Need an easy side dish and don’t want to turn on the stove or oven? Crock Pot Baked Beans is your answer. You do start the beans on the stove, but then you put everything in the crock pot, turn it on and walk away. You come back 12 hours later to perfectly cooked beans in a tasty sauce.
I like to make this dish in the summer because you don’t have to watch any pots on the stove, you put this on early in the morning and by dinner you have the perfect side for a summer BBQ. I would rather spend my time outside this time year so crock pot cooking is a welcome addition to my repertoire.
I can’t take credit for this recipe, it comes from the blog – How Sweet It Is. I haven’t tried any of her other recipes yet, but I have book marked quite a few!
You start with dry beans so you need to plan ahead. I made these for dinner on Saturday, so I bought and soaked the beans on Thursday night, made the beans on Friday and just reheated on Saturday afternoon when my company arrived. I think they taste better after one day in the fridge and besides, it takes at least 11 hour to make this recipe so getting a head start the day before it definitely a plus!
Truly, is there any better smell in the world than bacon cooking on the stove? Sigh…..just thinking about it makes me happy! Anyway, while the beans are cooking, I started the bacon then added the onion and garlic. Once the bacon was done and the onion/garlic mixture was soft, I mixed it with the rest of the ingredients and added it to the crock pot pan. After the beans were done on the stove, I stirred them into the sauce, put the lid on the crock pot and turned it to low for 12 hours. After 12 hours, I turned the crock pot off and let it cool completely. I transferred the beans to a container and refrigerated them overnight. The next day all I had to do was reheat the beans and cook the burgers.
Perfect summer side dish, and if you heat them on the side burner of your grill, you don’t even need to turn on the stove and make the house hot, double win!
Pickled Sweet 