Want to be the star of your next potluck or tailgating party? Bring these Pineapple BBQ Crock Pot Baked Beans – they are the highlight of any picnic!
If you’re a pineapple lover, you cannot miss making this baked bean recipe! I love everything about baked beans and about pineapple in savory dishes. Needless to say, this is a match made in heaven.
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
Ingredient Notes
- Pineapple: Fresh or canned both work. I used fresh for these photos, but I’ve made the baked beans many times with canned. I recommend using canned in juice and not in syrup.
- Bacon: You can leave the bacon out if you want to make this vegetarian. You can also use diced ham instead of bacon – especially great if you’ve got holiday leftovers to use up!
- BBQ sauce: It’s one of the main flavors here, so you don’t want to use one you won’t like. I used Stubb’s Hickory Bourbon which you can order from Amazon here*. If BBQ sauce is too spicy for you (or your kids), you can just use ketchup instead!
- More flavor: I like to keep this recipe pretty mild and simple. If you want to add more flavor, feel free to add ½ diced green pepper and/or ½ diced onion.
Step by step photos
Recipe tips
- A 4-5 quart slow cooker is best suited for this recipe. I you’re feeding a large crowd and want to double the recipe, use a 6-8 quart slow cooker.
- Add sugar to taste! If you like sweet beans, you may need to add a little more than the recipe suggests. If you don’t want to add refined sugar, you can either leave it out or use honey or maple syrup instead.
- You can also cook this in the oven. Place all ingredients in a 4-5 quart Dutch oven and stir well. Cover with the lid and bake in the oven at 300°F for 1.5 – 2 hours.
Baked bean FAQs
Navy beans (also known as haricot beans) are most commonly used in commercial canned baked beans. But most beans can be use in baked beans – butter beans, great Northern, white kidney, pinto… I have used all of these in baked beans before and they’re all fine. You can also use a mix!
If you want to make your beans thicker, you can smoothly blend up to 1 cup of the beans, then stir them back into the dish. This should thicken the sauce up nicely if it was too thin for you.
Freezer instructions
This is a pretty big recipe and if you just like having baked beans at home and aren’t making them for a party, you can easily cook them, cool them completely and then freeze them in portions. I do it all the time.
To reheat, thaw them in the fridge overnight and heat gently over medium heat until piping hot, stirring a few times to make sure they’re heated evenly everywhere. You might need to add a little extra liquid if they thicken up too much!
Serving suggestions
Baked beans go so well with all sorts of summer/BBQ foods! You can serve them with grilled meats (try a steak with my perfect steak marinade!) or with sloppy joes. Pulled pork is a classic with beans!
As other side dishes, we like honey butter cornbread and sautéed green beans.
Watch the recipe video
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PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.
Printable recipe
Pineapple BBQ Crock Pot Baked Beans
Recipe details
Ingredients
- 2 (15-oz) cans white beans rinsed and drained
- 1 (15-oz) can pineapple chunks, drained (juice reserved if desired) OR ½ fresh pineapple, cubed
- 2 tablespoons chopped bacon
- 1 (18-oz) bottle BBQ sauce I used Stubb’s Hickory Bourbon
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup water OR reserved pineapple juice
Instructions
- Add everything to a 4-5 quart slow cooker and stir until well combined. Cook on low for 4 hours. Stir. Serve garnished with chopped green onions, if desired.
Nutrition
More recipe information
* I make a commission for purchases made through these links.
Pat Nugent says
Made with Pork ‘n Beans (Showboat brand) and cut the brown sugar by half. I did double the recipe and I’m glad I did. It was a tremendous hit.
Bruce says
Has anyone tried substituting Lima beans for this recipe?
Bruce says
I just made this recipe today, but I changed it a little. I used two cans of beans instead of just one, and I chopped a whole yellow onion instead of just half a one. I also used the thickening method of the sauce by removing a can of beans and then adding it later. It was good, but next time I`ll not use the pineapple juice and probably add a third can of beans. Also, I`ll use more bacon as well. This is one of those dishes that a little experimentation works better for me. I`ll continue to tweak it even more in the future.
Michelle says
Is the baccon cooked when adding to pot?
Nora says
Michelle, I used smoked bacon but I didn’t pre-cook it. Hope this helps!
Bruce says
I didn`t pre-cook the bacon, but just cut the raw strips of it and then added them to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients
Kim Bee says
What are those black flecks in the picture?
Nora says
Cracked black pepper ? it’s an old recipe with old pictures, due for a revamp though!
Nancy says
Do you cook the bacon first ?
Nora says
Hi Nancy, no I don’t. It will fully cook in the crock pot!
Leah says
Just curious if you think you could double the recipe, or would that be too large for the crock pot? Thank you!
Nora says
I would definitely use a larger crockpot for a double batch! Hope that helps.
Katia says
This looks like the type of baked beans dish my kids would love! I really hate buying canned baked beans with HFCS and extra nonsense. I think I’ll try making it tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.
Nora says
Right there with you, Katia. I generally try to avoid canned baked beans and making them at home tastes so much better anyways. Hope you try the recipe and your kids love it!
Karl @ Healthy Kreation says
Glad I came across this this slow cooker recipe that is not only unique but has a wide appeal as well. The only problem is finding the ideal bbq sauce. I’ve never tried the bbq sauce you have used so it may be hit or miss. Thanks for sharing this.