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
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Tabasco Black Beans with Salt Pork (Frijol con Puerco)
Created by
Tabasco's lowland pot of black beans, salt pork, chicharron, epazote, and chile amashito, cooked until thick and dark enough to stain the spoon.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Weeknight
25 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•2 hr 55 min total
Yield6 to 8 servings
Tabasco, the wet lowlands along the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers, is where this frijol con puerco belongs. Not the Yucatan Monday version, though it has cousins there. This one is Tabasqueno: black beans, salted pork, chicharron, epazote, white rice, radish, cilantro, lime, and the small green chile amashito that bites harder than its size suggests.
The beans are the body. The pork gives salt and fat. The chicharron breaks down into the broth and makes the pot thick, dark, and serious. You don't cook this like a clean restaurant side dish. You cook it like a house pot, the kind that sits near the stove while tortillas warm and someone cuts radishes at the table.
I learned a version like this from a woman near Comalcalco who served it in a clay cazuela with rice on the side, not underneath. She crushed chile amashito with lime and salt in a small jicara and told me, 'This chile is Tabasco. Don't replace it with jalapeno and then say it's the same.' She was right. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Soak the beans if they are old. Simmer them gently. Add the chicharron late enough that it keeps some body but early enough that it gives itself to the broth. No me vengas con atajos. This is weeknight food only if you planned like someone who knows how to live. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Frijol con puerco is strongly associated with the Maya southeast, especially Yucatan, Campeche, and Tabasco, where black beans, pork, rice, radish, citrus, and fresh chiles form a shared regional vocabulary. In Tabasco, chile amashito, a small wild or semi-wild chile gathered and sold in local markets, marks the dish more precisely than habanero, which belongs more loudly to the Yucatecan table. The use of pork reflects the post-conquest arrival of pigs in the 16th century, while black beans and epazote come from older Mesoamerican cooking traditions that already knew how to make beans taste like a complete meal.
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 as needed
salt pork or tocino salado
Quantity
12 ounces
cut into 1-inch pieces
pork ribs or pork shoulder
Quantity
1/2 pound
cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
left whole
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
smashed
epazote
Quantity
1 large sprig
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
1 tablespoon
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
finely chopped
chicharron de cerdo
Quantity
1 cup
broken into rough pieces
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
arroz blanco (optional)
Quantity
2 cups
for serving
radishes (optional)
Quantity
6
thinly sliced, for serving
chopped cilantro (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
for serving
lime halves (optional)
Quantity
for serving
fresh chile amashito (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
for serving
thick corn tortillas tabasquenas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beanspicked over and rinsed | 1 pound |
| water | 8 cups, plus more as needed |
| salt pork or tocino saladocut into 1-inch pieces | 12 ounces |
| pork ribs or pork shouldercut into 1 1/2-inch pieces | 1/2 pound |
| white onionleft whole | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovessmashed | 3 |
| epazote | 1 large sprig |
| manteca de cerdo | 1 tablespoon |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely chopped | 2 |
| chicharron de cerdobroken into rough pieces | 1 cup |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| arroz blanco (optional)for serving | 2 cups |
| radishes (optional)thinly sliced, for serving | 6 |
| chopped cilantro (optional)for serving | 1/2 cup |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| fresh chile amashito (optional)for serving | 2 tablespoons |
| thick corn tortillas tabasquenas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 5-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
- •Comal for warming thick corn tortillas
- •Small jicara or clay bowl for chile amashito with lime
- •Wooden spoon
Instructions
- 1
Soak the beans
Put the black beans in a large bowl and cover with water by three inches. Soak 6 to 8 hours if the beans are older than the season. If you bought fresh dried beans from a good market vendor, you can cook them without soaking, but most people outside Tabasco do not know how old their beans are. Soak them. Drain before cooking.
Good black beans should look glossy and whole, not dusty and cracked. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina. - 2
Start the pork
Place the drained beans in a heavy pot or clay cazuela with 8 cups fresh water, the salt pork, pork ribs or shoulder, the whole half onion, smashed garlic, and epazote. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that gathers on top during the first 15 minutes. Keep the bubbles gentle. A hard boil breaks the beans before the broth has body.
- 3
Cook until tender
Lower the heat, cover the pot partway, and cook 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beans are tender and the pork gives when pressed with a spoon. Add hot water as needed to keep the beans covered by about one inch. Do not salt hard at the beginning. The salt pork is already working in the pot, and you will adjust at the end like a cook with sense.
- 4
Make the refrito
In a small skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until soft and lightly golden at the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the finely chopped garlic and cook 1 minute more. The smell should be sweet and porky, not sharp. La manteca es el sabor.
- 5
Thicken the pot
Scrape the onion and garlic refrito into the bean pot. Remove and discard the whole onion and epazote stem if it has gone woody. Crush 1 cup of beans against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon and stir them back in. This is how the broth thickens without flour, cornstarch, or other nonsense.
- 6
Add the chicharron
Stir in the chicharron pieces and simmer uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes, until some pieces soften into the beans and a few still hold their chew. Taste for salt now. The broth should be dark, thick, and glossy from pork fat, with the beans holding their shape. If it tastes flat, it needs salt, not more chile.
- 7
Prepare the table
Set out arroz blanco, sliced radishes, chopped cilantro, lime halves, fresh chile amashito, and warm thick corn tortillas. In Tabasco the chile can go whole on the side, crushed with lime and salt, or chopped into the beans by the person eating. Let people decide their heat at the table. Not all Mexican food is supposed to burn your mouth. It is supposed to taste like where it comes from.
- 8
Serve family style
Ladle the beans and pork into a clay cazuela or deep bowls. Serve the rice beside the beans, not drowned under them. Add radish, cilantro, lime, and chile amashito at the table. The beans should stain the rice little by little as you eat. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Chile amashito is the chile of this table. It is tiny, green or red when ripe, and sharp in a clean way. Look for it in Mexican markets with Tabasco, Chiapas, or Veracruz vendors. If you cannot find it, chile piquin is the closest compromise. Serrano is not the same.
- •Use real salt pork or tocino salado with fat on it. Lean pork gives you meat but not broth. The fat carries the beans. This is not the place to fear pork fat while eating processed snacks from a bag.
- •Chicharron should be pork skin with some body, not airy supermarket pellets that disappear into nothing. Buy it from a carniceria if you can.
- •Epazote belongs here because black beans and epazote know each other. Use a fresh sprig if possible. Dried epazote is a compromise, and a weak one, but it is better than pretending cilantro does the same job.
- •These beans are better the next day. The pork salt settles, the chicharron gives more body, and the broth turns darker. Make the pot ahead and reheat slowly.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans can be soaked the night before and drained before cooking.
- •The full pot can be made up to 2 days ahead. Reheat gently with a splash of water because the beans thicken in the refrigerator.
- •Slice the radishes and chop the cilantro shortly before serving. Radishes lose their snap when they sit too long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 465g)
Calories
745 calories
Total Fat
35 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
19 g
Cholesterol
75 mg
Sodium
2480 mg
Total Carbohydrates
75 g
Dietary Fiber
15 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
39 g
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