At Home: Bacon & Beer Bean Dip

People will bring all manner of dips to a party. There will be that unpleasant-looking but tasty spinach and faux-crab dip served in the  a bread bowl; there will be guacamole; there will be a tub of sour-cream-and-onion dip and a bag of potato chips; there will be a version of queso or taco dip.  All of these are perfectly tasty—the only real problem is that they were not original enough for Keith, who recently needed to bring a homemade dip to a work function.  So, he made his 'manly' version of a refried-bean dip called Bacon & Beer Bean Dip and shares it here on What Micky Eats...At Home.

Bacon & Beer Bean Dip

• 1 pound dry pinto beans
• 3 - 4 bottles of beer
• 1 pound bacon
• 1 cup bacon fat, reserved
• 1 cup onions, diced
• 2 teasp minced garlic
• 1 jalapeño, chopped
• 1 adobo peppers, chopped
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 2 teasp cumin
• 2 teasp chili powder
• 1 teasp black pepper
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 teasp cilantro

- Soak the pinto beans overnight in a large bowl filled with enough water to cover the beans by a couple of inches. (Alternate: Cover the dry beans with a couple of inches of water in a pot, boil them for a couple of minutes, and then remove the pot from the heat and leave the beans to soak in it for an hour and a half.)
- Drain all the water out of the pot and cover beans with beer. As with the water, you want enough beer to submerge the beans a good inch or two beneath the surface.
- Bring the beer to a boil, then lower the heat to bring it back down to a low but steady simmer, and simmer the beans for two hours.

- Cook the bacon.  Crumble and set aside.  Collect and set aside 1 cup of liquefied bacon fat.
- Thoroughly mash the beans.
- In a large skillet, heat up the reserved bacon fat and cook the onions, garlic, and peppers in it.
- Add in the spices and herbs, and the bean-mash.
- Cook all together, constantly stirring.

- Stir in the canned tomatoes and Sriracha.  Mix well.
- Transfer into a large bowl, top it with some shredded pepper jack cheese and bacon crumbles.
- Serve warm with tortilla chips.

The beer flavor was pretty prominent, but complimented the spice from the peppers.  This was not your average bean dip, and all the hard work yielded plenty of leftovers.  Feel free to adjust the spices to your taste preference.  While the brown beans may not look the prettiest, the bacon and beer cater to the meat-loving crowd.  Try making this dip at your next football viewing party.  All the dude bros will surely appreciate it.