Easy Instant Pot Pinto Beans

Instant Pot pinto beans are easy to cook from dry in a pressure cooker: no soaking required! Serve them straight or with Mexican flavors as a simple side.

Confession: Alex and I are terrible at thinking ahead. So we don’t often cook dried beans! Cooking beans on the stove requires actual forethought: you’ve got to soak them overnight. Then you have to spend a few hours boiling them on the stove. But guess what? Thanks to the magic of a pressure cooker, you can cook dried beans with no soaking required! These Instant Pot pinto beans are seriously fast (in bean cooking terms!) and totally hands off. Add a few Mexican style seasonings, and they’re a simple side dish. Ready to get cooking?

Why make Instant Pot pinto beans?

It’s no secret that you can easily buy canned pinto beans. So why would you go to the trouble of making pinto beans in an Instant Pot? Here are a few reasons why:

• It’s quick and hands off. Just set it and forget it! In an hour and 15 minutes, you’ll have perfectly cooked and seasoned pinto beans!
• It’s cheaper than canned. Cooking pinto beans in a pressure cooker is more than half the price of canned!
• It’s way more delicious. Canned beans can be mushy and have a lackluster flavor. These Instant Pot pinto beans are perfectly tender with just the right amount of firmness.

How long does it take to cook Instant Pot pinto beans? 1 hour 15 minutes. You can make it even shorter if you omit the optional Mexican seasonings (see below).

Make them as Mexican pinto beans or straight up!

These Instant Pot pinto beans can be made two ways: both are delicious! Here are your options:

• Option 1: Straight up. If you simply want to cook pinto beans in your pressure cooker, here’s your method. Combine the beans with vegetable broth, water, and salt, and cook away! (If you’d like, keep the minced onion from the Mexican seasonings to add extra flair.)
• Option 2: Mexican pinto beans: Here’s how to make a perfectly seasoned side dish of pinto beans! They’re cooked with Mexican flavors: canned green chiles, onion, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder. They’re the perfect simple side dish for tacos or enchiladas!

Instant Pot pinto beans: the basic steps

Here are the basic steps for how to make Instant Pot pinto beans! Here’s the method that works in a 6-quart Instant Pot / pressure cooker. If you have a different brand or size, you’ll find that timing may vary (see below for more). Bean brands and the age of the beans can affect the cook time as well, so use the base recipe timing and then adjust as needed! Here’s how to make Instant Pot pinto beans:

1. Place 1 pound pinto beans in a pressure cooker with 4 cups vegetable broth, 2 cups water and and 2 teaspoons kosher salt. Or see below for adding the Mexican-style seasonings.
2. Pressure cook on High for 38 minutes (it takes about 15 minutes to “preheat” and get up to pressure).
3. Natural release for 15 minutes.

What kind of Instant Pot do you use?

Alex and I use this Instant Pot 6 Qt Programmable Pressure Cooker. We’d only recommend using a 6 quart pressure cooker for this recipe. We also can’t speak to other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, the Instant Pot Mini can work a bit differently than the standard size: don’t use a Mini here since the quantity is much too large.

Important: clean the sealing ring!

The lid on a pressure cooker has a plastic sealing ring inside that helps to create a tight seal. This sealing ring can pick up odors from the food that you cook in it. If you use the cumin and chili powder in this recipe, the sealing ring will likely pick up that smell! Our best tip: purchase extra sealing rings! Alex and I have extra sealing rings and use one for sweet and one for savory recipes. 

Either way, here’s how to clean the sealing ring after you make this recipe:

1. Remove the sealing ring and fully clean it in soapy water after cooking.
2. Smell it! If it still has an odor, soak it in vinegar for a few hours.
3. Store the Instant Pot with the lid upside down so the sealing ring is exposed to air, instead of with the lid closed onto the pot. This allows the sealing ring to air out between uses.

Get it! Buy extra Instant Pot sealing rings.

This Instant Pot pinto beans recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.

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More Instant Pot bean recipes

You can use a pressure cooker to cook a variety of different beans! Here are some more resources:

• Instant Pot Chickpeas
• Instant Pot Black Beans
• Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas
• Instant Pot Lentils