This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra cost to you).
Homemade Slow Cooker Baked Beans are a tasty and inexpensive menu addition for your next barbecue, dinner, or holiday meal. They’re infused with plenty of bacon and molasses, and they’re easy to make right in a crockpot.
Meggan’s notes
I love the convenience of slow cookers, but especially when it comes to recipes for dried beans. Unless you’re using an Instant Pot, beans can take a while. I like to adjust my expectations and just plan on them taking all day long.
Thanks for my culinary training, I know all about balancing flavors, even in a slow cooker. Here, we balance salty bacon with a sweet sauce made from brown sugar, molasses, and ketchup. For texture, add crunchy onions and celery. They soften in the slow cooker, but they still have a different texture from the beans.
Serve these beans on the side of your next barbecue menu, fried chicken, or baked ham. I’ve got all my best menu-planning ideas below.
Baked Beans Ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
- Navy beans: Baked beans are traditionally made with navy beans, but you can use small white beans, great northern beans, or cannellini beans. To soak dried beans overnight, pick through and sort 1 pound of dried navy beans. In a large bowl, add beans and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Soak at least 8 hours overnight. Drain and discard soaking liquid.
- Ketchup, brown sugar, and molasses: To make the sauce for the beans.
- Bacon: The salty flavor balances out the sweetness of the sauce, and the bacon adds a texture contrast with the beans.
- Onions and celery: For crunch and flavor.
- Bay leaf
- Salt and pepper: Adding salt too early can prevent beans from softening, so season your beans to taste after they’re done cooking. The bacon is salty, of course, so you might not need any additional salt.
How to make Baked Beans in a Crockpot
- Drain soaked beans well. In small bowl, whisk together ketchup, brown sugar, and molasses.
- In the bottom of a slow cooker, add beans, water, bacon, celery, onion, and bay leaf. Add sauce and stir to combine.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours or LOW for 8 to 10 hours, or until beans are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Crock Pot Baked Beans Tips and Variations
- Yield: This Slow Cooker Baked Beans recipe makes 12 generous side dish servings.
- Quick-soak beans: Add 1 pound of rinsed beans to a large saucepan and cover with 3 inches of water. Bring to a boil. Boil rapidly for 5 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.
- Oven-baked beans: Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. In the bottom of a Dutch oven or large saucepan, add all ingredients except salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cover and bake, stirring every hour, until the beans are tender, about 4 to 5 hours.
- Ham bone: Instead of bacon, add a meaty ham bone and 1 cup chopped leftover ham to your slow cooker. Remove the ham bone before serving.
- Fun flavors: For a different flavor, add 4 cloves minced garlic or 1 tablespoon brown mustard to the slow cooker. Or, substitute half of the ketchup for your favorite barbecue sauce.
Crockpot Baked Beans FAQs
Navy beans are the standard choice for baked beans are traditionally made with navy beans, but you can use small white beans or large great northern beans.
There are a few ways to thicken baked beans. The easiest way is to mash some of the beans into a paste and stir them into the rest. You can also cook off some of the water (either by removing the lid and cooking the beans in the slow cooker on high, or transferring to a pot on the stove and cooking off liquid that way). You could also add a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch whisked with water) and stir that in. A roux, made with fat and flour (such as butter and flour), can work too.
Avoid adding salt too early in the cooking process. Salt can prevent beans from softening, so it’s best to add it at the end after the beans are fully cooked.
Be sure to always soak your beans. If you add them to the slow cooker dry and unsoaked, they may not cook in the appropriate time or with the correct amount of liquid listed in the recipe.
Use the correct ratio of beans to liquid. If you don’t have enough water, the beans cannot absorb enough liquid to soften and plump up.
Because this recipe requires you to pre-soak the beans, they can successfully be cooked in the slow cooker at either high or low temperature.
Kidney beans contain phytohemagglutinin, a type of lectin that is very toxic at high levels. To use dried kidney beans in recipes, you MUST pre-soak dried kidney beans AND hold them at boiling point (212 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 10 minutes.
This means you should never cook kidney beans in a slow cooker. You won’t know for sure if the slow cooker reached 212 degrees and held it for 10 minutes. Better to be safe than sorry!
Storing Slow Cooker Baked Beans
Store baked beans covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Baked beans can be made up to 3 days in advance. Reheat over the stove until an internal thermometer reaches 165 degrees.
What to Serve with Baked Beans
Baked beans fit many menus and occasions, and they add a hearty side-dish wherever they’re served.
- Backyard barbecue: On the side of bacon cheeseburgers, grilled tri-tip, bratwurst, grilled BBQ chicken, along with potato salad, pasta salad, pickles, fruit salad, and Cowboy Caviar.
- Fried chicken: Serve beans on the side of your next bucket of homemade fried chicken along with mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, roasted green beans, coleslaw, buttermilk biscuits or cornbread, and mac and cheese.
- Ham: Baked beans are epic on the side of a glazed ham, baked ham, or Dr. Pepper Ham. Serve with cheesy potato casserole, roasted asparagus, and soft yeast dinner rolls.
Favorite entrées for beans
Grilling and Smoker Recipes
Grilled BBQ Chicken
Pork, Ham, and Lamb Recipes
Best Barbecue Ribs
Dinner Recipes
Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs
Sandwich Recipes
Pork Burgers with Feta Mustard
Join Us
Crockpot Baked Beans Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Drain beans well. In small bowl, whisk together ketchup, brown sugar, and molasses. In the bottom of a slow cooker, add beans, water, bacon, celery, onion, and bay leaf. Add sauce and stir to combine.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours or LOW for 8 to 10 hours, or until beans are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Navy beans: Baked beans are traditionally made with navy beans, but you can use small white beans or great northern beans. To soak dried beans overnight, pick through and sort 1 pound of dried navy beans beans. In a large bowl, add beans and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Soak at least 8 hours overnight. Drain and discard soaking liquid.
- Molasses: This robust, sweet syrup accentuates the sweetness of the brown sugar (brown sugar is a mixture of cane sugar and molasses). I love the flavor from using brown sugar and molasses in a 2:1 ratio.
- Yield: This Slow Cooker Baked Beans recipe makes 12 generous side dish servings.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Worked out perfectly!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
You’re so welcome, Tamara! Take care! – Meggan
Ok, so I had to use all northern beans and I didn’t have a few ingredients but simple, scratch baked bean recipes are surprisingly hard to find! That said, I used this as inspiration and they’re absolutely delicious (even without the bay leaf, molasses, and mixed beans!). Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
Hi Kels, thank you so much for writing! I’m so happy you were able to use this recipe as a jumping-off point for some delicious beans! You’re so welcome. Take care! – Meggan
Very good recipe! The molasses, brown sugar and ketchup work well together. I felt the recipe needed more so I doubled those three ingredients. I precooked my beans so only used 1 cup of water and thickness was perfect. Brought it to a party and everyone loved it. I had doubled the recipe and had half left so added 1# bacon, 14 oz Kielbasa and 1# ground beef to the remaining (single recipe) beans. Wow, not sure what to call this but the flavor is amazing. Have tried bean recipe after bean recipe and couldn’t get it right. This one is great! Thanks!
You’re welcome, Anita! Adding more bacon, Kielbasa and ground beef sounds delicious. Thank you for trusting my recipe! – Meggan
I have made this recipe several times. Always a crowd pleaser. I even made it vegetarian and omitted the bacon and it was still delicious. Will never eat canned baked beans again!!! EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT RECIPE, my family asks for this every bbq!
Thank you Suba! So glad you all loved it. – Meggan
Hi Meggan,
I hope this question hasn’t already been answered but… Can you freeze the baked beans? I’m going to soak my beans tonight. The recipe sounds delicious, I can’t wait to try it ❤️ Thank you.
Hi Lori, I haven’t frozen these myself, but I don’t see why they won’t. I would make sure to freeze it in an airtight container and make sure to leave some headspace for expansion. Enjoy! – Meggan
Hi Meggan, I decided to add home made beans to my cooking list for Christmas. So I’m going to prepare these beans before time. I’m sure they freeze well too!
I have soaked the beans for 91\2hrs and also doubled the recipe. It’s in the crock-pot right now going on the 5th hour, and it smells delicious. I made the recipe exactly to the T, except I added double smoked Bacon instead of the regular bacon. I’ll surely let you know later how they were.
Wow Francine, I can’t wait to hear how they turn out! I bet your kitchen smells delicious. – Meggan
Please help not sure how I manged it but my homemade baked beans come out too soupy and they have already been cooking in slow cooker for over 12hrs on low and I followed everything step?
Hi Kathy! I’m so sorry about your soupy baked beans! I wonder if you may have accidentally included the bean’s soaking liquid in the pot, possibly? I would simmer uncovered until some of the excess liquid evaporates. Sorry again – Meggan
Can smoked turkey he used instead of bacan or a ham bone?
Thanks.
Hi Stephanie, that sounds delicious, I don’t see why not! I haven’t tried that myself, though, so if you do would you let me know how it turned out? I hope you enjoy it! – Meggan
i read that sugar and calcium prevent beans from getting soft. Hence Baked Beans So get your beans too the correct texture prior to baking. Then add the other ingredients That is why the beans retain their texture when baking..the sugar and calcium( molasses) keep them that way.
Could you also do this with canned beans? How would you change the recipe?
Hi Stefanie! You could make these with canned beans and it wouldn’t take very long at all. I would say you’d need 2 or 3 hours on HIGH (just long enough to cook all the other ingredients) or 3 to 4 hours on low. Obviously the beans would already be cooked. You could actually make it on the stove top in probably 30 minutes. Good luck and if you have anymore questions just let me know! Thanks.