Our Favorite Saucy, Smoky Baked Beans.
Okay hi! It’s basically officially summer so let’s just start doing the whole baked beans thing.
Because it’s time! It’s really time.
Even if you are making them for yourself. You’re worth the good beans, I’m telling you.
If you’ve been here long enough you may remember when I didn’t even like these summer favorite beans.
Times have changed!
Years ago I made these bourbon beans and they hooked me. Seriously, hooked me! They turned me into a baked bean lover and now I’m convinced that no outdoor cookout, barbecue or summer meal is complete without a side of baked beans.
Now.
While I do really love these slow cooker bourbon baked beans, this here is the recipe I’ve found myself making more often for the last few years. Probably since I’ve had kids and had a little less time on my hands.
Also, I should warm you that it’s kind of semi-homemade. I mean, it’s definitely semi-homemade. Not kind of.
But they are so easy!
While my slow cooker beans recipe uses dry beans (so, like, the entire recipe is from scratch), I actually used canned baked beans in this one and I LOVE them. Since making this, I’ve become quite the baked bean snob over here. I’ve tried many different brands and varieties but for this particular recipe, I always come back to the Bush’s Grillin’ Beans. Specially, we love the southern pit bbq or the bourbon bacon flavor. They are so good in this recipe!
That being said, you can use whatever can of baked beans you can find. Just throwing out my random recommendations in case you want them.
I find that this recipe yields a thicker, more syrupy baked bean, in a really good way if that makes sense. Don’t let it scare you off! They are not overly sweet, but they are obviously still sweet.
However, there is enough dijon, smoked paprika and chipotle in here that it’s no overwhelmingly sweet.
Yes. So much flavor.
I have adapted this over the years from Ree’s recipe. Her’s are absolutely amazing, they just make a ton of baked beans! And even when we have a party or I take the beans somewhere, I don’t need that many. Lots of people in my family have an aversion to baked beans – hey, even I had one up until the last decade!
My mom still puts cut up hot dogs in her baked beans and I just… cannot. I mean, I love a good hot dog. We ate hot dogs this past weekend; felt like summer. I just don’t want them cut up in my baked beans!
P.S. if any of you have been around long enough, do you remember when I discovered my obsession with baked beans and loved putting them on top of poached or fried eggs, on toast? That was SO GOOD. Def doing it again.
Anyway.
This makes a “nice” sized amount, even if I just make them for our family. We eat, save a bit for leftovers and freeze the rest if I don’t give it away. It’s perfect!
Give me a plate of these with a smash burger and I’m good to go!
Baked Beans
Favorite Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 2 sliced bacon, diced
- 1 small sweet onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 TO 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 (22 ounce) cans baked beans (I love Bush’s Grillin’ Beans for this recipe)
- 2 slices bacon, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Heat a large (oven safe, if you don’t want to transfer) skillet over medium-low heat and add the bacon. Cook until it’s brown and crisp and most of the fat is rendered.
- Stit in the onion, pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until everything softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard and brown sugar until combined.
- Stir in the baked beans directly from the can. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn off the heat. I suggest tasting the beans here and adding more salt, pepper or heat if desired. If you'd like, you can lay a few strips of bacon on top of the beans here too!
- Place the skillet (or transfer to an oven-safe dish) in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until bubbly and syrup. Remove and let cool slightly before serving.
- You can make these ahead of time - cook them in the skillet then let cook to room temperature and cover, placing in the fridge. Bake the next day (or whenever you’re ready!).
- These also freeze well!
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Oh so saucy.
159 Comments on “Our Favorite Saucy, Smoky Baked Beans.”
The best part of this recipe is the sautéed veggies and seasoning you make at the beginning, I used that as a base then added one 15 oz can of baked beans, one can of salt free black beans, and about 15 oz of home made dry great northerns then baked them at 350 for 1/2 hour. My point is, depending on your tolerance for sugar and salt in your food, this is a terrific recipe for baked beans. I will save it for future use.
Sounds delicious!
Try frying a tin of baked beans in lard.its a way they are cooked in the North of England.totaly changes the taste for the better.(beans in tomato sauce)
Best beans I’ve ever tasted. I omitted the chipotle because I didn’t have any on hand. I’m bringing this to Easter dinner, and I can’t wait to share it. Thank you so much.
Hi, I made Jessica’s Favorite Saucy Smoky Baked Beans today for a family get together. OMG they’re BOMB. I did use the Bush’s Grillin Beans like she said and I’m glad I did. I also made 3 batches , my daughter said 2 wouldn’t be enough. She wanted left overs. Sorry to say there won’t be any left overs. These beans are delicious. I will make them again. Thank you Jessica!
Definitely the best Ive ever had! I used the bushes barbecue and steak one. I used more bacon just because. I can’t wait to bring this to my church next potluck. WOW. Thank you!!!
How do you turn this into a recipe for 100 people?
Do I really multiply everything by 10?
They are good, but did anyone think they were a tad too sweet? I followed the recipe exactly how it is written – even added a bit more salt and they still came out on the sweeter side than I usually care for. Maybe that’s just how they are supposed to be. If I make them again ill use more bacon up the savory factor, and maybe use a different can of beans.
Some of my family thought they were a little sweet too. I’ve used this recipe several times and have tried to use the canned beans that don’t already say brown sugar in the title or omit the 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and it helped. But I keep coming back to this recipe just tweek a little
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I tried this recipe and love it. I made them for my granddaughter’s baby shower. Some family members don’t eat pork so I used ground turkey instead of bacon. Her mother called next day telling me how everyone loved them and wanted to know “who made the baked beans.” Thanks for making me look good!
Everyone at the bbq liked these beans.
I added a tablespoon more of ketchup and 1/2 tbsp of french’s mustard in addition to dijon.
I cooked LOTS of bacon and only chopped up a few pieces to mix in, BUT the bacon got a little chewy, i’d add fresh crispy bacon pieces just before serving next time. I made this recipe the night before, cooled and put it in the fridge with about six slices of bacon on top, to soak up the flavor of bacon. I baked the beans for about 20minutes but ran out of oven space before the party, so I put it on the stovetop in a pot on low for a few hours after. I removed the huge ball of bacon before serving, but cooking it with all the bacon really made it smoky and wonderful. the beans were thick and delicious and people asked for the recipe.
Hello Jessica! Could you use 2 cans of Great Northern beans? And if you did, would you drain and rinse them first, or add them with their liquid?
Bake them covered or uncovered?
uncovered!
Can I make these in a crockpot instead?
Would making this two days ahead of time be ok?
Love,Love, Love this recipe!!! The only bbq bean recipe I take to a gathering & they are always gone. And so easy. Thank you for sharing a great cookout recipe.
Do you think ground beef would be good in these?
hmm i have never tried ground beef in bake beans so i can’t say for sure.
Absolutely! I have tried it and I have also tried (successfully) breakfast sausage
Ground beef is EXCELLENT with this recipe
It reads in the ingredients, the first ingredient, 2 sliced bacon.
Is that 2 slices of bacon or 2 packs of bacon.
Thank you.
Recipe sounds delish!
2 slices!
I made this for my family’s Father’s Day get together and everyone was raving over these beans. In fact, I didn’t bring any home with me because they were gone! The only thing I might change next time is subbing the bell pepper with a poblano or omit it all together because of bell pepper allergies that I wasn’t aware of.
making this weekend for our 4th picnic! these are always a hit!
Looks good, but not going to download an app to print a recipe.
not sure what you mean – printing from my site does not require an app. maybe your printer does?
Made this recipe for the 4thof July church gathering- sooo good and sooo many compliments from the crowd. Will be my go to recipe for baked beans from now on.
If I am multiplying this recipe by 6 should I multipy onion and peppers by 6? 6 onions sounds like alot.
HI Paula –
I am wondering the same thing. Did you make them? How did they come out?
Very good recipe, though I changed a some things. The first time I made it as is and while good, the bell pepper was just not for me. The second time I made it I omitted the pepper and cut the recipe in half as there was only 2 of us. It was good, but too spicy for my mom. Next time I’ll omit the chili powder
Fabulous! Definitely a “keeper!”
Can i get nutritional information and diabetic exchange information please?
Awesome! This is a demand item at all family gatherings.
Hi Jessica!
These sound awesome! I would like to make these beans for 50 people. Should I just multiply everything by 8 (or so)? Could I make them in a full tray? Any thoughts you might have would be really greatly appreciated! Also, there are 3 types of Bushes Grillin Beans – should I use Southern Pit Barbecue? Or another flavor?
I made this for a weekend potluck. They were great!
I tend to not like really sweet baked beans, so used one can of the Bush’s Grillin’ Beans which added sweetness/smokeyness and one can of Van Camp’s Pork and Beans to balance out the sweetness.
Also, for a little kick, we added a jalapeno pepper.
Came out great!
Delicious! A big hit!
These baked beans were amazing! I used this recipe for my first time making baked beans. They weren’t overly sweet, they were nice and thick, and well caramelized. I made these along with some oven baked ribs and banana pudding. This will be my go-to baked beans recipe moving forward.
Can I cook these in a slow cooker instead?
This is a great recipe. I used a little less chipotle chili powder, white vinegar, garlic powder and my “secret” ingredient for baked beans, Tiger Sauce. The result’s flavor is exactly what we love, sweet with a bit of heat. Delicious!
Do I bake these beans before I freeze them. Will they get mushy when I want to reheat them.
I see red bell pepper in your photos not green?
I’ve never made baked beans before, so I needed a simple but tasty recipe. I used the beans that already have onion and pepper, so I didn’t add more, but followed the rest of the recipe pretty much exactly. Made it the night before and put it in the oven 30 mins before guests started to arrive.. accidentally left it in about 50 minutes, but aside from slight crusts around the edges, it was totally fine. Great, actually. I didn’t have any leftovers.
Thanks for a recipe I will definitely be using again!
Made these beans to eat with some bbq for family birthday party. Everyone thought this recipe was delicious! They asked for this dish again at Christmas!
This recipe is a keeper! We made without the vinegar and green peppers! Otherwise, followed the recipe. We will make again! Thanks!
Will recipe adapt to slow cooker?
The beans are no longer linked. Which ones do you prefer (that brand has a bunch of different ones)
Do you drain the bacon grease after sauting peppers and onions?
This looks so good!
Can it be cooked in a Crock Pot?