BBQ Oven Baked Beans with Bacon Recipe + Video

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BBQ Baked Beans are cooked in the oven with brown sugar, molasses, and bacon, for a scrumptious, smoky flavor, and plenty of tangy barbecue sauce! Make this recipe for a quick and easy picnic or potluck dish. It’s the perfect side dish! 

bbq oven baked beans with bacon


 

This family favorite only needs about 10 minutes of prep and uses simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand!

Serve baked beans with bacon alongside some Smoked Chicken Quarters, which are tender and juicy with crispy, seasoned skin on the outside.

Looking for more delicious sides? Try my Southern Potato Salad or Simple Coleslaw, both of which are perfect for any comfort food meal or backyard cookout.

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BBQ Baked Beans Recipe Video

To see the process from start to finish, watch the video! It’s located in the recipe card, at the bottom of this post.

When it comes to making these easy baked beans, just remember that the steps are simple to this wonderful recipe!

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Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

  • Bacon. It will hold its shape better straight out of the fridge, making it easier to cut into uniform pieces.
  • Want to use dried beans? Simply prepare them ahead of time and substitute 1 ½ cups cooked for each can.
  • Add some heat. A few dashes of hot sauce or some chopped jalapeno peppers is a great way to make oven baked beans a little spicier. 
  • Don’t have molasses? Replace it with maple syrup and use dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar. Or make your own brown sugar.
  • Vegetarian alternative: If you need to leave out the meat, I recommend fully caramelizing the onions to get as much extra flavor as you can. 

You’ll also find that there can be a bit of flexility to making the best baked beans, so adding other ingredients can easily happen.

You can add thick-cut bacon, chopped onions, your favorite kind of BBQ sauce, diced green bell pepper, liquid smoke, cooked ground beef, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, white onion, pulled pork, or even use a variety of beans for this delicious meal. 

I’ve even chopped up cooked hot dogs and added them as the secret ingredient!

The best part is that after the first time that you make this side dish, you can change it up each time you make it from here on out!

Barbecue beans tend to have a thick consistency, so you want to be sure that if you are going to change up the ingredients other than what is listed on the recipe card, that you’re not overloading the easy side dish recipe with too many options. 

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How To Make BBQ Baked Beans

  1. Cook the bacon and onion. First, cook the onion and pork on the stove until softened and starting to brown. 
  2. Add the barbecue sauce. Whisk in the sauce ingredients, then bring everything to a boil before removing from heat.
  1. Add the canned beans. Combine the sauce and bacon mixture with the canned beans in a baking dish, then top with additional bacon pieces.
  1. Bake beans in the oven for about an hour, or until the meat on top is crisp and the sauce is thickened.
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Oven Baked Beans Recipe FAQ

Can I freeze leftover baked beans with bacon? 

Yes, you can! Allow the dish to cool to room temperature, then transfer to a sealed container or freezer-safe storage bag.

Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat in the oven or on the stove until warmed through.

For easier reheating, bake this recipe in a disposable foil pan instead of a casserole dish. You’ll be able to freeze, thaw, and reheat without using any additional containers!

Can I make oven baked beans in a crockpot? 

This baked beans recipe does work in a slow cooker, but they will take longer to cook, about 3-4 hours on High or 6-7 hours on Low. 

However, you will need to cook the bacon completely first. Otherwise, it will have an unpleasant texture.

I recommend starting by sautéing the onion in a skillet for a few extra minutes before adding it to the crockpot. Then, use the same pan to cook the bacon. Let it crisp completely before draining the grease. 

Lastly, I suggest waiting to stir the bacon into the crockpot until the last hour or so of cook time.

pan full of bbq baked beans

Enjoy!
With love, from our simple kitchen to yours.

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baked beans with bacon on serving spoon

woman's hand holding a spoonful of oven baked beans

BBQ Oven Baked Beans with Bacon Recipe + Video

Donna Elick
BBQ Baked Beans are a great potluck dish! For this recipe, they cook in the oven with brown sugar, molasses, and bacon for fantastic flavor.
5 stars from 3 reviews
Tried this recipe?Please comment and review!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Method Oven
Servings 18 people

Ingredients
 

  • 32 ounces pinto beans, (canned), drained and rinsed
  • 32 ounces cannellini or white kidney beans, (canned), drained and rinsed
  • 16 ounces red kidney beans, (canned), drained and rinsed
  • 1 pound thick cut bacon, divided
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups ketchup
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup molasses, preferably not blackstrap molasses
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Pour rinsed and drained beans into a 9×13 baking dish. Set aside.
  • Reserve enough bacon to cover the top of your baking dish (I used 5 slices). Using kitchen shears, cut the remaining bacon into bite size pieces.
  • Add cut bacon pieces and diced onions to a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Cook until bacon is par cooked, about 3 minutes.
  • Add ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, mustard and pepper. Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
  • Pour the sauce over the beans and gently stir to combine. Cut reserved bacon into bite sized pieces and place on top of bean mixture.
  • Bake beans in a preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until sauce is thickened and bacon is cooked through.
  • Serve and enjoy!

Video

Donna’s Notes

You may precook dried beans and substitute them for precooked beans.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.75cup | Calories: 370cal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 375mg | Sugar: 24g | Fiber: 10g | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 4mg

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe’s nutritional value will vary depending on the ingredients used, measuring methods, and portion sizes.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
titled image for bbq oven baked beans with bacon

Originally published June 2014, updated and republished May 2024

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19 Comments

  1. Hi Donna, I discovered your blog about 3 months ago and WOW, am I glad I did!!

    I enjoy your stories and your recipes!! I have a Pinterest board set up to save your recipes to. I've pinned every one of these. Awesome!! Thank you for your time, your stories and your great recipes!

  2. I have not used this as I hardly consider a recipe "Best Ever" when it calls for 1 can of this and 1 can of that and 1 can of something else.
    How about a real "start from scratch" baked beans recipe?

    1. The beans would do well in the crockpot, but the bacon wouldn't unless you cook it first. Soft bacon would ruin the dish.

    1. When I've made baked beans in a slow cooker it takes longer 4 hrs on high then 8 hrs on low. This gives your whole house a great aroma to wake up to!

  3. I think you could use a crockpot, but I like the possibility of doing a run under the broiler to crisp up the bacon on top?

  4. Hello, I followed recipe to a tee did not saute bacon, after baking the cannaNellie beans were not soft and bacon was greasy and undone. I took scissors and cut fat from bacon. The beans are edible but not great

  5. I made this tonight for a side dish with dinner and it was delicious. I read other reviews and cooked the bacon for the top before baking. I would definitely make this again (for a crowd). Thank you

  6. 5 stars
    Just made these yesterday and my husband loved them, so now they are on the menu for thanksgiving. I know my family will love them too!

  7. 5 stars
    Made these beans for the church picnic and they were the biggest hit of all the pot-luck dishes there! I tripled the recipe and they practically licked the pans clean! Keeper recipe to make again and again! Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe!

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