Name: Instant Pot Pinto Beans
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 1 pound dried pinto beans; 4.5 cups water; 1 small yellow onion (diced); 2 cloves garlic (crushed); 2 medium bay leaves; 2 teaspoons chili powder; 1 teaspoon sea salt

Servings

Prep Time5

Cook Time45

Total Time1 20

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4.8 from 4 votes

Easy NO SOAK Instant Pot Pinto Beans in less than an hour! These pressure cooker pinto beans are tender, creamy, and perfectly seasoned – much better flavor and less salt than canned.

a bowl of pinto beans topped with red chilis in front of an instant pot

Fast, easy, and delicious!

Today, we’re making delicious, saucy, seasoned Instant Pot Pinto Beans that are ready to spoon into tacos or over rice. You can eat 'em as is, or use them to make our community-favorite Refried Pinto Beans from scratch!

If you’re someone who likes cooking dried beans from scratch but often forgets to soak them in advance (Hey-o! It's me!), then the Instant Pot is a total game-changer in the bean cooking department. Pressure cooked beans are fast, easy, and delicious, and best of all, there's no need to soak the beans! If you're looking for just basic beans that have not been seasoned, check out our post on How to Cook Pinto Beans.

As a nutritionist, I love that pinto beans are packed with protein and a good amount of dietary fiber. As a busy working mom, I love how fast and hands-off it is to make them in the pressure cooker. And as someone who loooooves to eat, I love how delicious these are right out of the pot!

Are you ready for this? Let's make some beans!

pinto beans, diced onion, garlic, chili, bay leaves, and salt on a grey background

Let's make Instant Pot Pinto Beans together

Step 1: rinse those beans

Start by giving your dry beans a good rinse. Check for any stones and discard broken pinto beans

overhead photo of pinto beans in a mesh strainer

Step 2: everything in the Instant Pot!

Place the UNSOAKED dried pinto beans into the insert of your Instant Pot, along with diced onion, garlic, chili powder, bay leaves, and water.

water being poured on top of beans and spices in an instant pot

Step 3: pressure cook!

Set to Manual / High pressure for 40 minutes (for slightly firmer beans) or 45 minutes (for softer beans). Sometimes, I aim for the middle and do 42 minutes.

photo collage with cooked and uncooked pinto beans in the instant pot

After the pressure cooking cycle is complete, allow the beans to naturally release for 15-20 minutes. At that point, flip the vent to “Venting” to release the remaining pressure.

Stir the beans, season with salt, and enjoy!

two glass jars and a silicon freezer bag of cooked pinto beans on a grey background

Recipe tips and tricks

Salt beans before cooking. It's a myth that salting beans before cooking will make them tough. What it does, in fact, is leave you with a much more flavorful and smoother bean. Check the science that busts this bean myth at Serious Eats.

If you prefer a thicker bean broth, all you need to do is simmer those beans. You can keep them right in your Instant Pot and use the sauté function, with the lid off. Give the beans an occasional stir, and remove from the heat when the bean broth is just slightly runnier than you'd like - it will continue to thicken as the beans cool.

Don't overfill your Instant Pot! Overfilling will not only cause the beans to take much longer to cook, but creates a safety issue as well. Regardless of what size Instant Pot you have, be sure not to go over the fill line for your model.

a bowl of cooked pinto beans in front of an instant pot

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4.75 from 4 votes