hot and smoky baked beans
I think that the basic instinct that gets us in the kitchen “after all those messy sustenance issues have been attended to” is a deep-seated desire to make something taste a little better than the way we’ve come to accept it. It’s why there are ten thousand crab cake recipes and a line of followers behind each, and it’s why everyone has an idea carved into their base philosophy of the way corn bread is supposed to taste (and most of it fails to please because it’s not as savory/rich, sweet/cakey or textural/salty as they believe pone was intended to be). I’d also argue that this is why few bother to make their own ketchup, as Heinz figured out a long time ago what most of us expect of it and why reinvent the wheel?
I’m pretty sure it’s why this summer I’ve become obsessed bordering-on-frenzied with figuring out how to make all those American BBQ classics unboring. Somewhere along the line, barbeque sauce started tasting like tangy corn syrup, coleslaw started tasting like soggy dullsville, potato salad became a boiled-tuber-floating-in-eggy-oil cop-out, and baked beans became wretchedly sweet and uniform, each crying out for some innovation. But today, I’m starting with the beans.
And what beans they are! These chipotle baked beans are everything your last can of baked beans thought it was going be when it grew up. They’re spicy and complex and dramatic. They were also finished in two meals, and we sang the “beans, beans” song the whole time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Hot and Smoky Baked Beans
Bon Appetit, July 1999
6 bacon slices*
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/4 cups purchased barbecue sauce
3/4 cup dark beer
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 to 6 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies**
6 15- to 16-ounce cans Great Northern beans, drained
Chopped fresh parsley***
Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels and drain. Transfer 2 1/2 tablespoons bacon drippings from skillet to large bowl. Finely chop bacon; add to bowl. Add onion and next 7 ingredients to bowl and whisk to blend. Whisk in 4 to 6 teaspoons chipotle chilies, depending on spiciness desired. Stir in beans. Transfer bean mixture to 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Bake uncovered until liquid bubbles and thickens slightly, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes.
* So, this is where I admit that despite my love of all things salty and pork-ful, I skipped the the bacon. [Blashphemy!] Even the best of bacon gets a leathery unappetizing texture when in a wet base for a period of time, thus, it was omitted.
** And this is where I warn you, in italics no less, that this is a LOT of chipotle. I used 1 (one!) large one in the whole dish and it was tres spicy. Add what you see fit, but I’d suggest sparingly.
*** Might have forgotten this; the world did not end.
Beans look very good, but SantaMom might throw me out of the house …. afterward.
Love your website! Great recipes and commentary, but … tsk, tsk, tsk. “Barbecue” is spelled with a “c” – not a “q”. Sure, we abbreviate it as BBQ or Bar-B-Q because that’s how it’s pronounced. But, when we write it in full, it’s barbeCUE. (Think of a pool/billiards “cue” stick or to “cue” someone’s lines in a play.) Spelled with a “q”, it would be pronouced “”barbek”, like “technique”, “unique”, “bisque”, etc., where the “que” is pronounced as a “k”.
Kit
Barbeque is an appropriate variant, just ask Merriam-Webster: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/barbeque
But have you ever had homemade ketchup? It is SO. GOOD.
Worth trying.
My family LOVED this recipe. I found the KEY to making it is not to bake the beans, but to put them in the crockpot and just let them simmer for a couple of hours. It keeps them wonderfully soupy and you get to avoid firing up the oven on a summer day. Also, just saute the onions a little with the bacon so that they aren’t crunchy and raw. I threw in a couple teaspoons of fresh minced ginger as well since I had it leftover from another recipe and liked the added depth, but the beans would have been marvelous without it too.
These are awesome. I added a few healthy shakes of liquid smoke instead of bacon. Also, these would be much better with home-cooked beans. The canned were a little mushy, but the flavor was AMAZING!
‘Barbeque’ is an acceptable variant in American, despite the origin – a misunderstanding of the abbreviation BBQ; however ‘barbecue’ is the correct appropriate (and internationally understood) form. The spelling ‘barbeque’ should indeed be pronounced ‘bar-bek’.
Yum! Brought these to a 4th of July party, to rave reviews. The chipotle is great, and they’re not sweet and sticky like canned beans are. I used dried beans (why? dunno) and raw onions, which were sweet and tender and cooked. Also baked them in a Dutch oven, since I have that and not a glass dish of the appropriate size (or pretty much any size, really). Will make these again!
To cook
1 dig a hole about 1 cubic foot in the ground. Burn a fire in it for about 2 hours. Put whatever bean recipe you like in a one gallon corn syrup can (I’m dating myself) and place in hole among the coals and charcoal.
2 keep a fire going above the hole till the next day at supper time.
3 excavate and die bloated.
sorry
1(b) fill hole and start fire on top
I used the bacon drippings as in the recipe but reserved the actual bacon to crumble over the dish just before serving. It was crunchy and delicious and I highly recommend it!
Deb, what kind of barbecue sauce do you use? I’ve got access to mustard/vinegar, sweet, tabasco-tinged, etc., but I’m unhappy with any sauce I try since D.L. Jardine stopped making their Texas Champagne sauce.
I like to make my own.
These beans will make my party spread on Monday. They look fab! These grammar police are annoying and patronizing, btw. “Tsk tsk tsk” – obnoxious.
does anyone know how many cups of dried beans is equivalent to 6 15-16 ounce cooked great northern beans? thanks…
Diana,
One and one-half cups of dry beans equals a 15 oz. can (source: American Dry Bean Board).
I love baked beans i have tried several,but I must try this one with the dijon mustard.
Thanks for the great recipe. We tried it for Father’s Day instead of our old standby. We now have a new standby! I did it in the crockpot and used Trader Joes BBQ sauce and added a little bit of water which made it a bit more saucy. With this being such a flavorful dish, the missing bacon was not missed.
I think I found this via the Saveur newsletter and just posted comments on Epicurious. Good base recipes make the rounds I guess. My only adjustment was to use bacon bits (the real one’s) from the freezer and a bit of canola oil to sauté the onions in prior to combining with the rest of the ingredient. I think the recipe needs the meaty/smoky flavor of the bacon. Next tweek may be to reserve the bacon for topping at the end of baking and add a splash of liquid smoke to the mix!
Beans+Pork=absolute head over heals everlasting love.
I am ready to try this recipe once it warms up down here a little. My husband loves baked beans and I’d love to try something more authentic than what I usually make. I applaud your willingness to barbeque (I’m from SC and we spell it that way:) in a tiny apartment in New York. FYI: We (in the Southland) also usually only use the word barbeque to describe cooking pork (or beef in Texas or whole chickens) over coals (preferably hard wood coals) and serving with a sauce – as opposed to ‘grilling’ which is anything else (fish, meats, veggies, etc.) cooked on a grill. But qué será, será. I love your blog!
Deb: I made these the week after you posted the recipe – following your omissions, exactly. We loved these – and they were gone in just a few meals like you said! I’m making them again for our Super Bowl crowd today – and I really believe this is one of my favorite things you’ve posted. (ease + result + ingredients already in the pantry = love.)
Hey Deb, this looks like an awesome receipe. In the UK, baked beans are very common as breakfast/anytime food- usually on toast. Highly recommended if you’ve been out on the town the night before. In lieu of being able to wait an hour + prepping with a hangover, I adapted your receipe to make tinned baked beans taste mush more homemade- a tin of baked beans in their sauce (they come in a tomato-ish sauce), some beer and a bit of water, salt, smoked paprika, a dash of chili flakes and some bacon- let simmer for 15 minutes or so while you make toast (or frozen hasbrown cakes) and fry some bacon, put the tea and coffee on- your Sunday looks a whole lots better on the other side of that meal. I’ll definitely go the whole way with your receipe one day though. Also, a hearty seconding of Suzy’s (#14) comment about pedantry.
OMG I LOLzd when I read the first comment about the GRAMMAR. Get a life peeps, this site is about amazing food, not being a nit-picky nellie. I personally am drooling all over my computer thinking about these beans…and am actually making them for a Royal Wedding viewing party I’m hosting…and I’m calling them “These-Are-Bloody-Spicy British Baked Beans”. Sorry if there are any real Brits out there who I’m offending :) Thanks for the great recipe, they’re in the oven now and they smell like HEAVEN!
A huge hit at our house tonight! This is a keeper!
How much beans does this recipe make? It seems like a lot!
I’d say about 10 cups of beans so maybe 12 cups of baked beans.
I’m happy to see that bacon is optional, because I live in a pork-free city (Jerusalem) and can’t find bacon. Also, we don’t have canned chilies…we have fresh ones but I’ve never worked with them. Can you advise how I could use fresh chilies in place?