This simple slow cooker meal is unbelievably delicious! I’ve made it three times in the last couple of months and every time we eat it, my husband and I sit at the table and just sigh over it’s tastiness. It’s kind of funny-slash-pathetic that we’d be so enamored over such simple ingredients. I mean, what we are really talking about here is a revamped slow cooker pork and beans recipe, made even better with flavorful turkey sausage, simple but delicious seasonings and the standard tender pork and hearty beans.
It’s not rocket science. And definitely not filet mignon. But it is the epitome of comfort food and since I’ve already hunkered down for the winter, this healthy, affordable and tasty meal is just what I need to feel better about the months of snow ahead.
One Year Ago: White Bean Turkey or Chicken Chili
Two Years Ago: Bourbon Chicken
Note: Great northern beans are large, hard beans that hold up well in the slow cooker. If unavailable substitute dried red or kidney beans. Because the beans need to be soaked for at least 8 hours, make sure to plan ahead!
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried great northern beans
- 3 pounds country style pork ribs (about 12 ribs), trimmed of excess fat
- Salt and ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 6 medium garlic cloves, finely minced
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth, divided
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 pound chicken or turkey kielbasa sausage, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 (14.5 ounce each) cans diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Directions
- Eight to 24 hours before assembling in the slow cooker, rinse the white beans and place them in a large bowl with cold water to cover by at least 2 inches. Let the beans soak anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.
- Eight to 9 hours before eating, drain the beans and transfer them to the slow cooker. Dry the pork ribs thoroughly with paper towels, then season generously with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until the oil is hot and rippling. Add half of the ribs and brown on all sides, 4-5 minutes. Transfer them to the slow cooker. Return the skillet to medium heat and heat 2 more teaspoons oil until hot and rippling. Brown the remaining ribs and transfer them to the slow cooker.
- Return the skillet to medium heat and heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil until shimmering. Add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of the chicken broth, tomato paste, celery seed, thyme and bay leaf, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Transfer the onion mixture to slow cooker.
- Add the kielbasa, tomatoes and chicken broth to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on either low or high, until the meat is tender, 7 to 8 hours on low or 5 to 6 on high. Before serving, discard the bay leaf, stir in the parsley, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over hot, steamed rice, if desired.
Notes
Freezable: I freeze leftovers of this meal in freezer-safe plastic containers or ziploc bags. I pull it out the night before I want to reheat it and when I’m ready to cook it, I reheat it on on low on the stove. It freezes and reheats beautifully!
Recipe Source: adapted from Cooks Illustrated Cover and Bake
YUM! I am SO ready for something other than turkey! This recipe looks like just the recipe to make for dinner tomorrow night.
I hope you and family had a wonderful, happy Thanksgiving, Melanie!
Looks wonderful,. I’m always looking for good slow-cooker recipes. Thanks!
Nicely done! Maybe this could be a use for some wok-smoked homemade turkey sausage I’ll be making next week.
Looks amazingly comforting. Do you use bone-in country ribs or the boneless ones. Seems anytime I but bone in ribs in the crock pot I find myself fishing for then as the meat is always falling off the bone.
This is going to be on the menu here for sure!! Looks delicious!
This looks like the perfect easy comfort meal dinner. I can’t wait to try it
I’m in love with that idea. Sounds and looks great, Melanie! Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
JJ – I use boneless country style ribs – otherwise it is as you mentioned, I’m fishing the bones out because everything has become so tender it is falling apart.
ok, um first off… yum-my. Anything for the slow cooker i am totally super excited to try. ok, and 2 more things… 1, can i just bust open a can of white beans and chuck them in? how necessary is it for them to be dried? ive never cooked with dried beans, :/ they intimidate me…and 2, would any pork work with this? pork chops maybe? ok just kidding one more question/comment.. is it super lame i never realized there was chicken/turkey kielbasa sausage? apparently i dont cook with sausage to much either
welcome back! hope you had a happy thanksgiving. I was pretty excited to see a new recipe in my email from you today.
Can’t wait to try this! Thanks!
This looks great! I’ve never cooked with dry beans but here it’s such a money saver. I like the sound of this – I wonder if it would be good with turkey sausage!
That looks delicious. I’m always looking for slow cooker recipes. That one looks fantastic!
cant. wait. to make this!!
Megan – using dried beans is pretty important in this recipe because it cooks for so long in the crockpot. Canned beans will get far too mushy by the end of this, so I’d highly recommend dried beans. Don’t be afraid of them! Not only are they cheaper than canned, usually, but they are super easy to work with. If you absolutely don’t want to use them, you could probably sub canned beans, but drain and rinse them first and add them in only the last hour or two of cooking. Even then, I’m not sure how it would throw of the liquid-to-beans ratio…but it’s always worth a try, I guess. I hesitate recommending other cuts of pork because they all have different amounts of fat, etc, but you might be able to get away with using thick-cut boneless pork chops. Let me know if you have any other questions!
pork and beans, pork and beans. nothing’s as comforting as pork and beans. [is that a country song?]
i also love a crock pot recipe and am really excited to make this. but a question: what size can tomatoes do you use?
Cindy – sorry for not including – I use the 14.5 ounce cans.
Another instant Melanie classic! This is seriously delicious!
Isn’t it funny how slow-cookers can yield such delicious recipes with such little effort?? I am total fan!
One more pork question! Do you think a boneless pork shoulder would work with this? I saw a boneless Swift pork shoulder I’m thinking about……its on sale this week!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lisa – can I say probably? Does that work? I hate to say yes and have the meat not cook up tender, but I’m guessing it should probably work, as long as you cut the shoulder roast into chunks before cooking. Good luck if you try it!
Thanks, Christina!
I made this this weekend and it’s THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My family loved it! I used Bush’s canned great northern beans (drained & rinsed) instead and it worked out great! Thanks for the great recipe and like many of your other ones, it’s my recipe of the week on my blog!!
Kara – so glad this meal was a hit!
Made this and it’s a winner! So tasty that I had more for dessert.
Thanks Mel!
A quick note on the beans. For those who plan ahead enough to use the crockpot but not enough to presoak beans, there’s a quick method that should appear on the bean package (boil beans for 2 minutes, cover and soak for an hour) that works fine. I still needed to cook the food for 6 hours with the crockpot on high to get them soft enough, but they’ll get there.
Angela – dessert? Sounds perfect! Thanks for the tip on the beans.
I want to make this recipe this weekend, but I am wondering if the tomatoes are drained or undrained.
Thank you!
~Katie
Hi Katie – the tomatoes are undrained! Hope you love it!
Love your recipes! Just wondering – do you ever use a pressure cooker? I usually do all my beans in one – it only takes an hour, as opposed to soaking beans overnight, then cooking them all day. I’ve heard that meat cooks well in a pressure cooker too, but I’ve never dared try it. Any suggestions?
Hi Claire – I am not a pressure cooker aficionado but I’ve heard from friends that meats cook up deliciously well in one. I bet this recipe would work in a pressure cooker with a bit of tweaking. Unfortunately, I’m not an expert enough in the field of pressure cooking to offer tweaks. Let me know if you are brave enough to try it!
I made this last night and it was DELICIOUS! I couldn’t fit the entire pound of kielbasa in my slow cooker, so I only used half. Also, I only used 1 can of tomatoes and doubled up on the tomato paste. This is another winner!
Christina – thanks for including your changes on this recipe – glad you loved it!
I tried this last night for my husband’s birthday dinner. It was great for a cold Colorado evening and so flavorful. It was worth a bit of extra work browning the meat and soaking dry beans overnight, the texture was nice and firm even after cooking all day. I had never cooked with country style pork ribs before. I found some bone in ribs on sale so I just bought those. Right before serving I fished them out of the slow cooker and removed bones and chopped meat into chunks (it was falling apart already). It was delicious but probably would be easier to use boneless next time. We had the leftovers tonight (this recipe makes a ton!) and served it over the oven baked brown rice. Delish, thanks.
Jennifer – thanks for adding your review to this recipe! I’m glad you loved it…
yummy! a total hit- especially with enough for another meal that week, and another meal frozen for later, and a few lunches- when stretched with rice of course!! I added a whole bunch of chopped kale, and switched out one of the cans of tomatoes for a can of tomatoes with green chilies, and it was incredible! The kale added more flavor, and christmas colors, and of course more nutrition,and the green chilies added a little more kick!
I’m facing the same situation as DessertForTwo. I wound up with a very full crockpot and had to eliminate one can of tomatoes. Fortunately, I used a condensed tomato paste (in a tube), so I think the tomato flavor will be alright. I’m not sure how many quarts my crockpot holds, but this looks like it might be a bit too full. What size do you use? I double-checked my pork packaging and I wound up with 3.34 lbs. instead of 3. Oh, well. I’m sure it’ll be fantastic! My husband can’t wait for dinner!
This recipe really is a great one. My family all loved it! My husband rated it as a 10.
The recipe is a keeper. Thanks Melanie!
Quite simply to die for. The whole family agrees, which makes it even more to die for. Seriously.
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Yuuuuum! I made this today and it was deelish! I think I found your website via “Can you stay for dinner”… but however I found myself her, I’m glad I did. Thank you for your beautiful, well-designed website and wonderful recipes. So, the pork n beans!
Truly lovely – my husband was quite pleased too. This sounds weird, but the dish reminds me of this crazy canned cassoulet I used to eat in France. I know, canned cassoulet, right? I loved the stuff and this dish has a taste similar to it. Thanks again for a wonderful dinner!
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Hi. I am making this! I am confused though now if I have to let the beans dry for 8 hours as well?
Thanks,
Jen
Jen – I’m a little confused by your question but to clarify, the beans soak for 8 to 24 hours. Then, the beans need to be rinsed and transferred to the slow cooker at which point you can proceed with the recipe and add all the other ingredients so that the beans and other food can cook for another 8 or so hours. Make sense?
Is the sausage cooked or uncooked when added to the slow cooker? Looks delicious!!
Sharon – the sausage is the kind that comes precooked.
Mel -
I know you say this freezes and reheats well, so what are your thoughts on making, then refrigerating, then reheating in the slow cooker? Want to take this for an easy meal for camping. Thx!
Melanie – I think that should work fine as long as it doesn’t cook too long the 2nd time in the slow cooker (just reheat it, don’t let it cook or the beans could get mushy).