Baked Beans
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Make real-deal Boston Baked Beans in a fraction of the time! This easy recipe is made with canned navy beans, smoky bacon, sweet molasses, and a handful of simple pantry staples for rich, traditional flavor without soaking dried beans overnight.
Table of Contents
- Here’s Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- In Photos: How To Make Baked Beans
- More Savory Recipes
Boston baked beans are a classic New England dish traditionally made with navy beans, molasses, salt pork or bacon, and seasonings.
The molasses gives them their signature deep color and rich, bittersweet flavor. In this shortcut version, canned navy beans make the process so much quicker, while bacon adds smoky depth and savory richness.
These baked beans are thick, glossy, savory-sweet, and so satisfying. Perfect served next to burgers, hot dogs, barbecue chicken, pulled pork, or a big holiday ham.
Because this version starts with canned beans, it comes together much faster than old-fashioned baked beans, while still giving you that deep, slow-baked flavor everyone loves.
This is a top-notch Spring/Summer recipe that will be great for all your backyard barbecues! Give this one a try, it’s a perfect side for hamburgers & hot dogs, ribs, etc. Especially along with my favorite potato salad, cornbread, and jello salad!
The flavors are perfectly balanced, with sweet molasses and brown sugar, smoky bacon, and a whisper of tangy apple cider vinegar. There’s so much savory goodness, and this baked beans recipe takes a fraction of the time it would take to make regular baked beans from scratch.
Here’s Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- These baked beans taste like they simmered all day, but they’re ready in about an hour and a half.
- They have the perfect balance of smoky, sweet, tangy, and savory.
- The ingredient list is short and simple, with lots of classic Boston baked bean flavor.
- They’re great for feeding a crowd, making ahead, and bringing to potlucks, cookouts, or family gatherings.
Ingredients You’ll Need
The recipe card at the bottom of the post contains the full list of amounts. Refer to that when you’re cooking.
- Beans: I recommend canned navy beans. They’re a real time-saver because they’re already partially cooked.
- You can substitute any type of canned bean you like, or a combination of beans such as pinto, black, or chickpeas. Or you can use dried beans, but you’ll need to soak them for 4 to 12 hours and then simmer them in seasoned water for another 45 minutes or so.
- Bacon: Bacon brings a slight smokiness to these baked beans and a rich, porky savoriness.
- Onion: Adds flavor to the sauce and adds a little sweetness.
- My favorite would be a sweet onion, like a Maui or Vidalia. But any kind of onion will do! Feel free to use yellow onion, white onion, red onion, or even shallot!
- Molasses: Molasses is the key ingredient. It’s what makes baked beans taste like baked beans!
- You can use blackstrap molasses or just regular molasses. Blackstrap has a little bit more of a bitter, burnt-sugar taste (like the top of creme brulee) that I really enjoy in more savory dishes like this one.
- Brown Sugar: Dark brown sugar yields an earthier flavor, but use whatever you have on hand! Or if you want to leave it out entirely, just use more molasses.
- Mustard: Dry mustard powder is another really traditional ingredient. It adds a little sharp heat to the mix.
- You can sub in another kind of mustard if you like, such as yellow, brown, or Dijon mustard. Add a little at a time, tasting as you go, until you get the right amount.
- Apple cider vinegar: This ingredient carries the other flavors and adds a subtle tanginess to the baked beans.
- I like to use apple cider vinegar because the flavor goes so well with the other ingredients. But you can sub another kind of vinegar if you like, such as balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar, or sherry vinegar.
- Salt: Salt carries the flavors and intensifies them. It adds a savory taste and makes everything so much more flavorful!
- I like kosher salt best because it doesn’t have any additives (table salt usually contains iodine, and that can leave a bitter taste), so the flavor is pure, and it’s very inexpensive and easy to find.
- Pepper: Ground black pepper is my go-to for this but white pepper or crushed red pepper flakes would work well too. Add according to your own taste.
In Photos: How To Make Baked Beans
Slow-cooking brings out all the best in this classic side dish, but the prep is really quick and easy!
Step 1: Cook Bacon
Start with the bacon. Cook it in a large pot (I love this kind: Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven) over medium heat, to render out the fat.
Once the bacon bits look crispy, fish them out with a slotted spoon and let them drain on paper towels.
Step 2: Cook Onion
Leave the bacon fat in the pot. We’re going to use that to cook the onion. This way, all that salty, smoky, porky flavor infuses the baked beans all throughout.
Step 3: Add Other Ingredients
Once the onions have softened and gone a little translucent, drain the beans (reserving their liquid for later) and add them to the pot, along with the molasses, the brown sugar, half the bacon, and the apple cider vinegar, dry mustard, salt, and pepper.
Stir it all up so every bean gets coated in all those delicious seasonings.
Step 4: Slow Cook
Once the pot comes up to a simmer, you can put it into a preheated oven. (Just make sure the handles are oven-safe! If not, you’ll have to transfer the beans to a 3-quart baking dish first.)
Slow-cook the beans, uncovered, stirring them every so often and adding the reserved bean water as needed.
You’ll know they’re done when they’re thick, saucey, and glazey. Sprinkle on the rest of the bacon and serve!
Recipe Variations
This baked bean recipe is really perfect as-is, but if you want to put your own creative spin on it, here are a few add-ins you might want to try:
- A small can of crushed pineapple
- Chopped jalapeno or habanero for added heat
- Smoked paprika to bring out the smokiness
- Ground meat or sausage
- Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce for umami
- Additional veg such as tomatoes, corn, cabbage, or bell peppers
- Herbs such as bay leaf, thyme, or rosemary
Helpful Tips and Tricks
- Use a large oven-safe pot, such as a Dutch oven, so that you can cook everything in one vessel from stovetop to oven.
- Do not throw away the bean liquid right away. It’s handy for loosening the beans if they thicken too much during baking.
- Bake the beans uncovered so the sauce can reduce and become rich, sticky, and concentrated.
- Stir occasionally as they bake. This helps the beans cook evenly and keeps the top from drying out too much.
- Taste before serving. Depending on your bacon and canned beans, you may want a little more salt, pepper, vinegar, or brown sugar.
Recipe FAQ
The answer is yes! If you have an Instant Pot (aka: multi-cooker), this whole recipe can be made right in it. Use the saute setting for the bacon and onion, then secure the lid, close the steam valve, and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
For crockpot baked beans, saute the bacon and onion in a skillet on the stove first, then add them to the insert along with the other ingredients and cook for 5 hours on low or 3.5 hours on high.
Baked beans keep really well for a long time! I’d say a week or so in the fridge.
Allow them to cool to room temperature before placing them in an airtight container and refrigerating.
They can be rewarmed in the microwave for a few minutes, stirring every so often, or in a 170-degree F oven until heated through.
These will also keep in the freezer, in an airtight container, for up to 6 months! Thaw them in the fridge before reheating.
More Savory Recipes
Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) bacon, preferably thick sliced, roughly chopped
- 1 large (150 g) onion, diced
- 64 ounces (1814.37 g) navy beans, canned
- 2/3 cup (224.67 g) molasses
- 1/3 cup (73.33 g) dark brown sugar, loosely packed
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (3 g) dry mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) kosher salt, or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.5 g) ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cook the bacon in a large, oven-safe pot over medium heat until crisp.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked bacon from the pot, leaving the rendered fat behind.
- Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain and saute the onion in the bacon fat until softened and translucent (approx. 5 minutes).
- Drain the beans, reserving the liquid in a bowl to use later.
- Add the beans to the pot along with half the bacon, the molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.
- Stir to combine, then bring the mixture up to a simmer.
- Place the pot in the oven uncovered, and cook until thickened and glaze-y (approx. 1 hour to 90 minutes), stirring every so often and adding reserved bean liquid if the baked beans seem too dry.
- Garnish with the remaining bacon.
These are the best baked beans hands down!
So happy you like them Anita! Thanks so much for the positive review!
Great recipe!
Yay! So happy you liked it! Thank you for the 5-star review 🙂
Made these in crock pot. Best baked beans I’ve ever fixed. Normally used canned baked beans and doctor up. Then cook in microwave. Won’t go back to old way. Husband loved them also. Not to much molasses or bitter taste.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear this! Thank you so much for the 5-star review and for the great feedback!