Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Baked Beans
I love watching sports for lots of reasons, but I think the ritual of being a sports fan is my favorite part—to me, there is just something so inherently cozy about curling up to a hockey or football or basketball game on a Saturday night. And, of course, good cozy food goes hand-in-hand with that…and these slow cooker baked beans are one of my favorite game day foods.
Why should I make these slow cooker baked beans?
Baked beans are easy and affordable to make for a large crowd of sports fans. They are comforting, cozy, and decadent (especially with all that bacon). And my favorite part—the slow cooker is absolutely the perfect tool for cooking baked beans. I mean, I’m a big believer that you can cook almost anything in a slow cooker (barbecue ribs, anyone?), but baked beans are a case where you really shouldn’t use anything but a slow cooker. It’s the right tool for the job.
What kind of beans do I need?
This recipe calls for Navy beans, but you could sub in other beans. If you choose to use kidney beans, make sure to bring them to a full, rolling boil on the stovetop for 10 minutes before adding them to the slow cooker. Most slow cookers do not get hot enough to safely cook kidney beans—they have a toxin in them that can make some folks feel pretty yucky if not cooked at high enough temps.
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Why are my beans still hard after slow cooking?
If you’ve ever tried to make baked beans (or any sort of sauce-based bean dish) using dried beans before, you may have run into the problem of your beans never getting soft, even if you pre-soaked them. When dried beans mix with acid, the cooking time is greatly increased. That means you want to skip adding any tomato-based products until your beans have been adequately softened. That’s why the recipe for these baked beans has you adding the acidic ingredients after a few hours of cooking. (Also, the older the beans, the longer it takes to soften them—beans over a year old might never soften.)
What should I serve with slow cooker baked beans?
When we’re making these baked beans for dinner, we serve them up with a batch of cornbread. Otherwise, we make these for a game day spread along with:
- Hawaiian roll ham and Swiss sliders
- Instant Pot buffalo chicken dip
- Oven-baked chicken wings
- Margaritas made with homemade margarita mix
Slow Cooker Bacon Brown Sugar Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound navy beans
- 1 pound thick-cut bacon cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 large green pepper diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup barbecue sauce use gluten-free, if needed
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup molasses
Instructions
- Soak the beans in water (the water should rise a few inches above the beans) overnight.
- Cook the bacon on the sauté setting of the slow cooker, or in a Dutch oven on the stovetop. Remove the bacon and set it aside.
- Drain all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease. Sauté the onion, pepper, and garlic in the grease until soft, about 5-7 minutes. If you cooked them in a Dutch oven, transfer the vegetables to the slow cooker.
- Drain the beans. Add the beans and 3 cups of fresh water to the slow cooker. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or until the beans are mostly tender.
- Whisk the brown sugar, barbecue sauce, vinegar, mustard, and molasses together in a small bowl. Stir into the beans. Add the bacon to the slow cooker.
- Cook an additional 1-2 hours on high, until the beans are thick and dark.
Notes
- To make this recipe gluten-free, use a homemade gluten-free barbecue sauce, or be sure to check the labels of commercial barbecue sauces—some are gluten-free, but many are not!
Nutrition
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