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Instant Pot Calico Beans are a fabulous new twist on the classic ground beef and beans dish! Now you can cook up calico beans lickety-split in your pressure cooker!Â
Pressure Cooker Calico Beans are Fast & Delicious!
Calico beans are the kind of dish that pressure cookers are made for! You can also cook them low and slow in my Slow Cooker Calico Beans if you want to leave them in a crockpot all day to simmer. However using your Instant Pot means that you can make them at the end of a work day when you didn’t really know what you were making for dinner. I can’t be the only one that makes dinners like this! Sometimes you just don’t have anything ready!
The Best Pressure Cookers
Instant Pot – 6 Quart (what we use)
Reasons that using an Instant Pot for Calico beans is the best:
- You can use frozen ground beef. If you want to really be able to make it as a last minute emergency dish, then you can take 1 pound of lean ground beef out of the freezer and place it in the Instant Pot with 1 cup of water. Cook it for 3 minutes High pressure and then open the lid. You can then drain the water and follow the rest of the instructions.
- Using the Instant Pot cuts down on the kitchen mess! I love that you can fry up everything in one thing and set it and forget it!
- Pressure cooking is perfect for beans, sometimes beans can be pretty hard out of the can.
Tips and Tricks for Making Instant Pot Beans
- Make sure you pick a molasses and beans that you love!
- Taste test and sweeten the beans to your liking with the ketchup.
- It’s ok to leave Lima beans out. A lot of people don’t like them.
- If you are looking for slow cooking beans, try my Crockpot Calico Beans Recipe instead.
Enjoy!
The Fast and Slow Cooking Team
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Instant Pot Calico Beans
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 15 minutes
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Course
- Main Course
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 8
- Calories
- 227
- Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Author
- Fast & Slow Cooking
Ingredients
- 4 slices thick cut bacon diced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 can 28 ounces molasses pork and beans
- 1 can 16 ounces kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 1 can 16 ounces lima beans rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In the bottom of your Instant Pot using the “saute” button, cook the bacon for 2-3 minutes. Add in the beef and onion and cook until the meat is no longer pink, then drain.
- Combine the beef mixture, bacon, beans, brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, mustard and salt in the Instant Pot.
- For the Instant Pot use the chili/stew button and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
- Release the pressure manually or let it naturally release, it won’t overcook the beans. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Please rate this recipe in the comments below to help out your fellow cooks!
Missy Adams says
I have a Cooks Essentials electric pressure cooker. It does not have a stew/chili setting just warm, brown, slow cook, and delay. (plus hi and low pressure cook) Do you have any advice on how long to cook etc…
Naida says
I’ve been making this recipe for 44 years. It’s always perfect whether cooked by crockpot, oven or Instant Pot. It’s a year-round favorite meal for my husband. I do add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and a couple of drops of Tobasco.
Becky says
I don’t have a chili/stew button, so I used the beans/chili button and I got the food burn warning on my Instant Pot, so I just switched it back to sauté with the lid off to cook off some of the moisture. It would be nice to know the correct settings to use to avoid this.