Calico beans. Cowboy beans. Baked beans with beef and bacon. These flavorful, easy-to-make beans go by many names, but they’re all variations on the same idea: a mix of colorful beans slow-simmered in a sweet-and-tangy sauce with ground beef and bacon.
People often ask me food questions in real life: what sides pair well with this dish, what’s simple to make for a crowd, or which desserts look impressive but are easy to pull off. One of my most frequent searches is “easy ground beef recipe ideas,” so if you’re looking for simple ground beef meals, this slow cooker calico beans recipe will be right up your alley.
I love using a slow cooker for this recipe because it frees up time and makes serving easy for potlucks and weeknight dinners.
Slow Cooker Calico Beans are:
- Sweet and smoky
- Tangy and saucy
- Budget-friendly and filling
- Versatile — work as a main dish or a side
- Customizable to whatever canned beans you have on hand
How to make slow cooker calico beans
- Start by frying the diced bacon in a medium skillet until crisp. Add the ground beef, diced onion, and diced green pepper and cook until the beef is browned. Drain excess fat, then transfer the meat mixture to a 4–6 quart slow cooker.
- Add one 15-ounce can of undrained pork and beans and three 15-ounce cans of drained and rinsed beans to the slow cooker. Common choices include butter beans, kidney beans, and black beans, but you can swap in garbanzo, lima, Great Northern, cannellini, pinto, or other canned beans based on preference and color.
- Mix the sauce directly in the slow cooker: ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, prepared yellow mustard, and liquid smoke. Stir well to combine, cover, and cook on low for 4–5 hours until flavors meld and the sauce is thick and saucy.
We often serve these calico beans as a main course alongside skillet cornbread or a simple molasses skillet cake. They’re a classic, comforting dish that fits neatly into the easy ground beef recipe category and is perfect for casual dinners, potlucks, or meal prep.
Slow Cooker Calico Beans
15 minutes
4 hours
4 hours 15 minutes
8
Amy D
Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon (diced)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 small onion (diced)
- 1 green pepper (diced)
- 1 15-ounce can pork and beans (undrained)
- 1 15-ounce can butter beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1 15-ounce can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1 15-ounce can black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons liquid smoke flavoring
Instructions
- In a medium skillet, fry the bacon until crisp. Add the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; cook until the beef is well browned. Drain the fat and transfer the meat mixture to a 4–6 quart slow cooker.
- Add the undrained pork and beans and the drained, rinsed beans to the slow cooker.
- Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and liquid smoke. Cover and cook on low for 4–5 hours, stirring once or twice if convenient, until the sauce is thick and flavors are blended.
Notes
Nutrition
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