Slow Cooker Bourbon Baked Beans

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.

Recipe Author: Christin Mahrlig at Spicy Southern Kitchen
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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.

Slow Cooker Bourbon Baked Beans Ingredients
Pork and beans, bacon, mustard, brown sugar, ketchup, northern beans, navy beans, bourbon, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce

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
All the ingredients in a 6-quart crockpot
All the ingredients in a 6-quart crockpot

So how was it?

Clear & Accurate Directions
Accurate Time(s)
Appearance
Taste
These have to be the best baked beans I've ever tried! They have a little bit of sweetness, a little zing, and a hint of bourbon. Everything was balanced and none of the flavors overpowered the others. I was surprised that this recipe's main ingredient was canned baked beans, but it makes sense. Canned baked beans just aren't that great, and they are easier to work with than dried beans. Making the beans was simple to do and mostly involved dumping everything into my crockpot and waiting for them to be done. There was minimal chopping and frying of a few ingredients, but it was all very basic cooking techniques.
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I'm Candice, and I'm The Hungry Pinner. I created this blog to share my love for cooking and my experiences with the MANY recipes I've found on Pinterest over the years. Join me as I blog my way through those recipes to find out if they are worth trying yourself.

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These have to be the best baked beans I've ever tried! They have a little bit of sweetness, a little zing, and a hint of bourbon. Everything was balanced and none of the flavors overpowered the others. I was surprised that this recipe's main ingredient was canned baked beans, but it makes sense. Canned baked beans just aren't that great, and they are easier to work with than dried beans. Making the beans was simple to do and mostly involved dumping everything into my crockpot and waiting for them to be done. There was minimal chopping and frying of a few ingredients, but it was all very basic cooking techniques.Slow Cooker Bourbon Baked Beans