Cowboy Beans
The last thing I want to do in the summer is turn on the oven unnecessarily so the crock pot becomes this cook’s tool of choice. I made this classic family recipe for July 4th weekend. While it’s good for a crowd as a side dish, it’s also worthy as a standalone main and even better the next day. Cowboy beans are easily adapted to be a vegetarian dish, which I tend to prefer.
Cowboy Beans
Ingredients
- 112 oz Bush’s baked beans (4-28 oz cans, I used vegetarian)
- 4 oz can diced green chiles
- 30 oz black beans, drained and rinsed (2-15 oz cans)
- 1 lb ground beef, browned (I used Impossible burger)
- 1 large yellow onion, diced and sautéed
- 2 green bell peppers, diced and sautéed
- 2 tablespoons jarred garlic
- 4 whole garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 oz Louisiana hot sauce
- 1 oz Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup spicy BBQ sauce
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- bundle of fresh thyme and oregano
Finishing
- 1 oz apple cider vinegar
- 1 oz maple syrup
- 3 oz sundried tomatoes, julienne cut
Add all ingredients from the beans to the bundle of herbs to the crock pot and cook on high for two hours until bubbly. Then, switch to warm mode and add the finishing ingredients: apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and sundried tomatoes. Give everything a good stir, remove bundle of herbs and keep warm until ready to serve.
