A good bean recipe for the holidays

[Smokin Don]

I have been making these for years and they are a hit wherever I take them. These are on the sweet side but are good.
I will be making them for Thanksgiving at our son's, he requested them when I offered to make a side dish.

Calico Beans

1 ½ lbs. ground beef
1 cup chopped onions
½ lb. bacon, diced and browned
1 can pinto beans or red kidney
1 can pork and beans
1 can baby green lima beans or regular
½ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. mustard

Brown ground beef and onions; drain off grease if needed.  Brown up the diced bacon and remove from the skillet. Drain all the beans and mix with all the other ingredients. Place in a large baking dish or in the Crockpot if doing it that way. I like doing it in a Crockpot.

Oven:  bake at 350 deg. for 45 minutes
Crockpot:  on high   3-4 hours or on low for 6-10 hours.

Note:  The original recipe used red kidney beans and regular lima beans. I like the pinto and baby green lima beans better.

Smokin Don

[sliding_billy]

Sounds delicious.

[HighOnSmoke]

Sounds good to me Don, except the Lima beans! Bookmarked anyway! 

[CDN Smoker]

Bookmarked SD

[IR2dum]

Sounds good to me Don, except the Lima beans! Bookmarked anyway! 

Mike, I'll add your lima beans into mine to make it doubly delicious. I bookmarked it, too.

[Smokin Don]

Sounds good to me Don, except the Lima beans! Bookmarked anyway! 

Any mix of beans would probably work well. I never played with this, except for the bean mix, always per recipe. If I did maybe more vinegar would help on the sweetness and some heat may be good too. Don

[Las Vegan Cajun]

Sounds good to me Don, except the Lima beans! Bookmarked anyway! 

Any mix of beans would probably work well. I never played with this, except for the bean mix, always per recipe. If I did maybe more vinegar would help on the sweetness and some heat may be good too. Don

I was thinking of this:

[Smokin Don]

I was thinking of this:

I have used that bean mix a lot with ham or smoked sausage. If you used them for the Calico beans it would be a lot more work soaking and cooking the beans first. Don

[Pam Gould]

Don..never had it with ground beef in it..gonna try it and reduce the brown sugar some. If ya soak the beans over night they will be fine..I like almost all beans, can tolerate the black one but not my fav. Thanks for the recipe. I do like Lima beans..seeing as how I am from Lima Ohio. I'll take whoevers share.   Pam   .☆´¯`•.¸¸. ི♥ྀ.

[africanmeat]

thanks for the recipe , i will do it next winter .

[drholly]

Don,

Bookmarked this to modify my recipe. I have made something similar - I like to use a variety of Busch's beans - haven't tried limas as my family won't eat them - go figure.... I like your recipe and will try it when in ND next week. Thanks!

Pam - the beef is an excellent addition!

David

[Northshore]

I have had this several times in deer camp. Made with a mix of canned beans 5-6 different and either ground beef or ground venison and chopped bacon. Great as a side dish or even as a meal.