Cole Cooks: Instant Pot Santa Maria Style Beans
California has its own style of BBQ that comes from the Santa Maria Valley. A key feature of this BBQ is the beans. This is our recipe for Instant Pot Santa Maria style beans.
Tri-tip is the featured meat in California BBQ. However, a tri-tip BBQ would not be complete without beans.
Pinquito beans are the traditional bean used in Santa Maria style barbecue. These small pink beans can be hard to find outside of California. In many cases we substitute kidney or pinto beans and it comes out great.
For a history of Santa Maria pinquito beans see the description from the official Santa Maria Valley website.
“Pinquitos are small pink beans that are native to the Santa Maria Valley. No one is quite sure about the origins of the pinquito bean, but after all these years it remains a commercial crop exclusive to the Central Coast.”
The Instant Pot is our favorite way to cook beans. Dried beans cook perfectly in the Instant Pot and we have many different Instant Pot bean recipes we have developed.
Santa Maria style beans are noted for being savory with a little bit of kick. The heat can be adjusted to personal preference by adding more jalapeno (or less if desired).
These beans are part of our full Santa Maria style barbecue that includes tri-tip. You can see an overview of the Santa Maria BBQ here and more details about cooking tri-tip here.
Instant Pot Santa Maria Style Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried pinquito kidney or pinto beans
- 3 slices bacon cut into ½ inch pieces
- 1 onion diced
- 4 ounces ham diced
- 1 14- ounce diced tomatoes
- 2 jalapeno diced (optional)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons salsa
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 3 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté. Add bacon and brown. When bacon is almost brown, add onion and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients.
- Set Instant Pot on high pressure for 35 minutes. After the 35 minutes, allow Instant Pot to natural release for 20 minutes. Serve.
For more info on the Instant Pot check out our Top 10 Instant Pot Tips and our Top 10 Instant Pot Recipes
