Instant Pot Homemade Pork and Beans—your childhood favorite pork n’ beans made at home in your Instant Pot with dried beans and lots of crispy bacon and just a couple other pantry staples.
Get the SLOW COOKER pork and beans recipe here
Instant Pot Homemade Pork and Beans
I must admit that as a child I really loved pork and beans. Loved them. Even now I still do. You know the kind that comes in a can? I love the tomato based sauce and the not too sweet flavor. I’m not a huge fan of my baked beans being super sweet. So I decided to create my own version at home. I wanted to make everything from scratch so I decided to use dried beans. The Instant Pot is the perfect tool to cook dried beans. It’s soooo easy and they turn out well if you use a couple of suggestions.
- Soak the beans overnight (or use a quick soak method). I know there are recipes that say you don’t need to soak but I find that the beans turn out much better if they are soaked overnight (plus your tummy will thank you). I also suggest adding a tablespoon of salt to the beans and the water. This salty brine that the beans soak in will enable the tough skins to become tender the next day when you cook them in the Instant Pot. Don’t worry about sodium content. You’ll rinse off the beans before you cook them.
- Don’t add any acidic ingredients until the beans are tender. The minute you add anything tomato-based those beans are going to firm up immediately. So if you’re making chili or soup with diced tomatoes wait until the beans are tender before you add them into the Instant Pot.
- For this Instant Pot homemade pork and beans I have used both dried pinto beans and dried navy beans. I ended up using bacon as the pork instead of the traditional salt pork. I just prefer a crispy bacon over a limp piece of fatty pork. If you want you could throw a ham hock in with the cooking beans for lots of flavor.
- I made a semi-small batch (it made 6 servings). If you’re bringing this to a potluck I recommend doubling the recipe. To double the recipe use the double the ingredients and keep the same cooking time.
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Homemade Pork and Beans I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
Instant Pot Homemade Pork and Beans
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Your childhood favorite pork n’ beans made at home in your Instant Pot with dried beans and lots of crispy bacon and just a couple other pantry staples.
Ingredients
- 12 oz of dried pinto or navy beans (this is about 2 cups of dried beans)
- 1 Tbsp salt (for soaking)
- 2 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp molasses
- ½ tsp salt
- Fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 6 pieces of crispy cooked bacon, cut into quarter inch pieces
Instructions
- Pour the beans into a mixing bowl and fill will lots of water. Add in 1 Tbsp of salt. Soak the beans for 8-12 hours (see note below).
- Pour the beans into a colander and rinse thoroughly. Discard the soaking water.
- Pour the beans into your Instant Pot liner. Pour 4 cups of water into the Instant Pot liner.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 20 minutes for pinto beans and 30 minutes for navy beans. When the time is up let the pot release the pressure naturally for 10-20 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid. Drain off any excess water.
- Add in 2 cans of tomato sauce, Dijon mustard, molasses, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir. Add in the bacon and gently stir.
- Serve immediately or turn the Instant Pot to warm and serve at your leisure. The beans will stay good on warm for up to 3 hours.
Notes
If you don’t have time to soak the beans you can cook the beans without soaking. I always soak my beans because I don’t want to deal with tummy issues. For no soak beans add 20 extra minutes to the cooking times I mentioned above. If you want you can also use the “quick soak method” which will allow you most of the benefits of soaking but in a fraction of the time.
How to Quick Soak: Add the beans to your Instant Pot with 4 cups of water and 1 Tbsp of salt. Bring to a boil using the saute setting. Once the water is boiling then quickly cover the pressure cooker and and turn valve to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 2 minutes. When time is up slowly move valve to venting. If foam escapes then move valve back to sealing for 20 seconds and try again. Remove the lid. Then rinse and drain the beans and use them in the recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes (plus soaking time)
- Category: Sides
- Method: Instant pot
- Cuisine: American
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Hello Karen,
I’ve been following you for a little while and I really love reading your articles and try your recipes.
Where I live, in the Maple land, pork and beans are one of our traditional meals so a few years ago, I adapted my family recipe to my Instant Pot. I use the quick soak method but I do not cover the pot. I just boil on the sauté setting for 2 minutes and then adjust the level of water to 4 in. above the beans and let soak for 1 hour. Once I drain the beans and put them back in the IP, I add the crispy bacon (or a piece of seared bacon rind), molasses, onions, and dry mustard with the beans for cooking. I find the beans are more flavorful this way but, of course, this is my personal taste and what I grew up with. Once beans are cooked, I add a little bit of maple syrup. We do not use tomato sauce, although I also like that version.
Thank you for your work. You have inspired me to use my IP a lot more than I used to.
Yum Marie! your version sounds fabulous. Where is Maple land? 😊
Why would the beans come out mostly soft but some hard. I did a soak for 9 hours and followed the recipe step by step?
★★★
Huh, that is interesting. Were they old beans?
Al, depending on the quality of the beans you used, this can happen. I find that for some brands, I have to sort through the beans and remove the bad ones. Look for beans with a rough surface or some that have a greyish colour and remove them. Also make sure that while soaking, the beans are always covered with at least 2 inches of water. This means that you need to have at least 5 inches of water above the beans and check them once in a while. If you find some were not covered and dried, remove them before baking/cooking. I hope this helps.
★★★★★
Hello Karen,
Perhaps I’m missing something. Once you have added the remaining ingredients do you continue to cook some more to blend the flavours? Would it make sense to transfer all into an old fashion crock pot, perhaps with a ham bone and bake for a few hours like my aunt used to do. I think I will try that and see what comes out.
You could do that! Or just use the slow cooker function on your Instant Pot!
If you’re gona do that, why involve the ” instant pot”?
I REALLY like this recipe (made in Instant Pot). This is the first time I have been successful in making beans from scratch that were soft, not hard. The taste is wonderful and it’s very nice to not buy cans of baked beans that have corn syrup, etc. in them. I tried freezing the beans after cooking (before adding the rest of the ingredients) too, and they thawed out fine and tasted just as great. Thank you!
★★★★★
Great! I’m glad to know that freezing worked well 🙂
When you say “drain off any excess water”, do you drain the beans in a colander? It might be obvious to some but I’m new to cooking, pressure pot or otherwise.
Thanks
Hi Steven, that’s the way I usually do it!
HI unable to use the scale to double the recipe .thanks
★★★★
Hmmm, it’s working for me. I’m unsure why it’s not working for you.
Taste was excellent but beans were half hard
..what is the crockpot recipe pls
Really? Interesting. https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/homemade-slow-cooker-pork-beans/
Would it hurt the dish to double up on the Bacon. The recipe says 6 portions and I like 2 rashers of Bacon (as I also prefer 2 egss for instance). Would it alter the balance too much?
not at all! Do it!
Is there ever enough bacon?
This sounds wonderful! Will try it soon. Question: could you use maple syrup instead of molasses? Or maybe add a little bit of brown sugar with the original recipe? I don’t like my beans REAL sweet, but I do like a bit of sweetness…what’s your thoughts here?
I think both of those options would work well!
FYI, in the past I have used pure maple syrup in place of molasses and the result was excellent. I did not have any molasses on hand that was the reason, I personally love the molasses taste, but in a pinch the syrup was a good substitute.
Good tip!
Molasses and maple syrup are interchangeable in any recipe. I personally use both. I put just enough molasses to brown the beans and add Maple syrup once they are cooked. I took that habit because when you do them in the oven with a bean pot, you have to stir them and the maple syrup would thicken too much, but in the Instant Pot it probably doesn’t react this way.
Thanks – I have to try these!!!
You’re welcome!
Hi Karen,
Will the beans be watery if you don’t drain off the excess liquid. I tend to like my bean juice a little thicker and when using other methods to cook, will let them cook down until the liquid has thickened. I haven’t used my IP for cooking beans other than the black beans with rice because of concern for the thickness of the juice. What do you recommend? Thanks
Anne
There isn’t a ton of extra water. I hardly drained off any.
Hi Karen,
I like this recipe. When I soak the beans I use about a rounded tablespoon of baking soda instead of salt. It helps to reduce the gas in the beans. Maybe the salt does that, too.
thanks for all of your nice recipes.
Audrey
Good idea! Will try this next time.
It seems that in step 3 you neglected to include the word “water.” 4 cups of ????? Right?
I just fixed it!! Thanks!
Do you not require any liquid in the insta pot with the beans? I thought liquid was needed to make it work.
Thanks
Cathy
Yes you do. I just corrected the recipe.