Recipe for reference: [https://www.seriouseats.com/white-chili-with-chicken-best](https://www.seriouseats.com/white-chili-with-chicken-best)
So after seeing this pop up a bunch here, I decided to give it a try.
The problem I ran in to was that the beans took absolutely forever to cook (relative to the recipe instructions, at least). I started them with the chicken at about 4:45, and the beans weren’t done until about 7:30.
I used grocery store dried navy beans that I just bought specifically for this, so I don’t think they were way old. Soaked them for about 20 hours in salted water as per the recipe. I did notice that they didn’t plump up as much as other dried beans I’ve used in the past, but I’m not sure if navy beans just don’t do that?
The only oddity I noticed was that the recipe doesn’t say to cover the pot while simmering. Re-read it half a dozen times to be sure because I thought it was strange. Which I suppose if it only takes an hour that’s ok, but I eventually had to add more water and cover it up.
So what went wrong? Should I have covered it straight away? Heat too high/low? Or was I simply the victim of some old/bad beans?
I’d love to cook this again… Tasted great. But the timing really threw me off.
by DaveSauce0
10 Comments
I offer no help. I can make just about every recipe I’ve ever tried from Kenji, but beans are my kryptonite. I somehow ALWAYS fuck them up, lol. I’ll let them soak for the correct duration, pick out any “bad ones” and follow all the steps… always fuck it up some how. I know they’re supposed to be like the easiest thing ever but I think they just hate me. I can do so many more complex tasks in the kitchen (basically any task) but beans 🫘😭😂.
I’ll be following along to see what folks say!
The beans were probably old. Old beans take longer to cook.
I don’t care about “street cred” (his words), and use the 4 cans of beans in the notes.
They could have been old beans. Next time, I’d try covering the pot at least partially from the start and letting increasing the heat so that it’s at a full simmer (meaning frequent bubbles, not just a bubble here and there) the whole time.
If you’re at a higher altitude, that can make beans take a lot longer to cook, too.
Beans from grocery store can be old.
I always cook my beans seperately, early in the morning, to give me time to adjust or redo if I get a bad batch.
Because I often don’t think ahead that much to soak the beans overnight, I often use a quick soaking method and frankly believe it is better as it gets a start on cooking.
Put beans in water, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes while doing the other prep. Let beans soak off heat until ready to add them.
I cook a lot of dried beans (multiple times a week) and still find them a little unpredictable in terms of cooking time. Grocery store beans are unpredictable, but I generally assume are old. That may mean they take 3-5 hours instead of 1-1.5. Even when I know the age of my beans, and I’m using the water I always use, and the strategy that I always use, sometimes they take longer or shorter than I expected (sometimes dramatically). I start checking them after about 45-60 minutes of simmering and they may be done or they made need another hour. The failure to plump up with soaking was a sign that they were going to take a lot longer to cook.
Are you at any elevation? You’d be surprised how a few thousand feet can prolong beans and potatoes.
Pressure cooker for life for beans for me. No soaking, an hour to 90 min everytime.
I always put grocery beans in the instant pot. (As opposed to like rancho gordo)
Did you use tap water to soak them? This comes up fairly often wrt soaking beans, you generally cannot use tap water or hard water. I had issues with toothsome beans no matter how long I cooked, turned out to be the water