Slow Cooker Black Beans

Slow Cooker Black Beans are easy to make, inexpensive, filling, and just plain delicious. They taste just like Chipotle’s black beans, but a little bit of bacon takes them over the top.

Recipe ingredients:

Ingredient notes:

Black beans: Dried black beans are very affordable. You can use other types of beans in this recipe, though; see the variations section for ideas.

Oregano: Italian or dried Mexican oregano, if you’re lucky enough to find it. They have different flavors (Mexican oregano tastes more like marjoram) but both taste great in this recipe. Feel free to use whatever you have.

Bay leaves: Aka bay laurel leaves, they’re fragrant and in my opinion, a must-have ingredient in beans. Because they’re sturdy, take them out after cooking so no one is tempted to eat them.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. In a 3-quart saucepan, sauté bacon until it begins to crisp, about 5 minutes.
2. Add onions, bell pepper, cumin, and ½ teaspoon salt. Continue to cook about 5 minutes longer, until vegetables are softened. Stir in garlic and oregano and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add water, beans, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Pour into a large crock pot and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or LOW 7 to 8 hours (see notes).
4. Remove and discard bay leaves. Add cilantro and lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe tips and variations:

• Yield: 1 pound of dried black beans makes approximately 7 cups of cooked beans.
• Cooking times vary: Taste the beans and feel their texture to see if they’re done or need more time. Depending on your crockpot, the size of the bean, or even how old the beans are, they might need to cook longer than the recipe says.
• Make ahead: You can pre-cook any type of bean to keep on hand or freeze in portions for later.
• Storage: Let the cooked beans cool and refrigerate them. Eat the leftovers within 3 to 5 days.
• Soaking: Un-soaked beans take about 30 minutes longer to cook and require more liquid than soaked beans. You would need to adjust this recipe if you don’t pre-soak your beans. Do you have to pre-soak beans? Nope. In Mexico, people almost never do.
• How to soak beans: Soak dried beans in cold water at least 5 hours or overnight. Discard the soaking liquid and use fresh cold water for cooking. To quickly pre-soak beans, cover the beans with water and bring to a boil on the stove for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 1 hour. Discard the soaking liquid and use fresh cold water for cooking.
• Salting beans: You may have heard somewhere that the universe will implode if you add salt to beans before they are completely cooked. It’s…not true. If you read Kenji López-Alt’s information in his book, The Food Lab, he did some side-by-side testing and determined that salting beans before they are cooked is absolutely fine. In fact, doing so helps prevent the beans from exploding (see page 256 in his book).
• This technique applies to (almost) any bean: Pinto beans, navy beans, Great Northern beans, red kidney beans, Cannellini beans, garbanzos, or black-eyed peas all can be cooked in a slow cooker. Depending on their size and age, they may need more or less time to get to the finish line.
• Kidney beans: Kidney beans phytohemagglutinin, a type of lectin that is very toxic at high levels if not cooked correctly. You MUST pre-soak dried kidney beans and hold them at boiling point (212 degrees Fahrenheit) for at LEAST 10 minutes. This means you should never cook kidney beans in a slow cooker or pressure cooker; only a stove-top method will be safe.
• Substituting canned beans: To substitute canned beans use three or four 15-ounce cans of black beans. Rinse and drain before adding to the crockpot.
• Stove-top beans: It’s easy to cook beans on the stove, too.

1. In a Dutch oven or large saucepan, sauté bacon until it begins to crisp, about 5 minutes.
2. Add onions, bell pepper, cumin, and ½ teaspoon. salt. Continue to cook about 5 minutes longer, until vegetables are softened. Stir in garlic and oregano and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add water, beans, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until beans are tender, about 2 hours.
4. Remove and discard bay leaves. Add cilantro and lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipes that go great with beans:

• Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice (Copycat)
• Chipotle Guacamole (Copycat)
• Chicken Tinga
• Mango Salsa

Slow Cooker Black Beans are great as a main dish (serve with Mexican rice or tortillas and toppings like salsa, sour cream, and guacamole) or on the side of your favorite Mexican entrees.  Or, build a classic Chipotle Burrito bowl. Just scroll down for all my Chipotle Copycat recipes!

Slow Cooker Black Beans

Slow Cooker Black Beans are easy to make, inexpensive, filling, and delicious. Inspired by Chipotle's black beans, but with BACON.

Author: Meggan Hill

5 from 15 votes

ReviewPrint

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 4 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Total Time 4 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Servings 8 servings

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, Mexican

Calories 225

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• ▢ 1 pound dried black beans picked over, rinsed, and soaked overnight (see notes)
• ▢ 2 slices bacon minced
• ▢ 2 medium onions chopped
• ▢ 1 red bell pepper seeded and chopped
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ▢ Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ▢ 6 cloves garlic minced
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ▢ 3 1/2 cups water
• ▢ 2 bay leaves
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or to taste
• ▢ 1/4 cup fresh cilantro minced
• ▢ 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 1 lime)

Instructions 

• Drain and discard soaking liquid. In a 3-quart saucepan, sauté bacon until it begins to crisp, about 5 minutes.
• Add onions, bell pepper, cumin, and ½ tsp. salt. Continue to cook about 5 minutes longer, until vegetables are softened. Stir in garlic and oregano and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• Add water, beans, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Pour into a large crock pot and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or LOW 7 to 8 hours (see notes).
• Remove and discard bay leaves. Add cilantro and lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Notes

Slow cooker times may vary. The first time you make the beans, please check them after 3 or 4 hours on HIGH and continue cooking longer if necessary. If the beans have any crunch to them at all, please cook them longer.

You can use either Italian or Mexican oregano. They have different flavors (Mexican oregano tastes more like marjoram) but both taste great in this recipe. Feel free to use whatever you have.

Pre-soaking the beans:

Soaking the beans before cooking is not required. However, you can cut about 30 minutes off the cooking time if you pre-soak the beans. WARNING: If you substitute dried kidney beans, you MUST pre-soak them and boil them for at least 10 minutes.

Overnight-Soaking Method for beans:

1. Pick through and rinse 1 pound beans.
2. Cover the beans with 5 cups over water and soak overnight.
3. Drain and discard soaking liquid.

Quick-Soaking Method for beans:

1. Pick through and rinse 1 pound beans.
2. To a large saucepan, add beans and enough liquid to cover them by 1 inch.
3. Bring beans to boil and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Remove saucepan from heat, cover, and let beans sit for 1 hour.
5. Drain and discard soaking liquid.

To substitute canned beans:

Use 3 or 4 cans of black beans. Rinse and drain before adding to the pot and cook until heated through, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Healthy Cookbook.

Nutrition

Calories: 225kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 14gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 46mgPotassium: 936mgFiber: 10gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 528IUVitamin C: 23mgCalcium: 90mgIron: 3mg

Did you make this recipe?Tag @culinaryhill on Instagram so we can admire your masterpiece! #culinaryhill

Meggan Hill

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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.

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