This is a recipe for Frijoles Rancheros made oh-so easy in the slow cooker. Pinto beans with bacon and garlic, kicked up with some heat from jalapeno peppers. Slow Cooker Cowboy beans are a creamy, healthy side dish for any Western entree.

Using a slow cooker is an easy way to make any type of dried beans recipe. And this easy recipe for Cowboy Beans will have friends and family asking for the recipe.

I’ve seen many recipes that add ground beef, barbecue sauce and brown sugar. This is a simple Mexican-style Cowboy Baked Beans recipe that keeps seasonings minimal to showcase those pinto beans.

This is a Rick Bayless recipe, from his cookbook Mexican Everyday.

Have you ever taken a bite of a straight forward simple ingredient dish and asked yourself, “why is this so darn good?” As with about any Bayless recipe I’ve tried, this is one of those dishes.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Dried Pinto Beans
• Canned Tomatoes: I like to use Red Gold Petite Diced canned tomatoes. They’re smaller, break down easier for soups, avoiding any large over-powering pieces of tomato.
• Onion: Sweet or yellow onion.
• Bacon Thick cut good quality preferred. It will be meatier.
• Jalapeno Pepper
• Lard
• Garlic
• Dried Chile Peppers: I use Arbol chile peppers.

Ingredients Subs and Swaps

• Pinto Beans: Swap out navy beans, cannellini beans, black beans, or
• Bacon: Swap out bacon for chorizo sausage.
• Tomatoes: If you’d like to use fresh tomatoes, use 3 – 4 chopped tomatoes. Add any liquid from the tomatoes.
• Jalapeno Pepper: If jalapeno peppers are simply too spicy for you, substitute a poblano pepper. Seeded and chopped.
• Lard: Crisco will work well here.
• Dried Peppers: Use any dried chile pepper here. Guajillo peppers are a good choice here.

Step by Step Instructions – It’s Easy

• Step 1: Cook the chopped bacon several minutes, stirring regularly, until bacon starts to brown and renders its fat. Add the onion and cook until golden, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeños and cook until the garlic is fragrant. About 1 minute.
• Step 2: Transfer the mixture from the skillet to the slow cooker. Add the beans, a scoop of lard, and 7 cups of water. Cover and turn the slow cooker to high. Cook for 3 – 4 hours. Add the tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are hot.

Pro Tip: Remove about 2 cups of the beans and process in a blender or food processor. Return the beans to the crockpot for a creamier and thicker end result.

Frijoles Rancheros FAQ’s

The beans I used are from a new crop of Colorado grown beans. They were tender in the first four hours of cooking on high. The freshness of the bean will dictate the cooking time. 

The fresher the bean, the less time to reach a tender state. I’ve read that some of the dried beans we purchase off the shelf at our super market can be 2-3 years old. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a “thing” and they can take longer to cook.

Keep A Lid On It: When cooking foods in your slow cooker, resist the urge to lift that lid. Unless of course it’s absolutely necessary. Crockpots cook at such low temps that lost heat is not quickly recovered. An uncovered slow cooker can lose up to 20 degrees of heat in as little as two minutes. If you need to lift the lid to add ingredients, replace that lid as quickly as possible. This is especially important when using the low heat setting.

How to Serve

A bowl of Slow Cooker Cowboy Beans are good simply served with a warmed flour tortillas or Cornbread. Here are some more ideas:

• Side Dish: This is a hearty side dish that will go well with BBQ Chicken Sliders, Grilled Steak, or a great burger like these Silver Spur Ranch Blue Cheese Burgers.

Storage and Reheating

• Leftover beans should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They’ll last about 5 days. Reheat them in the microwave for smaller portions. And reheat stove top for larger portions.
• Freezing: Frijoles Rancheros freeze well. Just store them in an airtight container. Let the side dish cool completely before freezing. I like to use a zip lock freezer bag so I can push the air out. And they can lay flat so they don’t take up much space. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then reheat.

Recipe for Slow Cooker Cowboy Beans

I hope you give this this Cowboy style baked beans recipe a try. It’s a great side dish recipe for potlucks, parties and barbecues. Forget the canned beans, making this recipe with dried pinto beans is more cost effective, more flavorful and healthier.

Looking for more ways to cook with beans? You won’t want to miss:

And if you’re looking for more side dish recipe ideas, don’t miss my side dish category. You’ll find lots of ideas, including the most popular on my site for Smoked Mozzarella Penne Pasta Salad.

Slow Cooker Cowboy Beans  …They’re What’s for a Side Dish.