Better Homes And Gardens Easy Baked Beans Recipe

Close up of Easy Baked Beans with strips of bacon

Easy Baked Beans with strips of bacon in a white baking dish

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Picnic season is just around the corner so I thought I'd share my favoriteEasy Baked Beans recipe with y'all. Seasoned with bacon and onions, these baked beans are my go-to side dish for grilled burgers, barbecued chicken, or pulled pork.

What makes them so easy? It all starts with basic canned pork and beans combined with onions sautéed in bacon fat, and in a few other basic ingredients. That's it. There's nothing difficult or fancy about these baked beans, but they are indeed tasty and have delicious barbecue flavor!

You could skip adding the bacon on top, but definitely don't skip sautéing the onions in real bacon fat. That's where all the good flavor comes from!

Like any good Southern cook, I save my bacon drippings and store them in a cup in the refrigerator to use in cooking, do you?

a baking dish of baked beans and bacon on a wooden table

Easy Baked Beans

I've been serving this tried-and-true baked bean recipe at picnics and family dinners for years. It's always delicious and makes ordinary canned beans taste great!

When I say tried-and-true, I mean exactly that. My EASY baked beans recipe came straight from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that was given to me as a young bride in 1984.

I've even made it in the slow cooker, and it's always good. Truly, it is a great recipe and one I've made so many times that it's permanently etched in my brain.

Ingredients

Canned pork and beans in tomato sauce — I always discard that little piece of pork fat that is floating on the top of the beans, but save all the liquid.
Bacon — cooked crisp to render out the fat.
Sweet onion — diced and cooked until translucent in a couple tablespoons of the bacon drippings
Brown sugar — for sweetness
Ketchup — for just a bit more tomato flavor
Worcestershire sauce — for some savory flavor and a little bite
Yellow mustard — a standard barbecue sauce ingredient

How to make easy baked beans

Fry a few bacon slices until crisp and drain on paper towels. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the pan drippings for cooking the onions. Pour the rest of the bacon grease into a cup and when cool, store it in the refrigerator. You can use a spoonful at a time to fry eggs or to season a pot of beans, Southern style!
Cook the diced onion until it is just tender and translucent.
Empty the beans and all the liquid into a large bowl. Stir in the onions and remaining ingredients. Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1-1/2 hours. The sauce should be bubbly and slightly thickened.

Instructions for the slow cooker

Mix together the baked beans ingredients, and pour into a lightly greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours, until slightly thickened. Stir and top with cooked bacon slices, if desired.

Easy Baked Beans with strips of bacon in a white baking dish

How to make vegetarian baked beans

These beans can be made vegetarian by simply omitting the bacon. Instead, sauté the onions in a tablespoon of olive oil before adding them to bean mixture, then bake as directed.

Let's cook!

As these beans bake, the sauce around the edges will begin to thicken more than the middle of the dish. When they are done, remove them from the oven and give them a quick stir before serving. Let the beans stand a few minutes before serving and they will continue to thicken up.

If you like, you can bake the beans with the cooked bacon laying on top or crumbled into the beans for even more flavor. Also, if you like smoky beans, add a teaspoon of liquid smoke before baking.

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First Published: March 27, 2015.

Last Updated: October 14, 2020.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

3 16- ounce cans pork-n-beans in tomato sauce
4 slices bacon
1/2 cup sweet onion, chopped
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons ketchup
1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 tablespoons mustard

Instructions

Fry bacon until crisp; drain on paper towels and reserve drippings.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cook onion in a small amount of reserved bacon fat, about 2 tablespoons, until translucent.
In a large bowl, mix together beans, sautéed onions, and remaining ingredients. If desired, crumble bacon and add to bean mixture or reserve slices for topping beans later.
Pour into an 11x7-inch baking dish and bake for 1-1/2 hours.
Remove from oven and stir; top with bacon slices, if desired. Let stand for a few minutes before serving.

Notes

Original recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens NEW Cookbook, 1980

To make in the slow cooker:

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 494 Total Fat: 26g Saturated Fat: 9g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 14g Cholesterol: 155mg Sodium: 495mg Carbohydrates: 15g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 9g Protein: 49g