Some campground meals are meant to be light and quick. Cowboy Beans are not one of them.
This is the kind of food that earns its place beside barbecue, smoked brisket, burgers, or just about anything else coming off the grill. Loaded with four kinds of beans, ground beef, bacon, peppers, and onion, it is hearty enough that calling it a side dish almost seems unfair.
Around our campsite, that also means one important thing: make a big batch because somebody is probably coming back for seconds.
Cowboy Beans fall somewhere between baked beans and chili. They have the rich, filling character of chili, but the sauce leans toward barbecue—sweet from brown sugar and ketchup, tangy from apple cider vinegar and mustard, with Worcestershire sauce and a little hot sauce bringing everything together.
And then there is the bacon.
Whatever you do, don’t forget the bacon.
A Good Recipe for Campground Cooking
One reason I like Cowboy Beans for camping is that nothing about the recipe needs to be fussy.
A Dutch oven handles nearly the entire meal, which means fewer dishes to wash when dinner is finished. That is always a consideration in our fifth-wheel. I enjoy cooking, but I have never believed a good campground dinner should leave half the RV kitchen waiting to be washed.
The recipe begins by cooking thick-cut bacon until it is crisp. Once the bacon comes out of the pot, leave those drippings right where they are. The chopped green peppers and sweet onion go into that flavorful bacon fat until they soften and begin to brown.
Ground beef and garlic follow.
Once the beef is cooked through, chili powder, paprika, salt, and black pepper turn what started as a few simple ingredients into something that already smells like supper.
Then come the beans.
Four Beans Are Better Than One
You could certainly make Cowboy Beans with one or two varieties, and plenty of recipes do. I prefer the combination of pinto, cannellini, kidney, and black beans because each brings something a little different to the pot.
Using canned beans also makes sense when we are camping. There is no soaking overnight and no spending hours waiting for dried beans to soften. Open four cans, drain and rinse them, and they are ready.
That is my kind of campground shortcut.
The beans are stirred into the beef along with ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, hot sauce, and water.
And now we return to that bacon you have hopefully protected from anyone wandering through the kitchen and stealing a piece.
Put it back in the pot.
Cover the Dutch oven and let everything bake until the sauce thickens and all those flavors have had time to get acquainted.
By then, you probably won’t need to announce that dinner is ready. The smell will have taken care of that for you.
Cowboy Beans Recipe
Prep Time: About 20 minutes
Cook Time: About 1 hour
Oven Temperature: 350°F
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound thick-cut bacon, chopped
- 2 green bell peppers, chopped
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans
- 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans
- 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 3/4 cup water
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the chopped bacon until crisp, about 7 to 9 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set it aside, leaving the drippings in the Dutch oven.
- Build the base.
Add the bell peppers and onion to the bacon drippings. Cook for 7 to 9 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned.
Add the ground beef and garlic. Cook, breaking the beef apart as it browns, until no pink remains. Stir in the chili powder, kosher salt, paprika, and black pepper.
- Bring in the beans.
Drain and rinse all four cans of beans. Add them to the Dutch oven along with the ketchup, water, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, hot sauce, and reserved bacon.
Stir everything together well.
- Let the oven do the rest.
Cover the Dutch oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened to your liking.
Serve hot.
Why Do We Call Them Cowboy Beans?
There isn’t one tidy historical answer to how Cowboy Beans got their name, and I wouldn’t pretend there is.
Beans, however, certainly have a long association with trail cooking and chuckwagon meals because dried beans were inexpensive, portable, filling, and could be stored for extended periods. Today’s Cowboy Beans are considerably richer than the simple beans somebody might have eaten on the trail. Bacon, ground beef, barbecue-style sauce, and four varieties of canned beans make this very much a modern comfort-food version.
Maybe that is all the history we need at the campground.
They are hearty. They are easy to cook. And nobody needs fine china to enjoy them.
Although, looking at our pictures, apparently a nice bowl doesn’t hurt.
Make Them Today or Tomorrow
Cowboy Beans are actually a good choice when you want to prepare something before everyone arrives.
Make them the evening before, refrigerate them after they have cooled, and reheat them thoroughly the following day. The extra time gives the flavors a chance to mingle, and the beans may taste even better the second time around.
If the sauce becomes too thick while reheating, stir in a little water until you have the consistency you want.
For a campground potluck, a slow cooker also works nicely for keeping the beans hot after they have been fully cooked. Just remember that leftovers containing cooked meat should not spend hours sitting around at unsafe temperatures.
Around the Campfire
Are Cowboy Beans a side dish or a main meal?
I say both. Put a smaller helping beside ribs, brisket, pulled pork, or hamburgers and they make a terrific side. Give me a full bowl with some bread or cornbread, and I am perfectly happy calling it dinner.
Do I have to use all four kinds of beans?
No. The combination gives the finished dish different colors, sizes, and textures, but substitutions are easy. Keep the total amount roughly equivalent to four 15-ounce cans and use the beans your family enjoys.
Are these beans spicy?
There is some heat from the chili powder and hot sauce, but you control that part. If you are cooking for a crowd, keeping the pot on the milder side and putting hot sauce on the table is an easy solution.
Can I make Cowboy Beans without an RV oven?
Certainly. Once the meat and vegetables have been cooked, the mixture can continue cooking gently on the stovetop. Keep the heat low, stir occasionally so the bottom doesn’t scorch, and cook until the sauce reaches the thickness you like.
Final Thoughts
There are recipes we make because they are convenient, and there are recipes we make because sitting down to eat them feels good.
Cowboy Beans manage to do both.
They don’t require unusual ingredients or complicated techniques. Most of what goes into the pot can travel easily in an RV pantry, and using one Dutch oven keeps cleanup manageable. Better yet, the recipe can be made ahead when you would rather spend your afternoon visiting around the campground than standing in the kitchen.
But I think what I like most is what happens when the lid comes off.
You have a warm pot of beans, beef, bacon, peppers, and that sweet-and-tangy sauce sitting in the middle of the table. Someone grabs a bowl. Someone else asks what’s in it. Before long, everybody is eating.
Sometimes a good campground meal doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.
Enjoy eatin’,
The Cooper Shortcut Camping Journey Trio 😊 PlusOne!
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