These baked beans are a wonderful combination of sweet and tangy, with lots of bacon and brown sugar. Yum! My mom always made her beans this way and everyone begged her to bring them to every family and neighborhood picnic, and this is the only way I make them too! Easy enough to make for a weeknight dinner or weekend summer picnic, these beans go from oven to table in one hour, but the longer they slow bake, the more caramelized (and the more tangy) they become. And guess what…these perfect baked beans go…you guessed it…perfect with my Best Home Style Potato Salad and Cornell-Brooks BBQ chicken!
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Perfect Baked Beans
- 2 (28 oz) Cans Bush’s Original Baked Beans
- 8-10 Pieces of Bacon
- 1 Small Onion, chopped fine
- 1/3 c. Ketchup
- 1/3 c. Mustard
- 3 Tbsp. Maple Syrup
- 1 – 1 1/4 c. Brown Sugar (Dark is preferred)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex pan and pour both cans of beans into the pan. Cook the bacon until crispy, then crumble. Saute the onions in about a tablespoon of bacon grease over medium heat until softened, then stir 3/4 of the crumbled bacon and onion into the pan of beans. Add the ketchup, mustard, maple syrup, and one cup of brown sugar into the beans and stir well. Sprinkle the remaining bacon over the top, then sprinkle the bacon with the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Place in the oven and bake for about one hour for a quick weeknight dinner or 2 – 2 1/2 hours to slow caramelize the beans. Remove from the oven and allow the beans to cool about 15 minutes before serving. As the beans cool, the beans will thicken.
- Note: I cook my bacon in the oven to make the bacon cook evenly with less mess. 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes will cook bacon nice and crispy.
- 2nd Note: I use Pyrex because it is easier to clean than a non-stick pan. Just soak the pan in soap hot water for about 10 minutes and it should wipe clean.
