It’s been a while since I’ve made something that was just a straight-up simple comfort food, and after a super long week, comfort food was definitely in order. Think of these BBQ Beef and Beans as a cousin to sloppy Joes, or the love child of baked beans and beef chili. They’re hearty and flavorful, they meal prep well, and can be as no-fuss or as “from scratch” as you want them to be. I’ve included instructions to make them vegetarian or to amp up the vegetable content below, so scroll on down to see more!
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P.S. I’ll be posting this homemade BBQ Sauce recipe on its own tomorrow, along with plenty of ways to put it to good use!
Make it Vegetarian
To make this dish vegetarian, you’ll need to swap the Worcestershire sauce for a vegetarian version (Worcestershire contains anchovies). Annies Vegan Worcestershire Sauce is the most popular brand and can be found at stores like Whole Foods, or other large grocers. Once your BBQ sauce is vegetarian, just swap the ground beef for one extra can of beans. I suggest pinto, so you have a nice trio of shapes and colors with your beans, but you could also double up on either the kidney or black beans.
Pump Up The Vegetables
I’m usually all about adding vegetables into my dishes wherever possible, but today I just wanted to keep things as simple as possible. If you want to add a few vegetables in there to balance things out, you can add a diced onion, diced bell pepper, or even some shredded cabbage (make it easy and use bagged shredded coleslaw mix, a couple handfuls added when you brown the beef should do it).
Homemade BBQ Sauce vs. Store Bought
I had been working on a homemade BBQ sauce recipe this week, so I went ahead and used my homemade sauce in this recipe. If you don’t feel like making your own, or don’t have the necessary ingredients on hand, feel free to sub 1 cup of your favorite bottled BBQ sauce.
How to Serve BBQ Beef and Beans
I served mine bowl-style over some brown rice and topped with cheddar and green onion, but you could also serve this on a bun like a slider or sloppy joe! Or just on its own with some saltine or oyster crackers.
BBQ Beef and Beans
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1/2 lb. ground beef ($2.65)
- 1 15oz. can kidney beans ($0.89)
- 1 15oz. can black beans ($0.89)
Homemade BBQ Sauce*
- 8 oz. tomato sauce ($0.25)
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar ($0.12)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.08)
- 2 Tbsp molasses ($0.35)
- 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard ($0.05)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.02)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp onion powder ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.01)
- freshly cracked pepper ($0.02)
- salt to taste ($0.02)
For Serving
- 4 cups cooked rice ($0.80)
- 4 oz. shredded cheddar ($0.85)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.22)
Instructions
- Add the oil and minced garlic to a large skillet. Sauté the garlic for one minute over medium heat. Add the ground beef and continue to sauté until cooked through. If using a higher fat content beef, drain the excess fat before moving on to the next step.
- Rinse the two cans of beans, then drain them well. Add the beans to the skillet with the ground beef.
- Add the ingredients for the Homemade BBQ Sauce to the skillet (tomato sauce, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, molasses, Dijon, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and some freshly cracked pepper).
- Stir and cook the mixture until the sauce ingredients have combined and created a thick sauce. Allow the sauce to come up to a simmer and then simmer the beef and beans in the sauce for 5 minutes, stirring often. Taste the sauce and add salt to taste (I added 1/2 tsp).
- To serve the BBQ Beef and Beans, place 1 cup cooked rice in each bowl, top with 1 cup of the BBQ Beef and Beans, then top with about 1/4 cup shredded cheddar and a sprinkle of sliced green onion.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Love BBQ sauce? Try these Recipes with BBQ Sauce:
How to Make BBQ Beef and Beans – Step by Step Photos
If you’ll be serving your BBQ Beef and Beans with rice, begin cooking it first so that it’s ready when the beef and beans are finished cooking (cook your rice according to the package directions).
Add 1 Tbsp cooking oil to a large skillet, along with 2 minced cloves of garlic. Sauté over medium for one minute.
Add 1/2 lb. ground beef and continue to sauté until the beef is cooked through. If you’re using a higher fat content ground beef, drain the excess fat before moving onto the next step.
Rinse and drain one 15 oz. can of kidney beans and one 15 oz. can of black beans. Add them to the skillet with the browned beef.
Next, add the ingredients for the homemade bbq sauce (8 oz. tomato sauce, 2 Tbsp tomato paste, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 Tbsp molasses, 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, and some freshly cracked pepper). Or add 1 cup of your favorite bottled BBQ sauce. You may notice that my tomato paste is covered in frost. I routinely portion and freeze my leftover tomato paste in 1 Tbsp portions to save it for later. :)
Continue to stir and cook the mixture until all the sauce ingredients are completely combined. Allow the sauce to come up to a simmer, then let the skillet simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often. Finally, taste the BBQ Beef and Beans and add salt to taste (I added 1/2 tsp).
To serve, place 1 cup cooked rice in each bowl, top with 1 cup BBQ Beef and Beans, some shredded cheddar, and sliced green onions. Then go to town!
Like with every other recipe from this site, this is our new favorite dish!!! I made a double batch and immediately wished I’d made even more to freeze! Too good!!! Thank you!!
WOW!!! This is seriously outstanding!!! Thank you!!!
Just made this and it is delicious! If you are looking to add more vegetables, a very easy way is to serve it over cauliflower rice, which is what I did. Even if you are not a big fan of cauliflower rice, this is the kind of recipe where you really can’t tell the difference or taste the cauliflower. Just a very delicious and easy meal! Thanks Beth!
Very nicely laid out. Directions are clearly written. The add-vegetables part is especially welcome. If including celery, Marcella Hazan says peel it it first, then slice into 1-inch pieces. Add sweet bell pepper. Never use canned beans; always do dried. Top-flight beans at ( ranchogordo.com ) with which my only tie is being a customer. Forget hot peppers or hot sauce. For very mild heat but pleasant flavor add (dry) Aleppo pepper from Penzeys online. Your site is the 1st I found. I need not look further.
This is amazing – so delicious and comforting. I used ground turkey and added onion, bell pepper, and shredded cabbage. It was super easy and fast to meal prep – this will definitely be a repeat. Thank you!
This recipe turned out really well. Don’t substitute the BBQ Sauce. So much better if you can get creative and make your own. I’d suggest that if you don’t have all the ingredients for the BBQ sauce to start googling BBQ sauces and to only use ingredients that you have. You can make random BBQ sauces with all kinds of stuff. I feel like this is a great idea since the point of these recipes is to save some money. The veggies I added were green pepper and onion. Adding the rice to the side makes the meal go a long way budget-wise. This recipe took me 30 minutes at most.
Hello Beth! This was absolutely delicious! Do you reckon this would freeze well? Or how long would it last in the fridge?
Yep, this one should freeze great. :) It will probably last in the fridge about four days, but your mileage may vary.
Found this after looking for ideas on what to make with 1/2 lbs of ground beef. This was ridiculously easy to make and very tasty. Didn’t have cheddar, but this is definitely not the last time I’ll be making this, so next time I’ll make sure to have some.
What can I use instead of molasses? Maybe honey?
Molasses is really key to getting that classic BBQ flavor. While honey might taste alright, it won’t taste as much like BBQ sauce. :)
I do not have any molasses and was wondering if it could be omitted or if that would really mess with the flavor.
In my opinion, the molasses is pivotal to getting that BBQ sauce flavor.
We subbed leftover pulled pork for beef… soo good
Hi Beth, I just had a question about the nutritional values. Are the 4 cups of cooked rice included in those values? I was just wondering because of the sodium content, it seems a bit on the elevated side to me and I was wondering if it was because of the 4 cups of rice. Thank you so much! :)
The nutrition data provided is calculated using all ingredients listed on the recipe card, including any ingredient listed as optional. Keep in mind that recipes that involve marinades, breading, salad dressings, oil for frying, or salt for cooking pasta and potatoes may be skewed because some of these ingredients will be discarded and not included in the final edible portion.
This is a pretty good recipe, very easy! I used your homemade BBQ sauce, but I’m really interested to see how varied this can taste with other BBQ sauces – I’ll try something different next time. I used ground turkey, since I had a conveniently packaged 1/2 pound in the freezer. I think my husband assumed it was chili when I handed it to him, but once he recovered from the surprise flavor, he said he really liked it too.
Very good!!!
This recipe is amazing. We doubled it, added an onion at the beginning and used Stubbs Mesquite to speed things up. Also gave it a few shakes of Worcestershire because we like it. Served over brown rice with a mild chedder and squeezed lime juice over the top. In rotation now!! Thanks!!