I can’t sit down to anything BBQ related without a side of baked beans to go with it. For me, baked beans, potato salad and some smoked meat (pork shoulder, brisket, ribs, etc.) is my idea of the perfect summer meal.
Opening up a can of baked beans is easy, but why do that when it is so quick and easy to make them yourself.
This Baked Beans recipe is a friend and family favorite. My sister annoyingly asks me to make this at least once a month. I often get asked to make this recipe for other functions because people enjoy it so much.
However, I do have to warn you, this recipe is not healthy and has the potential of giving you diabeetus, said in your best Wilford Brimley voice, and heart disease.
These baked beans are also very forgiving, making them a great beginner’s recipe.
There is nothing like a few successes to give you confidence in the kitchen. Starting with recipes that have a wide berth for a margin of error are what we recommend for folks just learning how to cook.
Play around with your normal BBQ style spices: chili powder, paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, etc.
Browned breakfast sausage and a green bell peppers in this recipe work surprisingly well. Heck, you could probably even using browned ground beef if you wanted.
My recipe for Baked Beans can be made on the stove top or in the oven. If I’m feeling particularly lazy, I’ll put the dutch oven in my oven set to 225 degrees F and forget about it for an hour or two.
If I am being super lazy, I’ll put these in a slow cooker set on low for 4 to 6 hours.
The recipe calls for a dutch oven, but any large saucepan will do. If baking your baked beans, make sure that any sauce pan you use has an oven save lid before trying this method.
You will get 16 half-cup servings from this recipe. It can easily be doubled giving you enough bake beans for a large group or crowd.
If you have tried this recipe, please leave us a comment and rating!
Baked Beans
Baked beans smothered in a sweet bacon sauce.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Simmering
- Cuisine: BBQ
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. chopped bacon
- 1.5 cups white or yellow onion, chopped
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 gloves garlic
- 1.5 cups ketchup
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 tbsp. yellow mustard
- 1 tbsp. chili powder
- 4 cans of navy beans, drained and rinsed
Instructions
- Using a dutch oven or your heaviest pan, cooking the bacon over medium heat until the bacon is almost crispy
- Remove the bacon from the pan and remove all but about two tables spoons of the bacon grease.
- Add the onions to the dutch oven and add the salt. Saute the onions over medium-low heat until translucent.
- Add the garlic to the onions and sauté for about another minute. Do not let the garlic brown.
- Add the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and chili powder to the Dutch oven.
- Stir the mixture up very well to distribute the brown sugar.
- Add the navy beans to the Dutch oven and mix.
- Place Dutch oven over very low heat. You want a bare simmer. Simmer for a minimum of an hour and your beans are complete.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 216
- Sugar: 23.2 g
- Sodium: 993 mg
- Fat: 6.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.9 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 9 g
- Cholesterol: 16 mg
Other Picnic ideas:
UPDATE TO POST NAME:
Originally, this recipe was called Diabeetus Baked Beans. It was not good for SEO, but beyond that, the name has offended a blog visitor, offended enough that a we were left a “nasty gram”. The comment was not removed and has been left because here at Pear tree Kitchen we believe im openness and honesty. The only comments we delete are those that are strictly spam.
The name Diabeetus Baked Beans was no more than joke regarding the sweetness of the dish. If you grew up in our household, you would get the inside joke. Diabetes is not a joking matter, we know. We watched family members become debilitated and eventually die from the effects of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus Type II.
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I’m seriously LOL-ing at the name of this gorgeous recipe. And also seriously drooling. I must try these soon!
Karly, thanks for the comment! Just be sure to pick up some insulin when you make these. haha
For those of us without a functioning pancreas it’s less funny, as it perpetuates the idea that we’re diabetic because we are too stupid to regulate our sugar intake. That said, the recipe looks good and I look forward to trying it. Thank you.
Dear Claire,
I am sorry the title of my post has offended you. I was in no way trying to perpetuate that diabetics are stupid. I am of the meme generation and this name literally comes from the meme that was popular years ago poking fun of the Wilford Brimley commercials. We have several friends, colleges, and family members with diabetes. We have shared the name of this recipe with virtually all of them and none of them ever been offended or even hinted that it is offensive. If you look up the word “diabetus” in google, you get two Wilford Brimley commercials as your first two results. This has been a running joke amongst family and friends for years (I get asked to make this for events all the time).
Our family is very familiar with diabetes and the destruction improperly managed diabetes can have on the body. I recently lost my grandmother, the only grandmother I knew growing up, to kidney failure because she spent most of her adult life not managing her diabetes properly. I also lost my beloved Boston terrier last year after a long battle with cushings and insulin resistance, so the topic of diabetes strikes close to home. So I in no way intended the title of my blog post to be hurtful or insensitive.
If you have Type 1 diabetes, you have our deepest sympathies, as there is nothing you can do to diet or exercise to change your situation.
Sincerely,
Ron Unz (The Pear Tree Kitchen)
If you like your beans sweet like your recipe suggests, then this turned out as expected. Very tasty. Instead of cooking in a dutch oven I added my beans to a disposable aluminum pan and tossed them on my smoker during the last two hours of my smoking sessions. Great stuff. Keep it up.
★★★★★