Baked beans are a staple in the Southern kitchen. They’re easy to make, filling, and hearty. This baked beans recipe is made with ground beef for more protein, soaking up all that BBQ sauce goodness! You can serve these as a side dish or even turn them into your main meal by adding cooked meat like pulled pork or chicken. So let’s get cooking!

I adapted a recipe that my mom acquired years ago when she lived in Germany for Calico Baked Beans and came up with this BBQ Baked Beans With Ground Beef Recipe.
🥘 Ingredients
For this meaty bean side dish, you need the following ingredients:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 16-ounce package of bacon
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 16 ounces Dark Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
- 16 ounces Pinto Beans, drained and rinsed
- 15.5 ounce can Butter Beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups Bar-B-Q Sauce
- ½ – 1 cup water
🔪How To Make BBQ Baked Beans With Ground Beef
Start by cooking bacon. If you have a large, oven-proof skillet, you can make this a one-dish side-dish (or meal). Remove the bacon and drain it on paper towels. In the same skillet, cook the onions and ground beef until the beef is no longer pink.
Next, brown a pound of ground beef along with ½ cup of chopped onion.
Once the beef has cooked, add the bacon back to the pan and add 3 cans of beans (Pinto, Kidney, and Butter Bean – though you can probably use just about any kind of canned bean that you like), barbecue sauce, and a little bit of water.
Cover the dish and bake it for 50 minutes and voilà!
📖 Recipe
BBQ Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 16 ounces package bacon
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 16 ounces Dark Red Kidney Beans (canned) drained and rinsed
- 16 ounces Pinto Beans (canned) drained and rinsed
- 15.5 ounces Butter Beans (canned) drained and rinsed
- 2 cups Bar-B-Q Sauce
- ½ – 1 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook bacon in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until done. Cut or tear cooked bacon into 1-inch pieces and set aside. Drain fat from skillet.
- Add ground beef and onion to skillet and cook until the meat is no longer pink. Drain fat.
- Return cooked bacon and add remaining ingredients to skillet and stir to combine.
- Remove from heat and spoon into casserole dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes.
Video
Nutrition
This recipe makes a large amount and is perfect as a side dish to enjoy National BBQ Month, as well as the other 11 months of the year! Plus, not only is it great as a side dish, but because of the amount of meat in it, it can be served as a main dish.
These baked beans are even better the next day.
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