Santa Maria Style Pinquito Beans are a smoky and flavorful a classic side dish, traditionally served with Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip Barbecue. The beans are slowly cooked with bacon and ham, spices and tomato puree. This recipe has layers of smoky heat from ancho chili powder, and either Anaheim or Pasilla Chili peppers (very mild). Pinquito beans are a small pink bean, native to California. You can also substitute small white or pink beans, if you can’t find them.
I still carry fond memories of the day that my husband and I were returning home from a cruise out of Long Beach, CA. We were passing through the town of Santa Maria, California. We were hungry, and looking for a place to eat. We spotted a smoking barbecue parked outside of a shopping center with a sign “Fundraiser – Santa Maria Barbecue”. That was one of our best food related stops we’ve ever made!
Our lunch plate included the best barbecue Tri-Tip meat we’d ever tasted. Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip is simply seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. Wow! (I have since learned how to replicate this here.) The traditional side dish are Pinquito Beans and salsa. We were smitten! I’ve made and posted a version of these beans– and it’s a good recipe. Somehow, I just didn’t think that particular recipe tasted just like the versions I’ve had. You see, anytime we head to Southern California, I plot a way of stopping in Santa Maria so I can enjoy the recipes they are famous for. This recipe is it!
Maybe you’ve never heard of pinquito beans? That’s most likely because they are native to my home state of California. You can buy them online here or here. I’m sure that local Santa Marian’s will forgive you if you substitute small pink or white beans. It’s best if you soak them overnight in water.
To bring out the smoky flavor, you’ll want to use applewood thick-cut bacon. I realized that I didn’t have bacon (highly unusual), so I made a run to my local grocery store. I decided to buy thick-slab bacon. Um, don’t do that! Why? I had some chewy bits in the end– I fished most of them out. I’d stick with bacon. I also decided to buy a smoked ham hock to the beans, to really amp up the flavor.
You can use Ancho Chili Powder, but I realized I didn’t have any. So worries. I used a combination of Smoked Paprika, Regular Chili Powder and a pinch of Cayenne. There is also mustard powder and salt. I bought a carton of Pomi Strained Tomatoes, but any tomato puree will work.
For this recipe, I used Pasilla Peppers. You can use Anaheim Peppers, if you wish. Or, you use a large can of mild green chilis. I’m a wimp when it comes to really spicy foods, so I stuck with a Pasilla Pepper. It’s simple to peel them. I place them under the broiler until the skin darkens — 5-7 minutes. Carefully place them in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. The steam will help loosen the skin.
Once the peppers have cooked, the skins will slide right off. I scraped off the seeds and them diced the peppers.
The beans have soaked overnight, so I gave them a thorough rinse. I added the ham hock and garlic cloves into the pot and simmered the beans for about an hour and 45 minutes. While the beans were cooking, it’s time to make the delicious sauce.
Pretend this isn’t diced slab bacon, okay? This should be thick cut bacon. (Reminder: Slab bacon doesn’t render as well as market bacon.)
To the cooked bacon, add onion, garlic and the peppers.
Spice things up! Stir. Cook. Smell. Ahhhh. Mmmm.
The final step– Add the tomato puree and chopped ham (I used our leftover Easter ham that I had frozen.) Stir. Taste. Wow! So good! I ended up adding a bit more brown sugar, to round out the acidity of the tomato puree. It’s all personal preference.
TASTING NOTES: These are incredibly good beans! They’re not like chili beans. They are mild. They a rich flavor of tomato puree with a perfect balance of smoky flavor. I served these with Barbecue Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip, Salsa, Grilled Shrimp (recipe coming) and Grilled Corn. For dessert, we had a Banana Cream Cheese Pudding Pie for dessert. Our guests were very happy.
The Best Santa Maria Style Pinquito Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried pinquito beans such as Lompoc, or small pink or white beans
- 3 cloves garlic took cook with the beans
- 1 cooked ham hock (optional) to add more flavor to the beans, while cooking
- 2 cups applewood-smoked bacon from 9 bacon slices, diced
- 1 cup white onion diced ,from 1 medium onion
- 1/2 cup seeded and diced roasted Anaheim chile from 1 large chile
- 1/2 cup smoked fully cooked ham diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder I used regular chile powder, smoked paprika plus 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper as a substitute for the ancho chile powder
- 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 cups tomato puree
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
Soak the beans overnight:
- Rinse and sort beans. Place beans in a large, heavy pot. Cover with cold water, and soak 8 hours or up to overnight.
Cook the beans:
- Drain beans, removed the garlic cloves and ham hock and return to pot. Add cold water to cover beans by 3 inches. Add the whole garlic cloves and ham hock (if using),Bring to a simmer over medium, and cook, uncovered, until tender, about 1 hour and 45 minutes, adding hot water as needed to keep beans covered by about 1 inch.Remove the garlic cloves and ham hock. Once the ham hock has cooled, cut the meat off the ham hock to add to the finished beans.
While the beans simmer:
- Cook bacon in a medium sauce pan over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Add onion, Anaheim chile, chopped ham, and minced garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Add salt, ancho chile powder (or a combination of chili powder and cayenne pepper), brown sugar, dry mustard, and paprika, and cook, stirring occasionally, until spices smell toasted, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato puree, 1 cup water, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium-high. Reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
Finishing up the beans:
- Drain beans, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Return beans and reserved cooking liquid to pot; stir in sauce. Add the ham hock meat. Simmer over low until thoroughly heated, about 30 minutes.
- Taste the beans. Season with salt, to your liking. I ended up adding one more tablespoon of brown sugar, to balance out the flavors.
Notes
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