How to make baked beans with ground beef recipe with canned or dry beans is here. Cooked on the stove, in slow cooker or with Instant Pot Baked Beans it is a great barbecue dish.
Ground beef baked beans is a heartier side that goes well with a barbecue. Or use buns with this in the middle for a beefy meal with cheese. Sweet and savory Crockpot recipe that can be made spicy too if you like. A family friendly dish we love. (affiliate links present)
You can do this either way, from scratch like our Crockpot Baked Beans Recipe is always better so you can adjust the sweetness or make spicy with some red pepper flakes if you like. Your choice though, there is quite a bit of difference when it comes to cook time for sure starting with a can.
Some nights when we have had a busy day I will use this as a main dish, messy and all. Instead of serving sloppy joes recipe on slider buns I will use this!! Did it one night on a whim and my girls’ loved it and asked for it to be added to our meal planning on a regular basis for Friday night meals.
Ingredient Notes
Typically with this dish you are going to start with some navy beans dry, soaked, boiled for 1 hour – or canned (if using canned baked beans skip sauces below). A substitution to this would be to use Great Northern Beans or another more unusual variety is Peruvian Beans instead.
For the meat I typically will use lean ground beef, HOT Jimmy Dean ground sausage if I want some heat to it. This needs to be cooked and browned before incorporating with the other items.
For the sauce we are going to make our own sauce which includes; Ketchup, Brown sugar, Dijon mustard, Molasses, Apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Salt and Pepper, Onion powder and Chili powder.
Can you use frozen ground beef?
If that is all you have, this is How to Cook Frozen Ground Beef first to browned. Then follow the instructions from there below.
with Dry Beans
This is How to Cook Navy Beans, we will explain that below. That is the traditional variety used but any will do. These are great because of their creamy texture though and are great at soaking up all the sweet and savory flavors in the sauce it will be slow cooking in. It takes longer from scratch but worth it!
with Canned Baked Beans
Yes this is faster and we have directions for the difference below in the recipe card. I will say that the texture is better from scratch. If you use canned make sure you drain them well so it doesn’t dilute the sauce.
Baked Beans with Ground Beef Recipe
Equipment
- 1 slow cooker
- 1 pot if using dry beans
Ingredients
- 1 c navy beans, dry, soaked, boiled for 1 hour – or canned (if using canned baked beans skip sauces below)
- 1/2 lb. ground beef, or ground sausage, cooked and browned
- 1/4 c ketchup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- With Dried Baked Beans – Rinse and then pour beans into large bowl and cover with water plus 3" over the top. Soak overnight.
- Once soaked, drain and rinse beans and place them into a large saucepan with 4 cups water. Bring beans to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for one hour.
- Drain beans, reserving 1 cup of that liquid. In a slow cooker, or in a Dutch Oven over medium heat, add precooked and browned ground beef, ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, molasses, apple cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce, salt, onion powder, chili powder and black pepper.
- Add soaked and drained beans + 1/2 cup water and mix well. Cover with a lid and heat on low for 4 hours, stirring after 2 hours and if necessary, adding more liquid to loosen up. Once beans are tender and sauce is thick, serve.
- With Canned baked beans – Brown meat in a pan, drain and add into pot. Pour in baked beans and stir together with 1/3 cup water or beef broth. Cook on low for 1-4 hours stirring halfway thru checking liquid content adding a bit more if necessary. Cook time depends on your preference of tenderness, how much time you have and how deep you want the flavors to become, longer is better.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
in Slow Cooker
I like cooking in a Crock pot myself but you can use a deep pot with a lid. Keep as is or make a sweeter Apple Pie Baked Beans version this way too. It is handy this way so that you can switch to warm and guests can serve themselves over a few hours.
in the Oven
If you wanted to know Baked Beans in Oven in a baking dish or casserole dish with dried beans we have directions for that here too. You can make this one with or without meat but adding diced hamburger is best when added precooked halfway thru.
on the Stove
I would use a Dutch Oven or large skillet in this case. Simmer on low with the lid on until tender. You can even combine greens with it for a whole new meal you just may fall in love with. Once we added slow cooker collard greens in there and it became a favorite we never knew we were missing. Adding texture to an otherwise soft and creamy dish it amped it up in a way like this one does with the addition of beef.
Cook time on low is about 1-4 hours stirring halfway thru checking liquid content adding a bit more if necessary. That of course depends on your preference of tenderness, how much time you have and how deep you want the flavors to become, longer is better. Many times we will make Jiffy Mexican cornbread with it because it is a Southern favorite.
You can add browned meat like we did here with beef, hot dogs or bacon bits to make it heartier! For added sweetness brown sugar or agave is always a great choice. You can even add a sugar free liquid sweetener. To make spicy a sprinkle of red pepper flakes or jalapeno powder are great choices. An easy way to add flavor is to incorporate some bbq sauce.
Want a tang? Give your can of original baked beans a squeeze of yellow mustard with your spicy barbecue sauce. Jump to recipe and let us know if you tweaked it beyond what we did!
