Slow Cooker Baked Beans

These addicting, hearty Slow Cooker Baked Beans are loaded with ground beef and bacon, simmered in a tangy and sweet BBQ sauce.

Love easy side dishes like these tasty baked beans? Check out our Cheesy Crock Pot Potatoes (also perfect for parties) and our favorite way to make Corn on the Cob, no boiling water and no shucking!

Why You’ll Love Our Slow Cooker Baked Beans – AKA Cowboy Beans

These Slow Cooker Baked Beans are hands down the best you’ll ever taste. We prefer making these baked beans in a slow cooker to make it easy, especially for BBQs or parties. It’s a true dump and go slow cooker recipe.

Another bonus to using a slow cooker, once these beans are done cooking you can set your slow cooker to warm and use it to serve the beans. This way the beans will stay warm all night during your party!

• Easy To Make: Just brown the meat, cook the bacon and then dump everything into the slow cooker.
• Feeds A Crowd: This recipe will feed at LEAST 10 people. Especially if you’re serving them with a hearty main course.
• Make Ahead Recipe: You can make these beans ahead of time, even a day before your party or cookout. See the post below for best ways to warm them up!

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Ground Beef: Brown the beef and drain any drippings before adding to the slow cooker.
• Dry Onion Soup Mix: Found in the soup aisle. We keep them on hand for this recipe and many others.
• Baked Beans: Canned baked beans either in the original flavor or in your favorite flavor. We like the brown sugar variety.
• Bacon: Cook the bacon in the oven while you’re browning the ground beef, or in another skillet to save time.
• BBQ Sauce: You can use your favorite brand here.
• Brown Sugar: Adds a sweet flavor and caramelizes while the beans slow cook.

How To Make Slow Cooker Baked Beans

There’s only a couple of steps to making this loaded baked beans recipe. For complete instructions, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

• Ground Beef & Bacon: The ground beef and bacon need to be cooked ahead of time. Brown the ground beef in a skillet and drain the grease. Cook the bacon in the same skillet or in the oven, whichever way that you like to do it.
• Dump & Cook: Add the bacon and ground beef to the slow cooker along with the rest of the ingredients. Stir, cover and slow cooker on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours.

Oven Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown the ground beef, cook the bacon and then add the rest of the ingredients to a large, oven-proof pot or Dutch oven. Stir to combine. Cover the pot and place in the oven for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, stirring once during cooking. Keep the baked beans in the oven on low (200-250) to keep warm until ready to serve and/or during your party.

Stove Top Instructions

• Brown the ground beef, cook the bacon and then add the rest of the ingredients to a large, oven-proof pot or Dutch oven. Stir to combine. Simmer for at least an hour until warmed though. Keeping the beans on low heat until you’re ready or even during your party will only make them taste better!

How Do I Know When Baked Beans Are Done?

Since we’re using canned beans for this recipe, really all you need to do is warm the ingredients up. However, flavor will get better and better as these beans slow cook together with the beef and bacon.

Let them cook low and slow for the coziest, most wonderful flavor.

What Goes With Baked Beans?

These slow cooker beans are so hearty and delicious, you really will want them for your whole meal. However, here are some dinner ideas to go along with these baked beans!

• Whiskey Burgers
• Dan’s Double Down Flank Steak
• BBQ Party Ribs
• Root Beer Sticky Ribs
• BBQ Bacon Turkey Burgers
• Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Variations

There’s lots of different ways that you can adjust this baked beans recipe to your liking. This recipe is the way my mom made them, and we think it’s pretty perfect. But let’s get into some different ways to make them.

Instead of ground beef you can use ground pork or even sausage. Try different flavors of barbecue sauce, maybe a Hawaiian flavor or a maple flavored sauce.

There are also, of course many different flavors of the canned baked beans that you can start with. Our preference has always been the brown sugar flavor but you can play around with the flavors that you like, too.

Like in cowboy beans, some recipes add diced onion and/or green pepper to the beef while it’s browning. To spice it up you can add a diced jalapeño, too!

Looking For More Side Dish Recipes?

• Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob
• Classic Potato Salad
• 15 Minute Creamed Corn
• Twice Baked Potato Casserole
• Italian Pasta Salad

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