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Slow Cooker BBQ Pork and Beans

By Ali Slagle

Updated June 23, 2023

Slow Cooker BBQ Pork and Beans
Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Total Time
8½ to 10 ½ hours
Rating
4(1,403)
Comments
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Pork and beans are cooked together in a slow cooker for mutually beneficial results (If you don't have a slow cooker, you can do it in a pot in the oven.) As the pork shoulder and barbecue sauce braise in the oven, the sauce soaks up the pork juices while the pork tenderizes. Then, beans are added to soak up the deeply concentrated sauce. The recipe uses store-bought barbecue sauce enhanced with the smoky heat of canned chipotles in adobo and brown sugar, which helps glaze the pork. Because every barbecue sauce is different, taste and adjust yours as needed. (For a more acidic sauce, add apple cider vinegar with the beans, or you can increase the sweetness with added sugar.) To serve, slice the pork or shred it into pulled pork.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 6 servings
  • 3 to 3½pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of more than ¼-inch fat
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1cup store-bought or homemade barbecue sauce
  • 1chipotle in adobo, finely chopped, plus more to taste
  • 3tablespoons light brown sugar, plus more to taste
  • 2(14-ounce) cans pinto beans, rinsed
  • 6garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

858 calories; 48 grams fat; 16 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 22 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 53 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 21 grams sugars; 52 grams protein; 1099 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Season the pork all over with 1 tablespoon salt and and ¾ teaspoon pepper. In a large Dutch oven or skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Add the pork shoulder and sear until browned on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, in your slow cooker, stir together the barbecue sauce, chipotle and brown sugar. Taste the mixture and adjust sweetness with brown sugar and spice with chipotle.

  3. Step 3

    Add browned pork to the barbecue sauce and turn to coat in the sauce. Add the beans and garlic to the sauce around the pork. Cover and cook on low until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork, 8 to 10 hours.

  4. Step 4

    Transfer the pork to a cutting board. Skim excess fat from the top if desired, then season the beans to taste with salt and pepper. Slice the pork against the grain into ½-inch thick slices, or shred the pork with two forks. Serve the pork with the beans.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
1,403 user ratings
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Comments

Jennifer

In the Instant Pot, brown the pork on sauté, then remove to a platter. Sauté the onions and garlic, then add one cup of broth and deglaze the vessel to prevent burning. Add the meat back in, pour the bbq sauce over, and pressure cook on high for 55 minutes. Ours came out falling apart tender. We cooked the beans in our other Instant Pot, drained them and added them to the meat after it had been chopped. We will refrigerate all night, then skim fat in the morning and reheat.

DanY

I remember watching Cook's Illustrated on PBS and they did a tasting test on store bought barbecue sauces. The one that came out on top, and we think is a very good alternative to homemade, is Bull’s-Eye Original BBQ Sauce.

Mary P

I like Stubbs!

Mary

My slow cooker died a few years ago and I haven’t replaced it, so I cooked this in a pot in the oven. After the roast is seared, be sure to drain off as much of the fat as possible. For the amount of meat, I’d have doubled the beans and tripled the sauce ingredients. I added a touch of molasses. Beans will not soften if they are cooked in BBQ sauce because of the vinegar. Make sure your beans are soft enough when you open the cans, because they won’t get any softer.

Jan

This was fabulous! I could not get a boneless roast, but bone-in worked just fine. I cooked it 10 hours to make sure it was as tender as possible. At the end, I just took a pair of tongs and lifted the bone right out, and the roast fell into nice chunks with little effort. I used half regular Sweet Baby Ray’s and half no-sugar-added Sweet Baby Ray’s since we are trying to cut back on sugar, and since that’s a pretty sweet sauce already, I cut the brown sugar to 1 tbsp and used Splenda brown sugar blend for that. I skimmed off most of the fat, and found the sauce was still tick enough to coat. This is going in our regular rotation.

Lois

Appalachian Naturals BBQ sauces.

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