This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy.
Cheater Restaurant Style Refried Beans taste exactly like what you get at your favorite Mexican restaurant! Creamy, flavorful, and easy to make, this is a perfect side for any homemade Mexican dishes.
Featured with this recipe
- Ingredients in Restaurant Style Refried Beans
- How to Make Canned Refried Beans Better
- Authentic Refried Beans (Using Dried Beans)
- Recipes Using Restaurant Style Refried Beans
- Frequently Asked Questions about Restaurant Style Refried Beans
- More Mexican Food Recipes
- How to Make Restaurant Style Refried Beans
- Cheater Restaurant Style Refried Beans Recipe
You are going to LOVE these “cheater” restaurant style refried beans. Easy to make and so flavorful, they’re the perfect dip for chips, and make the best side dish to all your favorite Mexican recipes. Have you ever noticed that when you get refried beans at a restaurant, they are creamy and smooth and easy to dip your chips in, but the canned stuff is so thick, breaks your chips, and doesn’t taste nearly as delicious? Well this is my “cheater” recipe to make the canned stuff have that restaurant like consistency and flavor. In fact, I like the flavor of these beans even better than anything I have had at a restaurant.
Ingredients in Restaurant Style Refried Beans
Your friends and family will be amazed at how delicious and restaurant-like these beans are, but only you will know they are made with four quick ingredients! Here’s what you need:
- Refried beans – one can. I like the Taco Bell brand but you can use any brand you like.
- Sour cream – about a third of a cup, depending on how creamy you want your beans.
- Valentina hot sauce – one tablespoon or so. I like a good kick to my beans, so I tend to add a little extra. Make sure to use the Valentina brand of hot sauce! It is the best! You can find it with the Hispanic food at most grocery stores.
- Monterey Jack cheese – You can also use shredded cheddar cheese or any cheddar/jack blend. Avoid using pre-grated cheese because it doesn’t melt as well as freshly shredded cheese from a block.
How to Make Canned Refried Beans Better
- To get a better flavor and creamy consistency from canned refried beans, adding sour cream and cheese is the answer! You can add more or less sour cream, depending on your desired consistency.
- These cheater Restaurant Style Refried Beans have a little more intensity and kick, which I love. They aren’t too spicy, but definitely have a little more spice than a regular can of refried beans. You can amp up the spice by adding more hot sauce, or tone it down by adding less — whatever your family prefers!
- Dice onion and add to the refried beans for more flavor.
- Add a dash of cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt.
- Garnish with cilantro to improve refried beans taste.
Authentic Refried Beans (Using Dried Beans)
Have a little more time on your hands and want to try a more authentic recipe? Try our easy guide on How to Make Refried Beans. Make restaurant style refried beans by starting with dried pinto beans. This is truly a more classic and authentic version that you don’t want to miss!
Recipes Using Restaurant Style Refried Beans
Retired beans are the perfect side dish all on their own, but they are also great as an ingredient in a wide variety of recipes! Use them to add flavor, creaminess, and a protein boost to your favorite dishes, including:
- Burritos and Tacos: Spread a layer of refried beans on tortillas before adding your choice of protein, veggies, cheese, and toppings for delicious burritos or tacos.
- Enchiladas: Use refried beans as a filling for enchiladas along with shredded chicken, beef, or cheese. Top with enchilada sauce and bake until bubbly.
- Quesadillas: Spread refried beans on one tortilla, top with cheese and another tortilla, then cook until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are crispy.
- Bean Dip: Warm up refried beans and serve as a dip with tortilla chips. Add toppings like melted cheese, jalapeños, sour cream, and salsa. You can also serve cold and make a 7-Layer Bean Dip.
- Tostadas: Spread refried beans on crisp tortillas and add toppings like lettuce, diced tomatoes, cheese, and salsa for a tasty tostada.
- Navajo Tacos: Much like tostadas, you can layer the refried beans with some chili and toppings on some Indian Fry Bread for a delicious meal.
- Nachos: Layer tortilla chips with refried beans, cheese, and toppings like sliced olives, jalapeños, and guacamole for loaded nachos.
- Bowl or Plate: Create a bowl or plate by layering refried beans with rice, protein (like grilled chicken or beef), sautéed vegetables, and garnishes like avocado and cilantro.
- Dip for Vegetables: Serve refried beans as a dip for raw veggies like carrot sticks, celery, and bell pepper strips.
- Huevos Rancheros: Top corn tortillas with refried beans, fried eggs, and a zesty tomato-chili sauce for a hearty breakfast.
- Mexican Pizza: Use these refried beans to make your favorite taco pizza or Mexican-style pizza.
- Mexican Lasagna: Layer corn tortillas with refried beans, cheese, and a meat or veggie filling to create a Mexican-style lasagna.
- Use as a Chili Thickener: This is one of my favorite secrets for thickening chili! Add refried beans to chili for extra thickness and flavor. They work particularly well in Mexican-style chilis.
Frequently Asked Questions about Restaurant Style Refried Beans
Traditional refried beans are made from pinto beans, but you can make them from black beans as well.
Most restaurants add extra fat, like bacon fat, bacon grease, butter, or other types of fat for all that yummy flavor. You don’t have to add extra fat to these homemade cheater style refried beans though!
Refried beans in most Mexican restaurants are high in fat, calories, and sodium. So making restaurant style refried beans at home is a much healthier option because you control the ingredients.
READ MORE: 75+ Best Mexican Recipes
More Mexican Food Recipes
I use these restaurant style refried beans and our Restaurant Style Mexican Rice for sides every time I make Mexican food at home, we honestly never make a Mexican dish without these two sides anymore. Some of my favorite dishes to serve these with are our Carne Asada Burritos and our Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas. It also makes a much better base for 7 layer bean dips (it’s perfect for our 9 layer bean dip HERE). You can also spoon these beans right into a burrito, taco, or on top of a big, cheesy pile of nachos. Whatever you do, just get these on your table next time you eat Mexican food!
How to Make Restaurant Style Refried Beans
Cheater Restaurant Style Refried Beans
Video
Ingredients
- 1 can refried beans I like the Taco Bell brand
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 Tablespoon Valentina hot sauce
- 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese grated (or a cheddar/jack blend)
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl combine the refried beans, sour cream, and hot sauce.
- Pour into a glass pie pan or 9×9 dish and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, or until its hot and bubbly. Remove and stir well.
- Top with grated cheese and heat in the oven for 3 more minutes or until cheese is melted.
- Serve with tortilla chips and with our Restaurant Style Mexican Rice for a complete side dish to any Mexican meals.
Notes
- You can use an immersion blender or a potato masher to get an even creamier consistency to your refried beans.
- Heat refried beans in a crock-pot or even the instant pot.
- Garnish with diced onion, cilantro or shredded cheddar cheese.
Thank you for this great recipe! I did do a taste test with Rosarita beans vs the Taco Bell beans just out of curiosity. The Taco Bell beans won hands down! The color, texture and taste are amazing! I’ll be serving these at my sons wedding rehearsal dinner.
I plan to try this refried bean add-on this week, and I’m giving it 4 stars because it sounds so good. However, nobody ever said TexMex is health food, so may I (a Texan who has eaten TexMex for almost all of my 79 years) suggest another addition? Anybody from this part of the country knows that pinto beans must be seasoned with a tad of bacon drippings or some ham hocks —the way that greens, dried beans and such are always cooked in this southern part of the U.S. And really, you’re going to have to add a little water to what comes out of the can to get a consistency that can be dipped with a chip.
[Bless your hearts, you don’t have HEB grocers, which sell OUTSTANDING frijoles refritos (refried beans) close to GREAT straight out of the bag they are packaged in.]
Many of us cook pinto beans from scratch, simmering slowly for most of the morning, but I have cheated for a while now, (with canned Bush’s beans seasoned as if they were my own from scratch, then smushed to the desired consistency).
Thanks for your recipe—I would NEVER have thought to incorporate sour cream. Of course, I also have to make arroz Mexicano (Mexican rice), and use our classic bottled heat from McIlhenny on Avery Island, Tabasco. So many brands are regional, but they usually have quality equals where we live.
I’m so glad to have found your site; you seem dedicated to being the best cook possible. I had to wait until my retirement to have time to devote to improving cooking skills!
Everything I’ve tried has been excellent! Thank you so much.
The best refried beans I’ve ever had! Easy, quick and always loved by everyone! I’ve also made these with refried black beans and they are just as yummy!
Really good! And so incredibly easy! A must make with the restaurant style Mexican rice!
So simple and so good. Thanks for sharing.
We didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, so made something similar. I substituted vegan cream cheese for sour cream. And for cheese used queso fresco.
These substitutions worked well for us, and the beans added nice flavor and creaminess to tacos!
So perfect to accompany the rest of my Mexican dinner. And so very easy. My go to for Refried Beans!! Thank you so much.
WHAT SIZE CAN OF REFRIED BEANS DOES THIS RECIPE CALL FOR?
A 16 ounce can is what we use!
I substitute the sour cream for Mexican Crema and it makes it that much better.
My go to for recipe for refried beans!
I love the creamy restaurant style beans but until now have been unable to master them. As you suggested, I used Taco Bell (fat free) refried beans and added a little olive oil. I hit them with an emersion blender and a little water and they were perfect. I topped them with the sour cream.
Made this tonight. Everyone loved it. Super easy to make on a week night too. Made exactly as described. Would make this again for sure.
I so love your cookbook! I even bought a year of favorites for myself and a friend! Thank you so much for all your wonderful hints & tips also! ❤️❤️❤️
Hi Mimi- Thank you so much! I am so thrilled to hear that you have enjoyed our cookbooks 😀 We hope to provide you with many more recipes, hints, and tips for years to come. Thanks for your support! – Erica
Has anyone made this the night before and put in the oven versus stove top or done these in a crockpot? I’m making a large quantity for a party and would like to use the oven or crock pot! Thanks!
I would probably do them in a crock pot for a large crowd!
Thank you for Delicious recipes.
My husband walked up while I was prepping this and was instantly grossed out when he saw the sour cream, he hates sour cream. I asked him to give it a chance. He did and he did not regret it. These beans were as good, maybe better, than ANY that we’ve ever had anywhere. He was blown away and so was I! I did not have the hot sauce you described but used some Taco Bell Diablo sauce instead and wow, they had a great kick! I’m also a HUGE fan of your Restaurant Style Mexican Rice, I’ve been making it for a couple of years and it’s outstanding. I feel like after searching for years, I’ve found the perfect recipes. I can’t wait to see what kinds of meals we can whip us using these beans and your rice as staples!
This was so easy to make. It tasted exactly like what you’d get at a Mexican restaurant!!
These were delicious! I didn’t measure the sour cream as I was in a hurry and I think I added a little more than a third cup so mine were lighter in color but they were still very good. I didn’t have the hot sauce brand that you referenced so I used what I had in the pantry. This will be my new recipe for
quick refried beans. Thank you for sharing a great recipe.
Very good!!!! Now I need to find a way to make $1.00 Spanish rice side in a bag taste better. Any suggestions?
Hmmm our best suggestion is to make restaurant style Mexican rice. It tastes better than those rice side dishes 🙂 Click HERE for the recipe!
Wow, yum. I have added cheese and hot sauce to refried beans before, but never thought to use sour cream. So creamy, cheesy, and delicious. Thanks!
So glad you liked it! The sour cream makes all the difference. I think that is the “secret” that makes it taste like restaurant refried beans. 🙂 Thanks for the 5-stars!
My go-to recipe for beans (but my family likes to eat it as a dip with tortilla chips).
Same!!
Like another commenter I cooked a whole bag of pinto beans and needed a way to utilize them. Your recipe is great. I just wanted to add that you can freeze them for up to 8 months if you make a ton like I did. Just defrost a portion here and there night before and lunch is served next day — no problem. Also another idea is to make layered dip for evening snacking. Some guacamole, sour cream, refried beans, and hummus…. Mmmm mmmm mmm. Thanks for the sour cream tip!
Would it be okay to put these in a crockpot to cook?
That should totally be fine. Yo will just want it on low, probably, to avoid burning. Hope this helps!