Chef Lupita
Arroz Blanco Tabasqueno con Platano
Tabasco's everyday white rice, cooked loose and clean with onion and garlic, then crowned with sweet fried ripe plantain from the lowland kitchen.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Frijoles Negros de Tabasco
Created by
Tabasco's everyday black bean pot, loose and brothy, scented with epazote and finished at the table with radish, cilantro, lime, and the tiny green bite of chile amashito.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•2 hr 50 min total
Yield6 to 8 servings
Tabasco lives in the wet lowland south, between the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers, where the markets smell of cacao, plantain, fish, hoja de platano, chipilin, and chile amashito. These are the black beans of that table: soupy, dark, practical, served in their own broth, not mashed into a paste and not buried under cheese. No me vengas con atajos.
The ingredient that gives the pot its spine is epazote. Not oregano. Not bay leaf. Epazote. It goes in near the end so it perfumes the broth without turning harsh. The chile amashito does not get cooked into the whole pot unless the cook wants to punish everyone equally. In Tabasco it sits on the table, whole or crushed with salt and lime, so each person decides how much fire belongs in the spoon.
I learned this version from a woman in Nacajuca who cooked the beans in a blackened clay olla and served them with sliced radish, raw white onion, cilantro, lime, and thick hand-pressed tortillas. She kept correcting my broth. Too thick. Too dry. Too much like beans from somewhere else. Tabasco wants the spoon to carry broth. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
My mother was from Jalisco, so her beans leaned another direction. That is the point. This is a 32-state cuisine. If you cook these correctly, the pot tastes like humidity, market herbs, and a household that knows how to feed people without wasting one peso. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Black beans have been part of the Maya south and Gulf lowlands since before the Spanish entered the Grijalva region in 1518, cooked with maize, squash, chiles, and local herbs as the base of daily food. Tabasco's Chontal Maya, the Yokot'anob, built a cuisine around rivers, cacao, plantain, fish, beans, and wild chiles, and chile amashito remains one of the state's defining table chiles. Pork lard arrived after the conquest, but the bean pot stayed what it had always been: household economy, regional identity, and broth worth respecting.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried black beans
Quantity
1 pound
picked over and rinsed
water
Quantity
8 cups, plus more hot water as needed
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
left in one piece
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
2 smashed and 2 finely chopped
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
2 tablespoons
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
fresh epazote sprigs
Quantity
2
kosher salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
radishes (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
sliced
white onion (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
finely chopped, for serving
fresh cilantro (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
chopped
limes (optional)
Quantity
4
halved
fresh chile amashito (optional)
Quantity
12 to 16
whole or lightly crushed with salt
hand-pressed thick corn tortillas tabasquenas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beanspicked over and rinsed | 1 pound |
| water | 8 cups, plus more hot water as needed |
| white onionleft in one piece | 1/2 medium |
| garlic cloves2 smashed and 2 finely chopped | 4 |
| manteca de cerdo | 2 tablespoons |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| fresh epazote sprigs | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| radishes (optional)sliced | 1/2 cup |
| white onion (optional)finely chopped, for serving | 1/2 cup |
| fresh cilantro (optional)chopped | 1/2 cup |
| limes (optional)halved | 4 |
| fresh chile amashito (optional)whole or lightly crushed with salt | 12 to 16 |
| hand-pressed thick corn tortillas tabasquenas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •3-quart clay olla or heavy Dutch oven
- •Small skillet for frying the onion and garlic
- •Molcajete for crushing chile amashito with salt
- •Comal for warming thick corn tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Clean the beans
Spread the black beans on a tray and pick out stones, broken beans, and anything that does not belong. Rinse them under cool water until the water runs clear. If your beans are old, soak them overnight and drain them before cooking. Fresh dried beans from a busy mercado do not need soaking. Old supermarket beans do, because they have been sitting too long and no scolding will make them tender.
- 2
Start the pot
Put the beans in a clay olla or heavy pot with 8 cups water, the half onion, and the 2 smashed garlic cloves. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat, then lower the heat so the beans move gently. Do not add the salt yet. Keep the water level about two fingers above the beans, adding hot water when needed. Cold water shocks the pot and slows everything down.
- 3
Cook until tender
Simmer partially covered for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the age of the beans. Stir now and then so the bottom does not catch. The broth should turn dark purple-black and the beans should soften without splitting into mush. Bite one. If the center is chalky, it is not ready. The clock does not decide. The bean decides.
- 4
Fry the seasoning
When the beans are almost tender, melt the manteca de cerdo in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until glossy and soft, about 5 minutes. Add the 2 finely chopped garlic cloves and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Do not brown the garlic. La manteca es el sabor, and here it gives body to a pot that still needs to stay brothy.
- 5
Thicken the broth
Scoop 1 cup of cooked beans with a little broth into the skillet with the onion and garlic. Mash them roughly with the back of a spoon until they make a dark paste. Scrape everything back into the pot. This is not refried beans. This is how you give the broth enough body to cling to the spoon while keeping it loose, the way Tabasco serves it.
- 6
Add epazote and salt
Add the epazote sprigs and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes more, uncovered, until the beans are fully tender and the broth tastes round. Remove the onion piece, smashed garlic, and epazote stems if they bother you. Taste again for salt. Beans are humble, not timid. They need enough salt to make the broth speak.
- 7
Prepare the table
Set out sliced radishes, finely chopped white onion, chopped cilantro, lime halves, and chile amashito. Leave some chiles whole and crush a few with salt in a molcajete if you want the real Tabasco bite. Serve the beans in bowls with plenty of broth and let each person finish their own. The amashito belongs alongside, not hidden in the pot. Asi se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Ask for frijol negro that looks glossy and whole. If the beans look dusty, wrinkled, or cracked, they are old. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado. They know which sacks arrived this week.
- •Chile amashito is small, green to red, sharp, and floral. Look for it fresh in Mexican markets that carry ingredients from Tabasco, Chiapas, or the Gulf south. If you cannot find it, chile chiltepin is the closest cousin, but it is a compromise, not the same chile.
- •Do not replace epazote with cilantro in the pot. Cilantro is for the table. Epazote is for the broth. They are not doing the same work.
- •Keep these beans soupy. If you cook them down until they stand up like a dip, you have taken them out of Tabasco and dragged them somewhere else.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans can be cooked one day ahead and refrigerated in their broth. Reheat gently with a splash of water because beans thicken as they rest.
- •If your beans are older than six months, soak them overnight in plenty of water, then drain before cooking. This is planning, not weakness.
- •Chop the radishes, onion, and cilantro shortly before serving. The table garnishes should taste alive, not tired.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 350g)
Calories
380 calories
Total Fat
6 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
600 mg
Total Carbohydrates
65 g
Dietary Fiber
18 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
18 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Chiapas & Tabasco Side Dishes
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Arroz con Azafrán Comiteco
Comitán's golden rice from the Chiapas highlands, gently fried first, then steamed with saffron threads, chicken broth, onion, and garlic until each grain stays separate.
Chef Lupita
Arroz Rojo Tabasqueño
Tabasco's everyday red rice, long-grain grains fried in manteca, stained with tomato, and simmered in chicken broth until each grain stands separate.
Chef Lupita
Calabacitas con Elote Chiapaneca
Los Altos de Chiapas gives you tender calabacita, sweet elote, tomato, epazote, and a little chile Simojovel, cooked softly in manteca until the milpa tastes like itself.