Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans
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Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans, an easy and traditional crockpot dish made with dried or canned beans, rich with molasses, a hint of maple, and smokey with crumbled bacon. A favorite side all year long and perfect for making ahead for your next potluck or celebration!
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Whether it be a summer picnic, potluck, or tailgating, these Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans are a perfect addition. In fact, I’m not sure it would be the same without them. These tasty, sweet and savory, smokey, perfectly seasoned beans.
While I love, love, love our quick and easy skillet baked beans, these Boston Baked Beans are something special. Especially when made easily in the slow cooker.
History of Boston Baked Beans
Boston Baked Beans (not to be confused with the candy!) have been around a while. In fact, early documents show that baked beans and cornbread were staples in Plymouth. Native Americans taught the Pilgrims these recipes as early as the 1620s. In the 18th century, imports of molasses found their way into baked beans recipes, creating what we know today as Boston Baked Beans.
When to Eat Boston Baked Beans
Well, any time in my book. But in Colonial New England, baked beans were cooked on Saturdays in brick ovens overnight. Thus preserving Sunday sabbath observances. Today, Boston Baked Beans continue to be popular on Saturdays.
Traditionally, these baked beans would cook in a bean crock for several hours. The slow cooker almost mimics this method. However, you don’t have to heat the oven for hours, it’s portable, and almost cooks itself.
How should I cook the beans?
There are two ways to slow cook these beans. It’s all determined by which beans you use; canned beans or dry beans. The difference is the cooking time. My preference? If you’re making Boston Baked Beans, allocate extra time and make it with dry beans.
But first, a note on the type of beans. I prefer dried navy beans, but Great Northern or any white bean works fine.
1. Dry Beans
This method is budget friendly and really, very easy. But it requires more time. When using dry beans, you will soak 1 pound — or about 2 cups of dried beans overnight. Or, in a pinch, quick soak the beans by bringing them to a boil for 2 minutes, removing them from the heat, and letting the pot sit for an hour. At which point you will drain and rinse the beans and proceed with the recipe.
To slow cook these beans, it will take about 8 hours on the low setting to cook and soften the beans.
2. Canned Beans
It’s possible to make Boston Baked Beans using canned beans. It will require three, 28-ounce cans of white beans, drained and rinsed. Omit the water in the recipe, mix together the molasses sauce, and cook on low setting 4 to 5 hours or high setting for about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
If you enjoyed this recipe on 31 Daily, you might also enjoy:
- Slow Cooker Beef Pot Roast
- From Scratch Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie (made without canned soup!)
- Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Soup with Canned Tomatoes
- Tasty Slow Cooker Lasagna with Ricotta
- Healthy Slow Cooker Turkey Chili
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Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried navy beans or 3 28-ounce cans navy beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 onion diced
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 3 cups hot water
- 8 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled
Instructions
Using Dried Beans:
- Soak beans overnight or follow package instructions for a quick soak method. This should be similar to boiling the beans in water for 2 minutes. Remove the beans from the heat, cover, and let sit an hour. Drain and rinse the beans.
- Meanwhile, cook and crumble the bacon and chop the onion. Set aside. Whisk together, in a medium bowl, the molasses, salt, pepper, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire, brown sugar, maple syrup, and hot water.
- To the slow cooker add the beans, onions, and crumbled bacon. Pour the molasses sauce mixture over the top of the beans. Stir, cover, and cook on the low setting for 8 hours (or in a 250°F oven), until the beans are tender. In a few hours, check the water level and add more if needed. Also, add additional salt to taste if needed.
Using Canned Beans
- To the slow cooker add the drained and rinsed canned beans, onions and crumbled bacon. In a separate bowl, whisk the molasses, salt, pepper, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire, brown sugar and maple syrup. Pour the molasses sauce over the beans and stir to combine.
- Cover and cook on low heat setting 4 to 5 hours (or high heat setting 2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes) or until desired consistency.
Notes
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.