Cowboy Beans & Skillet Cornbread
As a Cowboy cook, I have cooked a lot of beans. Dried beans were a staple for hundreds of years for folks in the Americas - both native peoples and immigrants from afar. A large sack of dried beans was important for any long journey, because no matter how scarce game or wild plants were, you could always have a good hearty meal as long as you had some firewood and a little bit of water.
To me, this is true comfort food. If you are eating beans and cornbread for supper, you are sharing in a tradition of folks on the old trail, making cornbread in an old cast iron skillet and keeping a pot of beans on the fire for anyone who stops to rest with them at camp.
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How to Make Authentic Cowboy Beans
Cookie did not have access to an ice box unless they were driving cattle through the snow. Because of this, many fresh ingredients couldn't be counted on during the harder parts of the journey. Beans were a staple because they never went bad - but that also meant that nothing fresher than an onion was going to go into that pot if Cookie didn't see it growing along the trail on the way to camp.
We appreciate you sharing our recipes with your friends and family!
To flavor the beans, cookie would use salt pork or bacon, sometimes a ham hock or other dried meat. Dried chili peppers were also used - along with salt and other spices - to make the dried beans taste delicious.
This recipe is exactly how Cookie would have made beans on the trail over 100 years ago.
Tip: If you are at a high elevation, you will need to soak the beans for a few hours or overnight in cold water before cooking. At sea level you do not need to soak the beans.
Used in This Recipe
Get your beans in a pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add a quartered onion, the diced dried chilies, and the ham hock. Note that I'm not adding any seasoning at this time. We want the beans to boil for a while before we go and add the seasonings. Boil at a high simmer until the beans start looking soft and the skins begin to split.
Tip: Keep a pot of warm water simmering on the stove in case all of the water boils out of your beans. You can add the warm water without shocking the beans.
When the skin on the beans begins to split, it's time to add the seasoning. Seasonings varied depending on what region of the world the cook came from. We're in New Mexico so I'm adding in some roasted Hatch green chilies, Mesquite Seasoning, some of our Original Seasoning, dried cilantro, cumin, and smoked paprika.
After seasoning the beans, take a look at the ham hock. If the meat is falling off, go ahead and pull the hock out of the beans and slice the meat up. Add the meat back in and continue to boil while all of those delicious flavors meld together.
Tip: For added flavor and heat, dice up a fresh jalapeno and add it to the pot.
While the beans simmer, start making the cornbread.
Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread
Cookie always had a bag of corn meal with him, as well. To turn it into cornbread, he'd mix up some lard or bacon grease, some milk from one of the animals if available, or some canned milk. He'd prepare the batter until the texture felt right and add it to a piping hot Dutch oven or cast iron skillet to bake.
Start by frying up the bacon in your cast iron. The grease left behind will flavor the corn bread and keep it from sticking. You can add the bacon to your beans, or use it in the bread - your choice!
To the corn meal, add the baking powder and some flour. In a separate bowl, mix up the buttermilk, an egg, and the baking soda. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together, and add the bacon and Hatch green chilies.
Tip: Preheat the cast iron before you add the batter. This will give you a crispy crust.
Dutch Oven Cooking Tools
If you are cooking outside on hot coals, place your Cast Iron on an elevated trivet. Place hot coals in a circle around the trivet, leaving space in the center for the heat to circulate. Cover the lid with hot coals, and bake until a fork comes through the center clean.
When the cornbread is finished, serve it up hot with butter & a big serving spoon full of beans.
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