Loco Beans

The recipe from El Pollo Loco for pinto beans (“Culinary SOS,” April 13) must be incorrect. There is no way that five serrano chiles could be used with the amount of beans required. Further, the amount of sodium given as contained per portion must come from some other ingredient, even allowing for canned drained beans. The result was totally inedible because it was so hot , without any tasty flavor! Please send correction, or date of Times SOS carrying correction.

--MARCELLE SELIG, via TimesLink

I was thoroughly overwhelmed at the detail with which your SOS column highlighted El Pollo Loco’s Mexican beans. A call from El Pollo’s R&D; Department, however, prompted me to bring to your attention a situation. The recipe that was published, while obviously an attempt by The Times to reduce proportionally the 10-pound-can recipe I provided with my cover letter, fell slightly short in several ingredients and drastically short in two.

The amount of chiles included with the ingredients is not in proportion and, if cooked with the indicated amount, would create a bean mixture so hot it would “burn the lips off” the cook and the cook’s guests, as El Pollo’s R&D; Department so delicately put it. Also, I mentioned the portions provided in the restaurants amount to a mere 2.5 grams of fat per serving. The 10 grams noted in the article are way over the fat content of the beans served in the restaurants. Here is a revised recipe.

REVISED EL POLLO LOCO BEANS

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 whole serrano chile

1/4 teaspoon ground serrano chiles

1 large ( 24- to 28-ouncecan) pineo beans

1/3 cup water

Heat oil and whole chile in sauce pan. When chile is tender, add ground chiles, beans and water. Stir well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.

--GREG YOUNG, El Pollo Loco, via TimesLink

We re-tested the recipe originally sent by Young in The Times Test Kitchen and again found it to be not spicy at all. It’s important to notice that the serrano chilies are left whole rather than being chopped. Chopping them would greatly increase the temperature of the resulting dish.

As far as the nutritional analysis is concerned, according to USDA figures, one (24-ounce) can of pinto beans contains 2,773 milligrams of sodium (462 milligrams per 6 servings). There are also 3 grams of fat, which--when added to the 55 grams of fat from the 1/4 cup of corn oil specified in the recipe first sent by El Pollo Loco--comes to roughly 10 grams of fat per serving. Changing the recipe to 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil reduces the fat per serving to TK grams.

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