These Crockpot Baked Beans are slow-cooked to develop the perfect blend of sweet and savory flavors. These beans have crispy bacon, brown sugar, and onions. They are an easy, set-it-and-forget-it side dish that everyone will love!
Sweet & Savory Baked Beans
Easy side dishes are the best side dishes! And this recipe for Crockpot Baked Beans is just that. Because it’s quick to prep, easy to make, and the slow cooker does all the work.
Plus, the ingredients to make this recipe are so simple. Most of them are shelf stable, so you can keep the ingredients around and make this recipe whenever you want.
Canned baked beans are used to speed things up. Then we will add brown sugar, bacon, onions, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. The beans are then slow-cooked to develop a delicious sweet and savory flavor. The results are incredible and your family and friends are going to love these beans!
Looking for a traditional oven version? Here’s ya go: Easy Southern Baked Beans
Why You’ll Love This Easy Side Dish
Here’s why this will become one of your favorite slow cooker side dishes.
- The ingredients are simple and affordable. There are no fancy ingredients needed for this rich-flavored side dish. Plus, they can all be found right at your local supermarket and they are reasonably priced.
- The recipe takes 15 minutes to prep. And then the slow cooker does all the work. So there’s no need to stand around the stovetop and wait.
- You can customize it based on what you have and what you like. You can omit the bacon if you want the recipe to be vegetarian. If you don’t want it to be so sweet, you can leave out the brown sugar. Easy switches like this make it’s easy to adjust the recipe to your liking.
Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make Crockpot Baked Beans:
- Thick Cut Bacon: Thick cut works best for authentic southern-style baked beans.
- Yellow Onion: Every good dish starts with cooking onions in our opinion! The onion adds a little sweetness and texture to the baked beans.
- Canned Baked Beans: It’s important that you do not drain the canned beans because you want that liquid and flavor when you slow cook the beans.
- BBQ Sauce: We used Sweet Baby Rays (it’s delicious and our favorite!), but you can use whatever BBQ sauce you’d like.
- Mustard: Regular yellow mustard works excellent for this recipe.
- Worcestershire Sauce: This sauce cuts the sweetness a bit and adds a savory and salty flavor.
- Brown Sugar: This is optional because the baked beans are already sweet as they are. I usually don’t add any added brown sugar to mine, but I do when I am serving a crowd as most people like their baked beans sweet.
- Garlic Powder: Or you can use granulated garlic instead.
How to Make Crockpot Baked Beans
The steps for making these baked beans are really simple. Here’s what you need to do:
First, cook the bacon until it’s nice and crispy. After the bacon has been cooking for a few minutes, add the onion, too. The bacon will crisp up and the onion will caramelize for delicious flavor!
Then add the rest of the ingredients to a slow cooker. Go ahead and add the cooked bacon and onions, too! Stir everything and put the lid on.
Lastly, set the slow cooker timer and you’re good to go! You’ll want to cook for 4-6 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.
When the beans are done you can serve them immediately. You can always add extra bacon as a topping, too!
Tips & Variations
Here are a few things to keep in mind when making these Crockpot Baked Beans.
- These beans can be vegetarian. You can make these vegetarian, just skip the bacon and make sure your purchase vegetarian baked beans.
- Add a savory topping. Try serving with bacon and chopped green onions on top to contrast the sweetness of the dish.
- Use maple syrup instead of brown sugar. And make sure it’s the good stuff! We love using 100% pure maple syrup as a sugar substitute.
What To Serve with Slow Cooker Baked Beans
This baked beans recipe goes with so many of our favorite dishes! Here are some that we think would be a great recipe to try with these beans.
- Pulled Pork: Honestly, we think any BBQ-style pulled meat will go great with this side dish. Try our Best-Ever Pulled Pork Recipe or Slow Cooker Shredded Beef.
- Cornbread: And all of the other great BBQ side dishes like cole slaw and potato salad.
- Grilled Meat: Keep it simple and try our Easy Grilled Chicken recipe.
- BBQ Ribs: This list would not be complete without BBQ Ribs!
How to Store & Reheat Leftovers
And now we get to talk about how awesome the leftovers are! This is because the flavors develop even more and we think the beans taste even more incredible the next day.
You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat leftovers on the stove, in the microwave, or in the oven in a covered dish. But if you have a lot of leftovers, you can also transfer them back into the crockpot on high for an hour until they are warmed through.
Can I Freeze Homemade Baked Beans?
Yes, you can freeze leftover Crockpot Baked Beans. You can freeze them for up to 3 months. We recommend thawing them overnight before reheating them.
Crockpot Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 5 strips of thick bacon, cut into pieces (plus more for garnishing, optional)
- 1 medium sweet yellow onion, diced
- 2 28 oz cans baked beans, do not drain
- ¾ cup BBQ sauce
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, optional
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
Instructions
- In a skillet over medium heat, fry bacon until almost crispy, then add the onion. Continue to fry for about 2 more minutes, until the bacon is crispy and the onion is softened. (If you want to serve bacon on the top of the beans for garnish, cook an extra 4 to 5 more pieces of bacon.)
- Pour the baked beans into the crockpot. Add the BBQ sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and the sautéed onion and bacon. Stir until well combined.
- Cook in crockpot on low for 4 to 6 hours, or on high for 3 to 4 hours.
- Serve warm with extra bacon on top, if desired.
Notes
- Store leftovers in the air tight contianer, in the fridge, for up to 4 days.
- Freeze leftovers in an air tight container for up to 3 months.
OMG this recipe is truly an amazing thing. I made my own BBQ sauce, and added some meat cut from a thick rib that I had smoked. Then refrigerated the whole thing over night to warm up and serve the next day. Damn !
Sounds delicious! We need to try adding a rib!
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