This Cowboy-Favorite Side Dish Requires Just A Few Ingredients

Cowboys had a reputation for having a healthy appetite which was often subdued with steak and other meaty rations, but they weren't averse to enjoying side dishes with their beef. Enter: cowboy beans. This humble medley of ingredients is a terrific accompaniment to barbecued fare and would serve as a welcome, hearty side dish at a cookout teeming with lighter sides like coleslaw.

At first glance, cowboy beans might look an awful lot like a thick chili, and it's actually pretty close. Not every recipe calls for bacon, but when it does it's cooked first, as the rest of the ingredients benefit from being heated in the leftover fat to upgrade the flavor of the dish. Peppers and onions are sauteed before ground beef is perfectly browned in the same pan, then the main ingredient is introduced. Bear in mind that beans are the star of the show, so generally around four cans are tossed into the mix. Any type of beans will work, but kidney beans, great northern beans, pinto beans, and cannellini beans are popular choices.

These ingredients create the foundation of the side dish, but the seasonings do the heavy lifting in terms of flavor. Adding garlic to the pan at the right time imparts a nutty pungency, chili powder is often used to lend smoky heat to the dish, and paprika infuses it with a mild earthiness. A simple homemade BBQ sauce is then mixed in and the entire side dish is left to cook down in a slow cooker (or the oven) until the sauce thickens.

Judging from the name, one might assume cowboy beans were a dish that sustained folks in the Western wilderness throughout the 1800s, but that may not be the case. The truth is, the history of the dish is as clear as mud. However, based on what we know about what cowboys were feasting on before heading into the saloon for a taste of old-school American whiskey, if it was eaten in the Old West at all, it was probably much different than modern day recipes.

BBQ sauce wasn't typically an ingredient cowboys were lugging around over arduous terrain. Molasses and syrups could have been used as substitutes, though at that point the profile of the dish would be completely altered. It wasn't all that uncommon to see cowboys using peppers and onions to season their food, but Cowboys also made good use of potatoes because they were filling and resilient, so this may have once been a potato dish.

Beans were a staple source of nourishment out West. They traveled well, were high in fiber and protein, and were easy to cook over a campfire. Bacon was also commonly carried around as protein-rich grub, though it was generally preserved with salt to extend its shelf life. As such, it was chewier than most of the bacon we enjoy these days. Still, it wouldn't be a wild notion to assume folks tossed bits of the meat into a pot of legumes to create something similar to cowboy beans.