Whether you’re serving burgers, brats, hot dogs, or BBQ chicken at your summer gathering, the meal would not be complete without baked beans on the side. Tender beans in a sticky-sweet sauce, often studded with bacon or other meat, are as integral to the feast as anything else you’ve got cooking on the grill. There are plenty of variations on the classic, but which recipe deserves the top spot at your next gathering?
To find out, I set about testing six highly rated recipes to see which delivered the best baked bean experience. While some were more memorable than others, there were no outright duds. Read on to find out which recipes fared the best and why.
So, What’s the Best Baked Beans Recipe?
Kardea Brown’s Sweet Heat Baked Beans had the best texture, most balanced flavor, and the perfect amount of meatiness — we’ll be making them all summer.
Meet Our 6 Baked Bean Contenders
None of the recipes I tested actually start with dried beans, so there’s a shortcut element to each. Most begin with canned baked beans or pork and beans that you doctor up; just one recipe calls for canned great northern beans as its starting point.
- Ree Drummond: With 112 ounces of canned pork and beans yielding 18 servings, this is meant to serve a crowd. It incorporates onion, red and green bell pepper, and a jalapeño, along with barbecue sauce, brown sugar, and more.
- The Neelys: This recipe references Mama Neely’s ground beef–based baked beans as the inspiration. It starts off with canned pork and beans, but swaps in smoked sausage in place of ground beef.
- How Sweet Eats: With a tablespoon of smoked paprika and a hint of chipotle chile powder, this recipe (which uses canned baked beans) promised to deliver campfire vibes.
- Kardea Brown: The only recipe in the bunch to start with plain canned beans (great northern beans). This one makes a homemade sauce along with candied jalapeños as a finishing topping for the beans.
- Joanna Gaines: This recipe stays on the stovetop and incorporates diced Granny Smith apple and bourbon with canned baked beans for a unique twist. It also has the classic baked bean flavorings of bacon, brown sugar, and mustard.
- Trisha Yearwood: With the shortest ingredient list, this recipe promises ease and simplicity — as well as the largest bacon-to-beans ratio of the bunch.
How I Tested the Baked Bean Recipes
- The testing: I broke the testing into three different sessions by testing two recipes at a time. I stored leftovers and reheated them to re-taste to clarify my notes.
- The beans: I allowed each batch of baked beans to cool for 15 minutes before tasting so that the sauce could thicken and “settle.”
- The ingredients: I used common brands of ingredients whenever possible. For recipes using bacon (all but one of the recipes), I used Hormel Black Label bacon, which was a BOGO special that week at my supermarket. For recipes calling for canned pork and beans, I used VanCamp’s. For recipes that specified baked beans, and for the one that used great northern beans, I used Bush’s.
- The baking dishes: The cooking vessels varied per the recipes’ instructions. I noted what pot, dish, or pan I used in my description of each method.
Why You Should Trust Me as a Tester
I have spent the last 26 years in food media — 20 as a magazine editor, 6 as a freelance recipe developer and food writer. Over the course of my career, I have written, tested, and developed literally thousands of recipes. I know how to evaluate a recipe for flavor, texture, and clarity and success (or failure) of the process.
1. The Most Unconventional Baked Beans: Joanna Gaines’ Apple Baked Beans
Overall rating: 6.5/10
Get the recipe: Joanna Gaines’s Apple Baked Beans
This recipe begins and ends on the stovetop. You cook some onion in butter in a Dutch oven, then add brown sugar and cook until it dissolves. Then add a 55-ounce can of baked beans (I used Bush’s Original), a peeled and diced Granny Smith apple, a splash of bourbon, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cooked bacon (6 slices), and salt and pepper. You bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, and cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.
The sauce for these beans picked up some interesting complexity from the bourbon, Worcestershire, and mustard, and the little apple bits provided a pleasant tang to balance the overall sweetness of the dish. While the method was relatively fast, roughly an hour from start to finish, I feel that it suffered by not going into the oven. That baking step tends to work wonders, as it thickens and concentrates the sauce by allowing some of the moisture to evaporate. Most importantly, it provides that irresistible caramelization around the edges and on the surface. Without that characteristic browning, these beans simply fell short.
2. The Baked Beans You Make to Feed a Crowd: Ree Drummond’s Perfectly Baked Beans
Overall rating: 7/10
Get the recipe: Ree Drummond’s Perfectly Baked Beans
This recipe starts by cooking 4 slices of chopped bacon until they’ve rendered their fat. You then add onion, green and red bell pepper, and a jalapeño to cook in the bacon fat. At that point, stir in 4 (28-ounce) cans of pork and beans plus barbecue sauce, brown sugar, distilled or cider vinegar (I went with the former), ketchup, yellow mustard, and a couple of minced chipotles. You pour this mixture into an aluminum pan, top with bacon slices, and bake for a couple of hours.
I used an extra-deep, heavy-duty 9×13–inch foil pan for the beans, and the pan was full to the rim (the recipe does call for 112 ounces of beans, after all). The finished beans were creamy (verging on a bit too soft), and the sauce was quite sweet — although the slight bitterness from the bell peppers helped to balance the flavor. Overall, the bacon-to-bean ratio was a little sparse. For that amount of beans, I really wanted more smoky meatiness.
3. The Smokiest Baked Beans: How Sweet Eats’ Favorite Baked Beans
Overall rating: 7.5/10
Get the recipe: How Sweet Eats’s Favorite Baked Beans
To make this recipe, cook a couple slices of chopped bacon in an oven-proof skillet until crisp, then add onion, bell pepper, and garlic to sauté in the drippings. Then add a tablespoon of smoked paprika, a little chipotle chile powder (I went for the higher suggested amount of 1/2 teaspoon), salt, pepper, cider vinegar, barbecue sauce, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, and 2 (22-ounce) cans of baked beans. The beans get topped with a couple of bacon slices (optional, and I included them), and the skillet goes into the oven to bake for about a half-hour.
I used Bush’s Grillin’ Beans as suggested by the author, and they already have a good bit of sweetness. That’s why I was happy to see only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar going into the recipe. Still, the recipe tasted quite sweet — but also wonderfully smoky from the large amount of smoked paprika and the bit of chipotle chile powder, which also added a hint of pleasing heat. A little more bacon would’ve been nice, as the 2 chopped slices that cook with the beans seemed a bit skimpy despite the extra 2 slices on top. Overall, this is a good recipe that comes together fairly quickly (in about an hour). It didn’t blow my socks off, but I’d be happy to eat it at a backyard gathering.
4. The Bacon-Lover’s Baked Beans: Trisha Yearwood’s Easy Baked Beans
Overall rating: 8/10
Get the recipe: Trisha Yearwood’s Easy Baked Beans
Here, you start by cooking a pound of bacon until it’s crisp, then remove it from the pan and crumble it. You then sauté a sweet onion in the drippings, then stir in 4 (14-ounce) cans pork and beans, some molasses and light brown sugar, and a bit of yellow mustard. The bacon gets stirred in, and the mixture bakes in a casserole dish for about 45 minutes.
After cooking the bacon, I had a little more than 3/4 cup drippings. I didn’t use all of them; instead I proceeded with just 1/3 cup, which was more than enough. The beans themselves were very soft and creamy, and they were peppered throughout with plenty of bacon. That’s because for 56 ounces of beans, you start with a full pound (16 ounces) of bacon (for contrast, Ree Drummond’s recipe above has 10 bacon slices [maybe 10 ounces] total for 112 ounces of beans). The finished beans were sweet, caramelized around the edges, and wonderfully meaty.
5. The Meatiest Baked Beans: The Neelys’ Mama Neely’s Baked Beans
Overall rating: 8.5/10
Get the recipe: The Neelys’ Mama Neely’s Baked Beans
This recipe begins by sautéing onion and garlic in canola oil, then adding in a half-pound of sliced smoked sausage that cooks until browned. Stir in 3 (16-ounce) cans of pork and beans, equal amounts of ketchup and molasses, a little brown sugar, some vinegar, yellow mustard, and a dash of Tabasco. The beans bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.
I used a hickory-smoked sausage for this recipe, and it permeated the baked beans with a boatload of meaty, smoky flavor. I loved how the heftier pieces (compared to bacon) remained moist and chewy, and provided a textural counterpoint to the soft beans. The apple cider vinegar added a bit of mild tang that balanced the sweetness of the sauce. Lastly, the Dutch oven that the beans cooked in didn’t allow for much evaporation and caramelization of the sauce, but the flavor made up for that slight deficit. That said, I will definitely make this recipe again (my family requested that I do!), but will plan to bake the beans in a casserole dish to get those yummy crusty edges.
6. The Hands-Down Best Baked Beans: Kardea Brown’s Sweet Heat Baked Beans
Overall rating: 10/10
Get the recipe: Kardea Brown’s Sweet Heat Baked Beans
This recipe has two components: the baked beans themselves and a sub-recipe for the candied jalapeño slices to sprinkle on top. For the topping, simply arrange slices of jalapeño peppers on baking sheets, sprinkle them with brown sugar and spices, and bake until they turn slightly crisp. For the baked beans you start by cooking a pound of chopped bacon in a large saucepan until crisp, drain the bacon, and sauté chopped Vidalia onion in the drippings. You then add 4 cans of great northern beans, molasses, tomato sauce, brown sugar, yellow mustard, and garlic powder, and bake the mixture (in the saucepan) for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The finishing touch is a sprinkling of the crisp bacon bits and the candied peppers.
As with Trisha Yearwood’s recipe, I didn’t use all of the bacon drippings to sauté the onion; I used just 1/3 cup of them. The recipe didn’t state whether or not to drain the beans, but I did drain them. Going into the oven, the beans seemed a little soupy, but by the end the sauce had thickened up nicely. My saucepan, which is shallow and wide, helped by allowing for more evaporation. Upon first taste, this recipe was the hands-down winner. Here’s why.
First, I loved the size and texture of the beans. Remember: Every other recipe in this showdown starts with either canned baked beans or pork and beans. Those beans are smaller than the great northern beans used in this recipe, and they’ve already been cooked in sauce — so the beans in those recipes are much softer. With this recipe the beans retained more texture and a lovely toothsome quality that honestly made the others seem mushy in comparison.
Also, the flavors in this recipe are outstanding. The sauce is sweet, but it didn’t seem cloying, and the long bake time made for some caramelization around the edges of the pan and on the surface of the mixture. Reserving the cooked bacon for a garnish at the end had three benefits: The bacon remained crispy, it had a much bigger visual impact, and the flavor was more pronounced. You still got plenty of smoky meatiness in the bean mixture because of the bacon drippings that flavored it throughout, but that hit of bacon on top was sublime. And the candied jalapeños? Wow, I am in love! The fire and sweetness combined for the most delicious finishing touch. All in all, this recipe provided a baked bean experience unlike any other I’ve had. Take it from me — these baked beans are mind-blowingly good.