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.
Chiapas Refried Black Beans (Frijoles Refritos Chiapanecos)
Created by
Chiapas' everyday black beans, cooked with epazote and refried in manteca de cerdo until glossy, dense, and ready for cochito horneado, thick corn tortillas, and a table that knows the value of fat.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
15 min
Active Time
2 hr 10 min cook•2 hr 25 min total
Yield6 servings
Chiapas, from Los Altos around San Cristobal de las Casas down toward Chiapa de Corzo, keeps black beans close to the center of the table. These are the beans beside cochito horneado, beside thick hand-pressed tortillas, beside a bowl of chile amashito for the person who wants bite. The dish is daily food, but daily does not mean careless.
The bean is black. The herb is epazote. The fat is manteca de cerdo. That is the architecture. In the Mercado Jose Castillo Tielemans, I watched women judge cooked beans by how the broth clung to the spoon before they ever thought about refrying them. If the bean broth is thin, the refrito will be weak. If the lard is stingy, the beans will look tired. No me vengas con atajos.
My mother was from Jalisco, so her beans leaned another direction. In Chiapas, the black bean rules, and the women who perfected this did it by cooking the same pot all week: frijoles de olla on Monday, refritos on Tuesday, tucked into tortillas the next morning. Saber cocinar es saber vivir. You learn economy by paying attention to the pot.
Black beans, maize, squash, and chile were part of the Maya milpa system in Chiapas long before the Spanish conquest, and the region's preference for black beans still connects daily cooking to that older agricultural base. Epazote, a Mesoamerican herb used with beans for aroma and digestion, remained in the pot after the 16th-century arrival of pigs introduced manteca de cerdo as a household cooking fat. Refried beans in Chiapas are not a restaurant garnish; they are a practical evolution of frijoles de olla, cooked once and transformed across several meals.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried black beans
Quantity
1 pound
preferably small Mexican black beans, rinsed and picked over
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
fresh epazote
Quantity
2 large sprigs
kosher salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
6 tablespoons
divided
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
garlic clove
Quantity
1
finely grated or minced
fresh chile amashito (optional)
Quantity
1
lightly bruised, for perfuming the lard
reserved black bean cooking liquid
Quantity
1 to 1 1/2 cups
queso crema de Chiapas or queso fresco (optional)
Quantity
for serving
crumbled
fresh chile amashito with lime and salt (optional)
Quantity
for the table
hand-pressed corn tortillas
Quantity
for serving
warmed on a comal
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beanspreferably small Mexican black beans, rinsed and picked over | 1 pound |
| water | 8 cups, plus more as needed |
| white onionleft in one piece | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovespeeled and lightly crushed | 3 |
| fresh epazote | 2 large sprigs |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard)divided | 6 tablespoons |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovefinely grated or minced | 1 |
| fresh chile amashito (optional)lightly bruised, for perfuming the lard | 1 |
| reserved black bean cooking liquid | 1 to 1 1/2 cups |
| queso crema de Chiapas or queso fresco (optional)crumbled | for serving |
| fresh chile amashito with lime and salt (optional) | for the table |
| hand-pressed corn tortillaswarmed on a comal | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Clay olla or heavy 4-quart pot for cooking the beans
- •Wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet for refrying
- •Bean masher, potato masher, or sturdy wooden spoon
- •Cast iron comal for warming corn tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Sort the beans
Spread the black beans on a tray and pick out stones, broken beans, and anything that does not belong in the pot. Rinse them under cool water until the water runs clear. Do not skip this because beans come from fields, sacks, and market bins. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
- 2
Cook the beans
Put the beans in a clay olla or heavy pot with 8 cups water, the onion half, and the crushed garlic. Bring to a boil, then lower to a steady simmer. After the first foam settles, add the epazote. Cook uncovered or partially covered for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours, adding hot water if the beans start to peek above the liquid. The beans are ready when they are creamy inside and the broth is dark, almost inky.
Salt goes in after the beans have softened, not at the beginning. Fresh beans can handle salt early, old market beans sometimes cannot. This method keeps you out of trouble. - 3
Season and reserve
When the beans are tender, stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and simmer 10 minutes more so the seasoning reaches the center of the beans. Remove and discard the epazote stems and the onion half. Save at least 1 1/2 cups of the bean cooking liquid. That broth is not waste. It is the body of the refrito.
- 4
Fry the onion
Set a wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat and melt 4 tablespoons manteca de cerdo. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until it softens and turns golden at the edges, 7 to 9 minutes. Add the minced garlic and the bruised chile amashito, if using, and stir for 30 seconds. The chile perfumes the fat. It does not need to turn the whole pot into a dare.
La manteca es el sabor. Vegetable oil will fry the beans, yes, but it will not give the same gloss, body, or smell. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade. - 5
Mash the beans
Scoop the cooked beans into the hot lard with a slotted spoon. They will hiss when they touch the fat. Mash with a bean masher, potato masher, or the back of a wooden spoon, adding the reserved bean broth a ladle at a time. You are building a thick paste, not soup. Keep mashing until some beans disappear completely and others stay half-broken for texture.
- 6
Refry until glossy
Cook the mashed beans 10 to 12 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom so they do not catch. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo and keep working the beans until they turn glossy and the spoon leaves a clean trail through the pan for a few seconds. Taste for salt. The beans should be rich, earthy, and deep, with epazote in the background.
- 7
Serve from clay
Spoon the beans into a warm clay cazuelita and smooth the top with the back of the spoon. Scatter queso crema de Chiapas or queso fresco over the surface if using. Serve with hand-pressed corn tortillas from the comal and fresh chile amashito with lime and salt at the table. Flour tortillas belong to the north. Here the tortilla is corn. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Buy dried black beans from a market stall with turnover. Ask when the sack arrived. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado. Old beans cook forever and still taste dusty.
- •Epazote should smell sharp and green when you rub a leaf between your fingers. If it smells like nothing, leave it. Bad herbs do not become good in the pot.
- •Chile amashito is small, green, and direct. In Chiapas and the nearby Gulf lowlands it often sits at the table with lime and salt. If you cannot find it, use fresh chile piquin as a compromise, or leave the chile out. The beans are not supposed to be a fire test.
- •If pork is not on your table, make frijoles de olla with epazote and serve them whole, or use avocado oil knowing you are changing the dish. These refritos are built on manteca de cerdo. Asi se hace y punto.
- •The refried beans should mound softly, not stand like cement. If they tighten too much, loosen them with hot bean broth, one spoonful at a time.
Advance Preparation
- •The black beans can be cooked up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated in their broth. Refry them when you are ready to eat.
- •Cooked beans freeze well in their broth for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before refrying.
- •Refried beans thicken as they sit. Reheat over low heat with a splash of bean broth or water and a small spoonful of manteca de cerdo to bring back the gloss.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
345 calories
Total Fat
13 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
640 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
13 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
15 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.