The Sweet And Savory Beans Beloved By Cowboys In The West

Every culture has its own version of a bean dish. From the Brazilian feijoada to the Indian rajma, these hearty and comforting legume recipes put beans front and center, showcasing their meaty texture and filling quality. Another such bean-centric meal is the sweet-and-savory dish called charro beans, which was beloved by cowboys in the West.

This dish was named after the distinctive Mexican cattle herders and horsemen who wore elaborate sombreros, close-fitting pants, and serapes. Known as charros, these skilled ranchers were adept at roping techniques and were expert riders. Charro beans, also called frijoles charros, was a meal that these cowboys created and were able to prepare with ingredients that were readily available at the time, such as pinto beans, tomatoes, onion, garlic, along with chili peppers and bacon (some of today's recipes include chorizo and ham, too). The components of this resourceful meal were simmered together to produce a filling dish that was heavily seasoned and had a sweet-and-savory vibe from the onions and chili peppers — sometimes a Mexican herb called epazote, which has an earthy and almost minty flavor, was added to the pot. As the beans cooked, they released their flavor into the tomatoey liquid, producing a scrumptious broth. The finished result had a soupy base with plenty of textured, high-protein beans to keep the ranchers full.

The beauty of charro beans was that everything was cooked in one pot, making the prep work easy. This meant it could be cooked in large quantities to feed a crowd with little monitoring required. It could also be prepared over a fire or incorporate roasted ingredients, like blackened tomatoes, to give the dish a smoky flavor. The dried beans themselves were easy to transport too, and there was little risk of overcooking them; they could simply simmer for hours until wonderfully soft to flavor up that yummy broth. In fact, slow cooking is one of the easiest ways to upgrade pinto beans because it makes them creamier.

This recipe for Mexican charro beans with ham is flavored with pico de gallo, lending it a zesty herbal vibe, but there is plenty of bandwidth to customize it with more spices or chorizo. However, there are some charro bean recipes that nix the meat altogether, making them suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets. The bacon and chorizo can be subbed with tempeh bacon or soyrizo to infuse the broth with a similar savory flavor. A dash of smoked paprika or chipotle can mimic the smokiness of chorizo too.

Some of the other classic foods cowboys ate back in the day included beef jerky because it had a long shelf life and made the perfect portable snack, and bread products made with sourdough that didn't require yeast.