on the side, crushed with salt and lime, so each person decides. The bean pot itself should taste of black beans and chipilin.
- •Fresh beans cook faster and taste cleaner. If your black beans take three hours and still fight you, they were old when you bought them. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
Advance Preparation
- •The black beans can be cooked up to two days ahead with the onion and garlic, then refrigerated in their broth. Finish with lard, onion, garlic, and fresh chipilin on the day you serve them.
- •Chipilin leaves can be picked, washed, dried well, and wrapped in a clean kitchen towel one day ahead. Keep them refrigerated.
- •Finished beans keep refrigerated for four days. Reheat gently with a splash of water. Freeze the beans before adding chipilin if you want to save a batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 320g)
Calories
345 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
6 mg
Sodium
600 mg
Total Carbohydrates
51 g
Dietary Fiber
13 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
18 g
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