Baked beans are such a classic summertime side dish! They work with barbecue, picnics, cookouts–pretty much any meal that you can eat in the backyard or on the patio. I’ve had some great baked beans, and they have one thing in common: they come from a restaurant. Canned baked beans are just not the same. But this Slow Cooker Bourbon Baked Beans recipe is full of everything that makes good baked beans: molasses, brown sugar, bacon, and spices. The addition of bourbon promises to make it extra special. Could this be the recipe that changes my mind on homemade baked beans? I’m skeptical, but then again… Bourbon.
No need to heat up the kitchen in any way, shape, or form for your summertime BBQ. With this Slow Cooker Bourbon BBQ Baked Beans recipe, you can let your beans simmer away on the low heat setting in your crockpot all morning.
The Ingredients
When I decided to make this recipe, I didn’t notice that the main ingredients were canned pork and beans. It seems like cheating because I imagined starting with dried beans, but I went with it because baked beans were the perfect side dish for the Summertime Fried Chicken Sandwiches with Tangy Slaw I just made.
The list ingredients for this recipe are on the long-ish side, but it’s full of easy to find items. I had a few things in my pantry like the spices, mustard, and ketchup. The rest went onto my grocery shopping list, but I didn’t have trouble finding any of them.
The Process
Making these baked beans wasn’t quite as simple as dumping everything into my slow cooker, but it was pretty close. I did have to fry the bacon and chop and fry the onion and garlic, but that was easy enough.
And I did dump everything else into the crockpot while they were cooking. Then it was just a matter of stirring it all together and waiting for it to be ready. Well, not quite all since the bacon had to be added toward then end of cooking, but you get the idea.
Only the cooking time in the crockpot was listed, but here is how my time was spent:
- 17 minutes to prep
- 4 hours 20 minutes to cook
- 4 hours 37 minutes total
