Whether it’s for your next BBQ or family dinner, this chicken & baked beans (homemade) slow cooker meal is a kid-friendly AND a crowd-pleaser.
A friend of mine posted a pic of baked beans and chicken in her slow cooker. I was instantly intrigued to make a healthier version that didn’t use canned baked beans. The hardest part in creating this recipe was getting the base (broth, honey, ketchup, etc) for the homemade baked beans right. I wanted the sweetness of the beans without overloading the dish with processed ingredients or refined sugar. I’ll admit – it took me a couple tries. My poor, patient husband ate a lot of beans while I worked on this recipe!
For the beans I decided to use great northern white beans. If you can’t get a hold of northern white beans then any white bean will do. Other suggestions are navy beans or cannellini beans. Please note you pre-soak the beans for at least 12 hours for them to cook properly. Yes, you can use chicken thighs if you want but personally I think thighs work better. I used boneless, skinless.
Give everything a good stir before setting this to cook. You’ll notice halfway through it will start to thicken. This is when I to like to open the lid and give it a good stir. Yes, normally you are NOT supposed to open the lid on the slow cooker once it is set but I find that stirring this halfway through helps cook the beans evenly.
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Slow Cooker Chicken & Baked Beans
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 5 mins
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
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Pin RecipeIngredients
- 3 lbs chicken thighs
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 lb northern beans, soaked
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Add broth, honey, ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, salt and pepper to the bottom of the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.
- Add chicken, northern beans and onions.
- Stir again until all the ingredients are well blended.
- Cook HIGH 3-4 hours or LOW 6-7.
Note: This will thicken as it sits, especially when it cools. No need to add any liquid. When you re-heat the beans & chicken it will go back to the original consistency.
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