Homemade Baked Beans

These homemade baked beans are made from scratch in a delicious tangy sweet and savory sauce of brown sugar, maple syrup, ketchup, and apple cider vinegar. With just a little extra effort, they are so much better than baked beans from a can!

Why this recipe works

What’s a summer barbecue without baked beans? While you can certainly doctor up a can of baked beans, nothing beats homemade baked beans!  You do need to plan ahead though because it does take a bit of time to cook them. However, most of the cooking is done in the oven, so it’s a pretty easy recipe to put together.

Expert Tips and FAQs

• If you’re making a vegetarian version, skip the bacon and use a little vegetable oil instead.  The bacon grease does give it a nice flavor if you don’t have a dietary reason for avoiding it.
• If you forget to soak your beans overnight, you can try quick-soaking your beans. To do this, rinse the beans and place in a pot of water (should cover by 2 inches). Bring to a boil, boil one minute, then remove from heat. Cover the pan and let soak for one hour. Drain and rinse.
• If you use a Dutch oven, it can go right into the oven for baking. However, you can use a pot and then transfer the beans to a casserole dish if you prefer.
• The skins of the beans are ever-so-tender and can break up easily with over mixing. So use a light hand wherever the recipe says to stir.

Ingredients you will need

• I generally use navy beans, but you can use Great Northern beans as well.
• You don’t want to cook the bacon to be crispy. Use thick cut bacon and only cook it partway.
• Don’t be concerned about the Jalapeno pepper in this recipe, it’s not overly spicy or hot but adds a nice flavor.
• I realize that not everyone has liquid smoke in their pantry. If you can buy some, you won’t regret it. However, if that’s not possible these beans will still be delicious without it!

Prepping and cooking your beans

1. You’ll want to rinse and pick through the dry beans to make sure you don’t have any small pebbles mixed in with the beans.
2. Then you’re ready to give them a good long soak. Soaking your beans overnight keeps them tender. (See tip above for quick soaking if you forget!)
3. The next day, when you’re ready to start cooking, drain the beans and cover them with water again. If you have a Dutch oven, I’d recommend using it for the next step.
4. Bring the beans and water to a boil, then cover and simmer for an hour on low.

While the beans are cooking

1. While your beans are cooking, in a skillet fry up a few slices of bacon partway and then drain them on paper towels.

2. Leave behind a few tablespoons of bacon grease and sauté some chopped onion and jalapeño in it.

3. Drain the onion and jalapeño mixture on paper towels as well.

4. After your beans have cooked for an hour, drain them. But do not pour that starchy bean liquid down the drain! Reserve it because you are going to need it for your next step.

5. Combine the drained beans, onion and jalapeño mixture, brown sugar, maple syrup, liquid smoke, dry mustard, and one cup of the bean liquid. Stir your beans to combine (but do not over mix!), cover them and let them cook for two hours or so.

The final steps

1. The last part of the process is adding in the ketchup, cider vinegar, and chopped bacon to the beans.  The reason you are adding the ketchup and vinegar towards the end of the cooking process is because both tomatoes and vinegar are more acidic, and adding them earlier does affect how the beans cook. This way, it allows those complex tangy, sweet, and savory undertones to develop properly. If you find you need more liquid, you can add more of the bean liquid as well.

2. Once again, you are going to mix the beans to incorporate the ketchup and vinegar, but try to keep as light of a touch as possible. The skins of the beans are ever-so-tender and can break up easily with over mixing.

I hope you love these homemade baked beans as much as my family does! They are sweet and tangy at the same time and always a hit at all of our summer get-togethers.

HERE ARE MORE SUMMER RECIPES YOU WILL LOVE:

• Turn Mexican street corn into a salad. This delicious Chili Lime Mexican Corn Salad takes 15 minutes to make and is sure to be a hit at your next cookout!
• This delicious Creamy Deviled Egg Layered Pasta Salad combines deviled eggs and pasta salad in a dish that is perfect for any potluck get together.
• These marinated grilled chicken kabobs step outside the box using red wine in the marinade instead of white wine.
• Need a dessert for your barbecue? This vintage watergate salad is perfect for a party or get together, great as a take-along.
• Lastly, for my English friends, you can use this recipe to pile on top of toast to make classic beans on toast!

Homemade Baked Beans

The hit of every backyard barbecue, these homemade baked beans are made from scratch with a deliciously sweet and tangy sauce you will love.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Sides

Cuisine: American

Servings: 12

11 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Calories: 274

Author: Amanda Davis

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 lb dry navy beans or Great Northern
• ▢ 4 slices thick cut bacon cooked partway, then coarsely chopped
• ▢ 1 cup yellow onion chopped
• ▢ 1 medium jalapeño pepper seeded and chopped
• ▢ ½ cup brown sugar packed
• ▢ 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• ▢ ½ cup maple syrup
• ▢ 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• ▢ ¾ cup ketchup
• ▢ ¼ cup apple cider vinegar

Before You Begin

• If you're making a vegetarian version, skip the bacon and use a little vegetable oil instead.  The bacon grease does give it a nice flavor if you don't have a dietary reason for avoiding it.
• If you forget to soak your beans overnight, you can try quick-soaking your beans. TO do this, rinse the beans and place in a pot of water (should cover by 2 inches). Bring to a boil, boil one minute, then remove from heat. Cover the pan and let soak for one hour. Drain and rinse. 
• If you use a Dutch oven, it can go right into the oven for baking. However, you can use a pot and then transfer the beans to a casserole dish if you prefer. 
• The skins of the beans are ever-so-tender and can break up easily with over mixing. So use a light hand wherever the recipe says to stir.

Instructions

• Sort through and rinse beans and remove any rocks.
• Cover (about 2-inches over the beans) with water and soak overnight. Roughly 4 cups of water.
• Drain beans; cover with 6 cups of fresh water. Should cover the beans by at least an inch.
• Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for one hour.
• While beans are cooking, fry your bacon partway (bacon should not get crispy); remove to drain on paper towels. Coarsely chop when cooled.
• Leave a couple tablespoons of bacon grease in the pan, and sauté your chopped onion and jalapeño until onion is translucent (a couple minutes). Allow the onion and jalapeño drain on paper towels as well.
• Towards the end of the beans' cooking process, preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
• When beans are done, drain over a bowl or pan so you can reserve the cooking liquid.
• In a Dutch oven, combine onion and jalapeño mixture, brown sugar, maple syrup, liquid smoke, dry mustard, and one cup of the bean liquid. Stir together then add the drained beans. Gently stir to combine.
• Cover and bake for 1 hour.
• Remove from oven and stirring gently, add ketchup, apple cider vinegar, and the coarsely chopped bacon to beans. If it appears that the beans need more liquid, go ahead and add more of the reserved bean liquid as needed.
• Cook for 1 hour. Test to make sure beans are done; cook a little longer if necessary, up to 1.5 hours.
• Remove cover and bake for 20-30 minutes more to thicken sauce. Stir gently, allow to cool 10 minutes, and serve.

Nutrition

Serving: 1portion | Calories: 274cal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 223mg | Potassium: 588mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 92IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 2mg

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This post originally appeared here on June 25, 2016 and has since been updated with new photos.