• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to header navigation
  • Skip to footer navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Eat Well.
Live Well.
Be Well.
Display Search Bar
  • Dinners Made Simple
  • Work with Us
  • Let’s Chat!
  • Blog
Follow us on Facebook! Follow us on Instagram! Follow us on Pinterest! Follow us on Twitter! Follow us on YouTube!

The Real Food Dietitians

Eat well. Live well. Be well.

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Specialty Diets
      • Whole30
      • Paleo
      • Egg-Free
      • Dairy-Free
      • Gluten-free
      • Grain-Free
    • Meal Prep Recipes
    • Whole30
    • Freezer-Friendly
    • Appetizers
    • Main Entree
    • Breakfast
    • Drinks & Smoothies
    • Instant Pot
    • One-Dish Meals
    • Slow-Cooker
    • Instant Pot
    • Salads & Sides
    • Sauces & Dressings
    • Soups & Stews
    • Snacks
    • Sweets & Treats
  • Real Plans
  • Meal Prep

Jun 28, 2016 By Jessica Beacom

Slow Cooker Baked Beans with Bacon

Dairy-Free
Egg-Free
Gluten-free
Grain-Free
Jump to Recipe

Serve these easy Slow Cooker Baked Beans with Bacon at your next backyard BBQ and watch the sparks fly. They’re made with just a few simple ingredients and a recipe you’ll make again and again!

These Slow Cooker Baked Beans with Bacon are magical!

I really just wanted to give you an opening to start singing ‘Beans, beans the magical fruit…’ if you felt moved to do so because I wasn’t going to make that the headline of this post even if it’s true! But really, these slow cooker baked beans with bacon are so easy and so delicious that they themselves are worthy of a small fireworks show. And there’s just something magical about smokey, sweet and sticky that’s hard to resist, don’t you think? Put these on the table at your next barbecue and watch the sparks of attraction fly.

Slow Cooker Baked beans are the ultimate year-round comfort food.

In the winter, there’s nothing better than baking a pot of sweet and saucy beans in the oven to warm the house. Their smell is intoxicating thanks to the bacon and maple syrup. But in the summer, the last thing I want to do is heat up the oven so I’ve adapted my favorite baked bean recipe to use the slow cooker instead. And I’m so glad I did because these are now my go-to set-it-and-forget-it picnic and potluck offering. And my kids beg for them everytime I fire up the grill so having an never-ending pot of these Slow Cooker Baked Beans might have to become a reality around here because I grill several nights a week when the weather is nice.

Worth the (little extra) effort.

Cooking the bacon and onions before adding them to the slow cooker may seem fussy but trust me, you get a much better flavor because the onions mellow out when cooked in the reserved bacon fat and you get a thicker sauce. Cooking the bacon first also means you won’t have any pale rubbery blobs of bacon in your beans like you do when you open a can of pork of beans from the store. Yeah, just no.

And really, this only adds about 10 minutes to your life. If you’re really pressed for time, do this step up to 3 days in advance, storing the cooked onions and bacon separately in covered containers in the fridge before adding them to the slow cooker with the beans and sauce ingredients.

Keep cool and eat well this summer

Summer is all about eating well and kicking back to enjoy the good things in life so be sure to make room on the table for these slow cooker baked beans with bacon. And don’t forget the watermelon, potato salad, slaw, burgers, brownies, and cocktails too!

Hungry for More? Subscribe to get our newsletter delivered straight to your inbox! And be sure to stay in touch on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Let's Get Cookin'

Slow Cooker Baked Beans with Bacon

Sweet and saucy baked beans made in the slow cooker are the perfect side dish for barbecues, potlucks, and picnics.

  • Author: The Real Food Dietitians
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 4 hours
  • Total Time: 4 hours, 15 mins
  • Yield: Serves 6-7 1x
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Cuisine: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free
Print Recipe
★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews

Ingredients

  • 2 (15-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed (yields about 3 ½ cups beans) 
  • 3 slices bacon, chopped
  • ½ medium onion, diced
  • ½ cup ketchup (such as Tessemae’s or Primal Kitchen made without added sugar)
  • 2 Tbsp. maple syrup (or less if your ketchup has added sugar)
  • 1 Tbsp. molasses
  • 2 Tbsp. yellow mustard
  • 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water

Instructions

  1. Cook chopped bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 7-8 minutes until almost crisp. Add onion to the pan with the bacon and cook an additional 4-5 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Remove from heat.
  2. Transfer bacon and onion mixture to slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients and stir gently to combine.
  3. Set slow cooker temperature to LOW and cook 4 hours, stirring a few times during cooking time.

Notes

All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: ½ cup
  • Calories: 179
  • Sugar: 8g
  • Sodium: 628mg
  • Fat: 4g
  • Carbohydrates: 25g
  • Fiber: 6g
  • Protein: 7g

What’s your favorite party-worthy summer side dish? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Pin it now & Make it later!


Photo Credit: The photos in this blog post were taken by Jess of Plays Well with Butter. 

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

  • Facebook412
  • Pinterest11.1K
  • Yummly1.2K
  • Email

About Jessica Beacom

Jessica is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist living in Boulder, CO with her hubby and two daughters. She's been described as a 'real food evangelist' and loves sharing her knowledge with others to help them break free of the diet mentality and find their own food freedom. In her spare time she enjoys CrossFit, telemark skiing, mountain biking, teaching herself how to play the banjo and camping out under the stars.

< Previous Post
Next Post >

Reader Interactions

Join the Conversation

    Leave a Comment Cancel reply

  1. Stephanie Smith says

    July 4, 2017 at 3:54 pm

    These were tasty! I doubled the recipe and just used 1 cup of water.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  2. Anne Jordan says

    June 17, 2018 at 5:07 pm

    Can I use dry northern beans with this receipe? If so how would you do it?

    Reply
    • Jessica Beacom says

      June 19, 2018 at 10:38 am

      Hi Anne,

      You’d want to precook the beans first then add them in place of the canned beans.

      Reply
    • Angie says

      July 10, 2019 at 9:14 am

      I’m a dry beans kind of gal! If you have time, you can probably do it all in the same crock pot. Use 1 1/2 cups of dry beans (or use a whole pound and just increase the rest of the ingredients or take some beans out before you add the rest of the ingredients). Cook them in the crock pot on low for 8 hours (if you can do it overnight) or high for 4 hours. Remove some (most, since you need several cups of water to cook the beans) of the liquid (some people would tell you to save it and use it for other cooking) and add the rest of the ingredients from the recipe, then cook for 4 hours on low. If you want to up the flavor of the beans themselves, I like to make broth in the crock pot overnight (onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf, bones if I have them, bacon or a ham hock, etc – wrap it all up in cheesecloth to make life easier), remove the solids in the morning, then add beans I soaked overnight to the broth and cook all day on low. You do end up with the crock pot going all day, but it can make some tasty, nutritious meals with surprisingly little effort. A caveat to cooking beans in the crock pot is that you don’t want to do it with red kidney beans (they have to be boiled for 10-15 minutes), and the amount of time it takes to cook can vary quite a bit based on the type, size, and age of the beans, although I’ve yet to have beans take more than 9 hours on low – that’s longer than I’m gone on a work day, so no big deal for me. This recipe would be forgiving because you get an extra 4 hours of cook time, so if you did 4 hours on high and still had a firm center in some beans, they’ll likely soften up just fine by the time they’re ready to serve. Canned beans are salted, so bear that in mind. You’ll see a lot of methods for salting dry beans that include salting the soak water, adding salt at the beginning of cooking, and adding salt at the end of cooking. People have strong opinions about what works best. You do you with the salt ;).

      Sorry for the book, but I think sometimes using dried beans is a bit of a lost art and many people just don’t know how to make them. My goal for this year is to get to the point where I prepare a pound of beans every week to save money and increase fiber intake, and I work full time and have an 8 month old, so I need that crock pot to do the heavy lifting for me.

      Reply
      • Brit says

        August 17, 2019 at 9:26 am

        I use only dry beans also. Mostly I make a lot and freeze them. My method for making them is to cover them with water, bring them to a boil for a couple of minutes. Then I let them soak for an hour or so, drain and refill with water and repeat. This is my soaking version of the beans. Next I boil them on top of the stove, cool, and freeze. The water used for boiling is also new water. Yes, it is a little work up front, but once they are in the freezer, it is less work than opening cans.

        ★★★★★

        Reply
  3. Hilary says

    July 3, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    If I double all the ingredients for the slow cooker baked beans do I double the amount of water also?

    Reply
    • Stacie Hassing says

      July 12, 2018 at 2:15 pm

      Yes, I would suggest doubling all of the ingredients. If you like your baked beans more thick, you could to 1.5X and then add more water as needed. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  4. Ann Wilson says

    May 21, 2019 at 9:22 am

    Hi, would it be possible to prepare this recipe in an instapot? Looks delish!

    Ann Wilson

    Reply
    • Jessica Beacom says

      May 27, 2019 at 9:57 pm

      I believe you could, though I haven’t tried – and it would probably take less than 10 minutes on high pressure. My only hesitation would be the fact that they may not get the caramelization that comes with slower cooking and the evaporation of the liquid that happens with a slow cooker (and not an Instant Pot). If you try it, please let us know how they turn out.

      Reply
  5. Lisa says

    June 3, 2019 at 10:14 am

    Hi there! I notice that there is a green garnish on the beans. What would this be? It makes it look pretty! Thanks!

    Reply
    • Jessica Beacom says

      June 3, 2019 at 7:41 pm

      It’s chopped fresh parsley.

      Reply
  6. Susan judy says

    January 18, 2020 at 10:27 am

    Made these for a rainy day gathering! Doubled , but only one cup water ! Added ground cinnamon! Easy and very delicious! They are now on our favorite list !!!!👍♥️

    Reply
  7. Guy P says

    June 1, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    Recipe looks great … but what is the green herb on top of beans… cilantro, basil, green onions???

    Reply
    • Jessica Beacom says

      June 2, 2020 at 6:50 pm

      Thanks, Guy! The green herb is chopped, fresh parsley. It’s optional but adds a nice bright flavor and pretty color to the dish.

      Reply
  8. Heather says

    June 16, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    I made the beans for a baseball end of the year picnic. They were a big hit.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

The Real Food Dietitians is the passion-driven product of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists Stacie Hassing and Jessica Beacom. They’ve combined their love of nutrition, health and real food with the concepts of ease and convenience to bring you recipes that are big on flavor but short on ingredients.

Free eBook

Sign up to get your FREE recipe eBook + weekly newsletter!

Favorite Recipes

Four fresh artichokes in an Instant Pot ready to cook

How to Make Instant Pot Artichokes

A large stack of sweet potato pancakes on a white plate topped with a pad of butter, pecans, and maple syrup.

Fluffy Sweet Potato Pancakes (gluten-free)

30 Whole30 Appetizers (Gluten and Dairy-free)

Three mason jars filled with yogurt and topped with homemade Paleo Granola and fresh raspberries

Paleo Granola with Honey and Cinnamon

Curry Chicken Salad (Whole30)

A piece of Western-style breakfast casserole on a speckled plate and topped with sliced avocado.

Western-Style Breakfast Casserole

Free Recipe eBook

Sign up to get your FREE recipe ebook + weekly newsletter!

Follow us on Facebook! Follow us on Instagram! Follow us on Pinterest! Follow us on Twitter! Follow us on YouTube!
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Let’s Chat!
Copyright © 2021 The Real Food Dietitians Site Credits. Designed by Melissa Rose Design. Developed by Once Coupled.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

How about a free recipe ebook?

Sign up for our newsletter and get your FREE recipe ebook delivered right to your inbox!

We respect your privacy! Your information will *never* be shared, traded or sold to a 3rd party.
  • 412
  • 11.1K
  • 1.2K