Best My First Baked Beans Recipes

HOMEMADE BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Cook bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat 4 minutes; drain, reserving 1 teaspoon drippings in skillet.
• Sauté onion in hot bacon drippings 7 minutes or until tender. Stir together pork, onions, beans, and next 5 ingredients in a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish. Top bean mixture with bacon.
• Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes or until bubbly.

MY FIRST BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• 1. Drain sauce from pork and beans. Reserve sauce until you see that you have enough. Place beans in a large dutch oven. Preheat oven to 375°.
• 2. Stir together ketchup, mustard, tabasco sauce, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Stir this sauce into beans. Sauce should come up to level of beans but not cover them. Add some of the bean liquid as necessary to bring it to the correct level. Stir well.
• 3. Meanwhile, cut bacon into 2-inch pieces and fry with the onion in a skillet until about half-cooked. Stir bacon, onion, and drippings into the beans. Bake the beans uncovered for 1 hour. (If browning too quickly, may cover after 30 minutes.)
• 4. More recent variation: I no longer use pork and beans for this recipe, instead I use fresh cooked navy beans, or canned navy beans. I've even found you can use the dry beans, but presoak them, and put this together without first cooking the beans. Cover and bake 2-3 hours until beans are tender. You have to watch the level of the liquid and add more if necessary.

BAKED BEANS FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the navy beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let stand 8 hours to overnight. Or, bring the beans and water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Once boiling, turn off the heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour. Drain and rinse before using.
• Place the beans in a large saucepan with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 1 hour.
• Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Stir the ketchup, maple syrup, brown sugar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and chili powder together in a small bowl; set aside.
• Once the beans have simmered for 1 hour, drain, and reserve the cooking liquid. Pour the beans into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and stir in the chopped onion and the molasses sauce. Stir in enough of the reserved cooking liquid so the sauce covers the beans by 1/4 inch.
• Cover, and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C), and cook 6 hours longer. Stir the beans after they have cooked for 3 hours. Once the beans are tender and the sauce has reduced and is sticky, remove from the oven, stir, recover, and allow to stand 15 minutes before serving.

PERFECTLY BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Fry the regular chopped bacon in a large, deep skillet until the bacon has partially cooked and released about 1/4 cup drippings. Add the onions, peppers and jalapenos, and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, ketchup, mustard and chipotles, and bring to a simmer. (If the skillet is not large enough, add the beans and heat to a simmer and then transfer to a large bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients). Pour the flavored beans into an aluminum pan. Top with the uncooked slices of bacon (you can halve the slices if you like). Then bake until the beans are bubbly and the sauce is the consistency of pancake syrup, about 2 hours. Let stand to thicken slightly and serve.

OLD-FASHIONED BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, bring beans, salt and 2 qt. water to a boil; boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; let stand for 1 hour. Drain beans and discard liquid. Return beans to pan. Cover with remaining water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until beans are tender. Drain, reserving liquid. In a greased 2-1/2 qt. baking dish, combine beans, 1 cup liquid, onion, molasses, bacon, brown sugar, mustard and pepper. Cover and bake at 325° for 3 to 3-1/2 hours or until beans are as thick as desired thickness, stirring occasionally. Add more of the reserved cooking liquid if needed.