These black beans are a modification of an awesome one pot chicken meal that Emeril Lagasse has in his cookbook: Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders, chicken and black beans with chorizo.  I loved the black beans that are the base of the chicken dish but I wanted to streamline the black beans and make them into a side dish I could use at pot lucks and other dinners. I have fallen in love with the Target Archer farms brand fresh chorizo, try it, its great and cheap! I have replaced the dry chorizo that was in the original recipe with the fresh sausage but you could go with the dry stuff, your choice.

These beans are almost as simple to make as the nasty sweet canned things from Bush’s or B&M that most everyone has a secret to doctoring up, yuck.  I bake my black beans in a large bean pot in the same oven as any protein that I am going to serve. So if I am slow roasting a huge pork shoulder at 250 degrees all day long then the beans stay in the oven all day next to the pork all day.  If dinner is a whole chicken at 350 degrees for an hour or two then beans get same treatment. This flexibility is fabulous for parties, because you can do the prep as many hours before you sit down as will work for you and your schedule. And if you need them ASAP you could use a large pot on the stove, stirring often to rush them in about 30 minutes (be careful they don’t burn or stick at the bottom of the pan if you do this).  Beans are forgiving and they are almost impossible to overcook, so feel free to make this dish work for you.

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Baked Black Beans

Ingredients

• 1 lbs fresh chorizo
• 2 large onions
• 2 ribs of celery
• 6 cloves of diced garlic
• ½ tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tsp Paprika
• ¼ cup red wine
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 3 cans of drained rinsed black beans
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the fresh chorizo from its casings and over medium high heat brown the sausage. Once cooked through remove from the pan and set aside. Add the onion and celery to the same pan.
   
2. Cook the veggies until soft then add the garlic, oregano, paprika and a few big grinds of black pepper. Stir well and add the red wine scrapping all the bits of goodness off the bottom of the pan, allow it to cook down for a few minutes.
   
3. Mix the meat, beans, cooked veggies and the diced tomatoes with liquid together, I use a big mixing bowl so it’s easy to stir and I don’t get burned. Taste and adjust spices to your preference. Be careful with salt as the beans and sausage will cause the dish to get more salty as it cooks.
   
4. Dump the mixture into a large oven proof pot and put into the hot oven, uncovered. At 350 degrees the beans will need about an hour to cook. Stir a couple times while baking to be sure you don’t need to add more liquid (stock or wine) to the pot.
   
5. The beans are done when they are tender and the sauce is nice and thick. Remove from the oven and serve with sour cream and raw onions if desired. The rich Spanish flavors just scream for a big glass of Rioja and a tender slow roasted pork main dish.