These Old Fashioned Baked Beans are made from scratch with a sweet and savory sauce. This is a family heirloom recipe for the BEST Homemade Baked Beans!
Baked Beans are a classic side dish for potlucks and summer picnics and pair perfectly with BBQ Chicken Legs, Chicken Burgers, Homemade Hamburgers, or Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Thighs.
Baked Beans from Scratch
My Papa was famous for a LOT of recipes, but he was known for his Baked Beans.
And once you have his version of baked beans, you will NEVER settle for any recipe! They are sweet, savory, tangy, and smokey–all in one recipe!
Ingredients for the Best Baked Beans
- Navy Beans— 1 1/3 cups dried navy beans or 4 cups cooked navy beans
- Bacon–omit if looking for vegetarian baked beans
- Onion
- Tomato Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- Molasses
- Maple Syrup
- Dried Mustard–feel free to use prepared mustard instead
- Apple Cider Vinegar–to cut through the richness of these baked beans
- Apple Juice–to help create a sweet sauce with a little less refined sugars.
How to Make Homemade Baked Beans
Step One: Prepare the Beans
- Place dried beans in large container that can be sealed shut. Cover the beans with cold water and seal the container shut. Let the beans soak for 8-12 hours.
- Drain off the soaked beans.
- Place the beans in large stock pan and cover with fresh water.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer beans for 1 hour or until tender.
- Alternatively, you can prepare your dried beans WITHOUT soaking in the Instant Pot.
Full disclosure, my Papa used canned beans! Feel free to take that shortcut as well! Just measure the beans AFTER you rinse and drain them!
Step Two: Fry Bacon and Onions (optional)
- Turn a large saute pan to medium heat and place bacon in heated pan.
- Once bacon begins to render off it’s fat, add in the diced onions.
- Saute for 2-3 minutes, just until the bacon BEGINS to crisp up.
Feel free to omit the bacon for vegetarian baked beans. If omitting bacon, just add the diced onion directly to the bean mixture–no need to saute.
Step Three: Make Baked Beans
- Mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, salt, dried mustard, and the bacon and onion mixture together.
- Add in the beans and stir gently.
- Add in the apple juice and water and stir again.
- Pour the beans into a 2 quart casserole dish or bean crock.
- If the beans look dry, stir in up to 1/2 cup more water.
Step Four: Bake the Beans
- Cover the casserole dish and bake for 2 hours at 300 degrees.
- Uncover, stir the beans and cook for an additional 30 to 60 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and thickened up.
Slow Cooker Baked Beans
If you would like to keep the heat out of your kitchen or don’t have enough room in your oven, you can make these baked beans in the slow cooker.
- Prepare dried beans as directed.
- Saute bacon with onions.
- In the slow cooker, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, salt, mustard, bacon, onions, and apple juice together. No need to add in extra water.
- Add in the beans and stir gently.
- Cook on low heat for 4-6 hours or high heat for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.
Can you use Pork and Beans for this Recipe?
I get asked frequently if you can use canned pork and beans or prepared baked beans (like Campbell’s or Bush’s Baked Beans) in place of the dried beans.
And the answer is YES, with a few modifications.
- Use 32 ounces of canned prepared baked beans.
- You will not need to add in tomato sauce, apple juice, or water.
- I would omit the maple syrup as well, or cut back on the sweeteners a tad as canned bake beans already are sweetened.
- Bake as directed.
The Secret to the Best Baked Beans
What truly makes these beans over the top is serving them with potato chips!
YES, potato chips!
My Papa taught me that trick and it is PERFECTION! The sweetness of the beans makes a perfect contrast to plain potato chips.
More Picnic Worthy Side Dishes
Baked Beans from Scratch
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups dried navy beans soaked overnnight
- 3 slices thick nitrate free bacon chopped
- 1/4 cup onion chopped
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce or ketchup
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup brown sugar use up to 1/2 cup if you like REALLY sweet beans
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup apple juice or water
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
Prepare Navy Beans
- Place dried beans in a container that can be fitted with a lid. Pour fresh water over beans until the water is at least 1 inch above beans. Seal container shut. Soak beans for 8-12 hours.
- After soaking, drain beans. Add soaked beans to a large stock pan. Cover beans by 1 inch with fresh cold water.
- Bring water to a rapid boil, and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. Drain cooked beans well.
- Instead of soaking beans overnight and simmering, you can speed up the process and cook dried beans right in the Instant Pot, no soaking required.
For the Baked Beans
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add in the sliced bacon. Cook until bacon begins to render fat and then stir in the chopped onion. Saute bacon and onions together until onions begin to soften and bacon is browned and slightly crisp. This should take about 5-6 minutes. Drain off excess fat off bacon.
- Mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, dried mustard, vinegar,apple juice, water, and salt together. Add in bacon and onion mixture and cooked beans and gently stir to combine.
- Pour bean mixture into a 2-quart oven-safe dish. Beans should be pretty well submerged in liquid and mixture should be relatively loose. If there does not seem to be enough liquid in the baking dish, add up to 1/2 cup additional water or juice. Cover pan with foil or oven-safe lid.
- Bake covered for 2 hours. Uncover and bake for another 30-40 minutes, until thickened.
Notes
- Navy Beans are traditional for baked beans, but pinto beans or great northern can be used in a pinch.
- In place of dried mustard, feel free to use 1 tablespoon prepared mustard.
- For really sweet baked beans use ketchup in place of the tomato sauce OR add up to 1/2 cup brown sugar instead of a 1/4 cup brown sugar.
- If you want these to be Vegetarian Baked Beans, omit the bacon and add the onions raw to bean mixture. You may need to increase the salt by up to 1 teaspoon as the bacon has quite a bit of sodium.
- In place of dried beans, you can use 4 cups rinsed and drained navy beans--measure after draining.
How do I make it without the bacon, i.e. what can I substitute to give it that rich flavour?
Hi Hope! I make this many times without the bacon and we all still adore it. The maple adds tremendous flavor. However, you could add in 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke if you like.
Hi Kristen; I’m going to double this recipe and take to enjoy at a cottage with my son and his wife. Could I use tomato paste (small can) instead of ketchup or tomato sauce and just increase the water maybe? Thanks and looking forward to trying them.
Hi Debbie, I would mix together one part tomato paste and one part water until well blended to use in place of the sauce. Enjoy your visit!
Hi Kristin just reading through your recipe is this all in imperial measurements and Fahrenheit? I am in Australia just so i know so i can convert to metric thanks in advance 😊 looking forward to making this recipe 😀
Hi Kimberly! Yes, I use imperial measurements. Please let me know if you need help converting.
Hello!
I am wanting to make these for dinner and I’m wondering if they can be made in a preasure cooker?
Thanks,
Kristin
Hi Kristin! I have a recipe for Instant Pot Baked Beans To reproduce the sweetness in this recipe, I would add in an additional 1/4 cup brown sugar.
Thank you!
I decided to let them soak overnight. I’m wanting to put them in my Ninja Foodi instead of the oven. Would the cook time be the same for slow cooking?
I would cook for 30-35 minutes on high pressure. And be sure to put the apple juice in the pressure cooker first.
This looks delicious, but my question is how much is a serving. Info says per serving, but how much it’s in a serving?
Can’t wait to try this!!!!
Hi Kim! Each serving is about 1/3-1/2 cup. Enjoy
Hi, Any issues with doubling the recipe? Thanks! Brad
Hi Brad, I have a double batch in my oven right now–enjoy!
Great! Just finished baking a double. The plan is to take them on vacation a week from now; are the beans okay to freeze?
Thanks,
Brad
Hi Brad! Yes, you can freeze the beans. Enjoy your trip–and the beans 🙂
Thanks…and the beans are delicious!
YAY! SO glad you like them.
Hi! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I am planning to make it in the slow cooker, so I wasn’t sure if I just soak the beans and put the soaked being straight in the crockpot or if I need to simmer them for an hour on the stove before putting the beans in the crockpot. Thanks for clarifying!
Hi Ashley! Yes, you need to simmer the beans on the stove before adding to the crockpot. I hope you enjoy and happy 4th!
These were the best baked beans!! I loved them on my first try. I’m wondering if you’ve ever tried adding anything like spices to add some heat? Or red pepper or maybe even kidney beans? I don’t want to mess with perfection but I have a feeling I will be making these often.
I am so glad you enjoyed Christa. I definitely would not recommend kidney beans. However, adding some smoked paprika or hot sauce is definitely a welcomed addition.
I was looking for a good meatless baked beans recipe made from scratch and dry beans, this is the only one I could find that even sounded correct and healthier. I used regular mustard and omitted the vinegar. I accidentally let it bake about 20 min longer and the sauce reduced quite a bit, but the flavor was still amazing! After we taste tested, everyone immediately grabbed a bowl. I don’t usually do recipe reviews but I had to for this one. Next time I will be more mindful of the time and see the outcome beforeI try to increase the amount of sauce. Thank you for sharing it with us. It was delicious
I am so glad you found this recipe and gave it a try–but most importantly, I am so happy you enjoyed! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review.
I’ve made this recipe 4 times and it’s great! The only issue I have is that everyone in the house thinks that they need to taste test them before they’re done so when they are they’re half gone! I double the recipe, LOL!
I am so glad you enjoy this so much Dean! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review!