Monday Cooking Blog Post
Slow cooker BBQ Beans and Smoked Sausage
This is a recipe I have used a lot when I am busy on weekends and don’t want to have to drop everything and cook. Nice to come home to on a chilly autumn afternoon or a slopstorm-laden winter day. And if your grandkids don’t like this dish, they are not human. They are space aliens.
This does go well with cornbread, which is easy to make. Some stores are carrying it in their bakery sections. All you need beyond that is cut veggies (finger food) and good beverages, and fine company to share the bounty. This recipe will serve 5 to 6 people, so adjust your quantities accordingly.
Ingredients:
2 cans (15.5 ounces each) of Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed. (Use your favorite brand for this.)
2 cans (15 ounces each) of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 large onion, chopped (the white onions have plenty of flavor) – should be 1 cup (8 ounces) if you use the entire onion. Prep ahead by chopping onions and bagging them for the freezer. Saves some time!
1 cup barbecue sauce – commercial brands are fine, but if you have your own recipe, then use that..
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of ground dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestrshire sauce4 (if you have none, soy sauce is okay for this)
2 teaspoons chili powder (I have this as an option for me: too much heat equals stomach ache, so adjust according to your tolerance for chilis)
1 ring (up to 1.25 lb) of fully cooked smoked Polish sausage (Kielbasa). N.B.: if you have hungry kids, add MORE smoked sausage, but cut it into chunks first.
Directions:
Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray.
Put the beans in the slow cooker first, then put the sausage on top.
Cover and cook on LOW setting 5 to 6 hours. When you come indoors after being out in the chill and cold, or at the end of a snowball fortress takeover, this is a welcome scent.
Cornbread or corn muffins go well with this, along with celery sticks and baby carrots – finger foods for kids – and radishes. Basically, this is simply good, solid, nourishing food that is low in cost and generous in flavor.
Bon appetit!
Made this last night. Leftovers for future nights.
SEA DRAGON’S LENTIL STEW WITH SAUSAGE
1 lb dried lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 lb kielbasa, sliced quartered lengthwise then into 1/4 inch chunks
1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
14 oz can diced tomatoes
10 oz package frozen chopped spinach (optional)
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
In a 6 quart pot, heat olive oil and lightly brown kielbasa and remove. In the pot, sauté onions, celery, carrots and bell peppers in sausage drippings until translucent. Deglaze with the wine. Add garlic, oregano and thyme, and cook an additional 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add broth, lentils, sausage, tomatoes, spinach (if using), bay leaves, vinegar (if using), and salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Add more broth or water if it gets too thick.
That’s going into the recipe library for future use.
Dadburn, that looks good!
For those who like to cook under pressure…. Cowboy Beans Ingredients 1 1/2 lbs Ground Beef (90%-93% lean) 1/2 lb Thick Cut Bacon, chopped (about 6-8 slices) 1 large Onion, diced 6 cloves Garlic, pressed or minced 2/3 cup Water* 1 lb Kielbasa Sausage, smoked (cut into 1 1/2″ pieces) 2 28 oz cans Pork & Beans (or baked beans) 1/2 cup Ketchup 1 (14 oz) can Red Kidney Beans*, drained & rinsed 1/2 cup Barbecue Sauce 1 1/2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard 1/3 cup Molasses 1/2 tsp Pepper 1 Tbsp Chili Powder 1 Tbsp Smoked Paprika 1 tsp Liquid Smoke (optional for a little deeper smoky flavor) To Finish 1/4 cup Brown Sugar Instructions First, get everything ready. Meat & veggies chopped, spices ready, garlic pressed or minced, measuring cups, etc. This helps the process go smoothly! Turn on the pot’s Sauté setting and add the ground beef, bacon, and onion. Cook until meat is no longer pink (you shouldn’t have to drain it unless you use a fattier meat. Leave some of the fat in there.. Add the garlic and stir. Let cook for a minute. Add the water and kielbasa. Add the remaining ingredients in order (except brown sugar), and do not stir, just push them down into the mixture to cover them. Put the lid on the pot and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Cancel the Sauté setting. Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial, and then the + or – button or dial to select 8 minutes. Watch the pot until it comes to pressure. This is a pretty thick mixture, so you want to make sure you don’t get the burn message. If you do, remove the lid if the pin is still down (otherwise release any pressure first) and get your wood spoon down in there and scrape the bottom. Add another 1/4 cup of water if it looks too thick, close the lid, and reset. When the cook time is finished, turn the pot off (so it doesn’t go to warming) and let it sit undisturbed for 15 minutes… Read more »
Okay, if not using the Instapot, does this convert well to the slow cooker?
I would assume that the basics would translate well. My only concern would be the onions.
I would not dice them for the slow cooker as it has been my experience that as onions are mostly water, they literally disappear in something cooked slowly in a slow cooker / crock pot.
In short, I would leave the onions as a much rougher cut or I have also waited to put them in late in the slow cooker recipe. (I just cut them and put them in a plastic container in the fridge and then throw them in when needed. That allows me to clean up everything else like the knives, cutting board, etc.)
Hope this helps.
I’m also finding it very beneficial to buy onions in bulk lots, cu5t them into large chunks and bag them for the freezer, for later use. Saves a lot of time and energy.
Comment from Ex-PH2 on the “If one is good two are better” Thread:
“Where is AW1Ed’s Monday cookery????”
Heh heh!! Conversation via emails twixt ‘Ed & Ex: “Damnit woman you trying to take the place of that other little aggravating ray of sunshine. Bad enough I got the Gun Bunny on my ass about “What’s cooking”, now YOU TOO!” The OSHA people have already determined that two people on my ass at a time is more than the load limit. Boss Lady steady hammering at me to get hot on her Honey Do List around the new digs. Those Spring Flower Bulbs aren’t gonna plant themselves! And I’m STILL unpacking cookware!”
Ex back at him: “Lighten up, Francis and don’t bunch yore britches. I got this. I can placate the Gun Bunny with a tried and true favorite…my infamous sausage with baked beans. Once he sees that, along with the recommendation to have them with a skillet of cornbread, he’ll be happy. You know he is having intimate relations with his crocked pot…don’t you? He’s all about something a’percurlating lowly.”
Tanks Ex…I just so happen to have a large link of beef and porked beast kielbasa defrosted as we speak. Some cans of beans are in the 90 day supply pantry too. Do believe there is a coupla bottles of Sweet Baby Ray’s Brown Sugar and Hickory Smoke Sauce handy.
Had some cheese grits with eggs earlier to tide me over.
Oh, you poor fella, sounds like you’re starving to death down there in the hinterlands.
Any feral boar hunting down where you are?
The struggle is real Mi’Lady. You know how it is with my see food diet.
The boys are catching them feral boars constantly. No limit. The smart ones are catching and caging and feeding out on sweet feed for a few weeks before the butchering. Gets the wild game taste out. Doc was getting impatient cause he was overrun with them, so when Bambi season ended, he started blazing away with that Remington 700. Good Times!
Must be quite a party, living inside that head of yours.
*grin*
Thanks for the back-up, Ex.
Any time!
The sausage in the picture looks like a redneck pacifier.
The recipe looks delicious.
OK, I unexpectedly laughed way too hard at this…speaking of photos in my mind…I just with I could work that into the The Hemisphere of Insults®™ somehow.
But I like really, really kielbasa so i’m kinda conflicted.
It’s a poor fit if it must be forced.
Chippy…How about;”…he’s such a pu$$y (or sissy) he uses a kielbasa sausage for a pacifier.”?
Redneck Pacifier in a sentence:
1: While visiting Chesapeake, Virginia, Dan found himself swinging from Bubba’s redneck pacifier.
2: Looking some extra fun in MD, Dallas introduced himself to Thor’s redneck pacifier.
🙂 I am sure their are plenty more.
It may look silly, but it has great flavor. Smoked kielbasa – mmmmm good!
Omit the (presumably) sweetened BBQ sauce and/or sugar/other sweeteners from two of the above recipes and I might give them a try. Otherwise, I’ll pass.
Never did care for the combination of sweet and meat/poultry/fish.
Sweet baked beans. Jalapeno sausage. ‘Nuff said.
Back a few years ago when PH first posted this, the suggestion was made to try it using other beans, sausage, and sauce. I did, using cannellini beans, Italian sausage, and a good marinara. It was delish.
Do believe that PH told us at the time to use whatever combination of beans, meat, sauce we wish. Good advice.
I make these BBQ beans and smoked sausage and it was perfect. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.