Instant Pot Charro Beans From a $1.29 Bag of Pintos

"Why does the house smell like bacon at 3:30?"

Wyatt asked that on Thursday, dropping his backpack by the door, and the answer was a $1.29 bag of pinto beans. I'd gotten home from the preschool office at three, put six slices of chopped bacon into the Instant Pot and had dinner coming up to pressure by 3:30. By 5:15 we had a pot of charro beans big enough for two dinners, and the kitchen stayed cool until the cornbread went into the oven, which in late September still matters.

What goes in

• 1 bag (2 pounds) dried pinto beans, rinsed and picked over: $1.29
• 6 slices bacon, chopped: $1.75
• 1 large onion, diced: $0.55
• 1 jalapeño from the backyard, diced, seeds out for the kids' sake: free this time of year, or about 12 cents at the store
• 4 cloves garlic, minced: $0.25
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles: $0.89
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon paste, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 2 teaspoons salt: about $0.40
• A handful of chopped cilantro: $0.59
• 9 cups water

How I cook them

1. Set the Instant Pot to sauté and cook the bacon until it's mostly crisp, about 7 minutes. Leave the fat in the pot.
2. Add the onion and jalapeño and cook 4 minutes, then the garlic for 30 seconds.
3. Pour in a cup of the water and scrape the bottom well. Browned bits left stuck there can set off the burn warning later.
4. Add the beans, the rest of the water, the bouillon, cumin, oregano and salt. Two pounds of beans and nine cups of water bring our 6-quart pot right up to the half line, which is as full as I'll take it with beans, because they foam.
5. Lock the lid, set the valve to sealing and cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. No soaking.
6. Let the pressure come down on its own, about 25 minutes.
7. Open it, stir in the tomatoes and green chiles, and simmer on sauté for 10 minutes to thicken the broth a little. Stir in the cilantro at the end.

From bacon to bowl it's a little over two hours, but my hands are busy for maybe fifteen minutes of it. The beans come out creamy, the broth is smoky and a little spicy, and they're even better the next day.

About step six. The first time I made these, years ago, I got impatient and flipped the valve to quick release. Bean foam shot out of the valve and up the cabinet door, and half the beans split from the sudden drop in pressure. I was still finding dried pinto broth on the microwave a week later. Natural release is the whole ballgame with beans.

Two dinners from one bag

Thursday we ate them in bowls with skillet cornbread from the Lodge, a little shredded cheese and lime wedges. Tonight the rest go next to Matt's smoked chicken thighs, which is about as good a Saturday dinner as I know. Wyatt has two bowls each time. Rosie eats cornbread and mashes beans with her spoon, then with her hands, then with her other hand. Eli, true to form, had a cheese quesadilla and three plain beans that he asked me to fish out and rinse, on a separate plate, touching nothing, and I'm counting that as progress.

The Instant Pot is the same 6-quart Duo we bought on Prime Day in 2018 for $59. When I measured it with the Kill A Watt in June, a one-hour cycle used about 6 cents of electricity. This one runs longer, so call it a dime. That's the other reason this recipe lives on Thursdays: one appliance, one pot to wash, and no oven until the very end.

If you'd rather soak the beans overnight, the pressure time drops to about 12 minutes, and that's how I do it on weeks when I remember on Wednesday night. Most weeks I don't, and the no-soak way has never let me down.

Receipt check: $5.72 for a pot of beans that covered two dinners for five. Thursday's whole meal, with half the beans, the cornbread, cheese, limes and Eli's quesadilla, came to about $7.20, or $1.44 a serving.