Homemade Baked Beans
Be gone canned baked beans filled with unspeakable ingredients and mid taste! These easy homemade baked beans from scratch only take 25 minutes to prep, have been well-tested for amazing flavor and perfect texture, include all recognizable ingredients, and are freezer-friendly. Bonus: They are gluten-free and dairy-free.
Featured Review
“The recipe is simple and straightforward, and these taste way better than canned baked beans (which I actually don’t like).”
– Rachel W ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
About This Recipe
I know it’s tempting to pick up a can of Bush’s Baked Beans for your next BBQ-style meal. But if you want to kick your BBQ game up to the next level, make these seriously simple yet complex-tasting homemade baked beans.
Not only will they taste significantly better, you can also control what goes in them–including salt, sugar, amount of heat, and fat. And if you’re working around allergies, this dish is gluten-free and dairy-free.
I think you’ll return to this easy, trustworthy recipe over and over. Let’s check out what’s in it…
Grab These Ingredients
Ingredient Notes:
- Bacon – You can sub pancetta, turkey bacon, or diced ham.
- Apple cider vinegar – You can use white or red wine vinegar.
- Navy beans – Other beans that can be used are great northern or cannellini beans. Feel free to cook these first using dried beans to save money (and make a lot at once), but we opted for the canned version to save time.
- Yellow mustard – This is what we like best, but Dijon or spicy brown mustard can be substituted.
- Ketchup – I’d suggest buying organic if possible or the brand that has the fewest ingredients. Oftentimes the cheaper ones use corn syrup and other icky ingredients.
- Smoked paprika – While you can use regular paprika, the smoked one adds SO much more flavor to this dish.
- Apple cider vinegar – After several tests, we learned that the addition of ACV is what makes the flavor of this baked beans recipe “pop”.
Testing Notes from Our Thriving Home Kitchens
Rachel Walters, a trusted Thriving Home team member who helps us test recipes (and a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America!), tested these homemade baked beans several times, including from frozen. Here are a few of her notes about the recipe not mentioned in the blog post:
- I thought this recipe turned out really well. The beans had a lot of flavor, and the sauce was a good thickness and consistency.
- The addition of the apple cider vinegar in test #2 definitely helped to brighten up the flavor!
- These beans still turned out well and had a good texture using the freezer method, with no significant differences. I did not have to increase the baking time when using frozen and recently thawed beans. It still was bubbly and properly thickened at 45 minutes cook time.
Variations:
- For extra smoky beans, substitute half of the ketchup with your favorite barbecue sauce, increase the smoked paprika to 1 ½ teaspoons, and/or add ½ teaspoon of liquid smoke.
- For extra sweetness, add honey, maple syrup, molasses, or extra brown sugar to taste.
- For spicy beans, add in your favorite hot sauce, cayenne pepper, or red pepper flakes to taste, and/or saute a finely diced jalapeno or poblano pepper with the onions.
- Add ½ finely diced bell pepper and saute with the onions.
How to Make Homemade Baked Beans from Scratch
1. Cook Bacon & Onions: In a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, cook the chopped bacon until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper towel. Drain off grease. In the same skillet, sauté the diced onion until soft. Add garlic during the last 30-60 seconds. Set aside.
2. Make Sauce & Combine Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together chicken broth, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, yellow mustard, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir the drained navy beans, cooked bacon, and sautéed onions until well combined.
3. Bake & Serve: Pour mixture into greased baking dish. Bake at 350°F uncovered for 40-50 minutes, stirring once or twice, until bubbly and thickened. Let cool slightly before serving. The sauce will thicken as it sits.
What Main Dishes to Serve with Baked Beans
These baked beans from scratch go well with any BBQ-style entree. Here are a few of our favorites. All of these happen to be easy, dump-and-go style dishes with very few ingredients:
Can I Freeze Baked Beans?
We test every recipe we can as a freezer meal (some work, some don’t). But this one does! The caveat is that these beans freeze best before baking, meaning you can make it ahead and freeze it weeks or months ahead of time.
Here’s how:
Freeze for Later: Follow Steps 2-4, letting mixture cool if needed. Freeze in an airtight container, Ziploc bag, or the intended baking dish (wrap tightly). The bean mixture can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Prepare from Frozen: Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking, and let sit at room temperature while the oven preheats. Bake as directed, adding 10-15 additional minutes if needed.
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely. The bacon does add a LOT of flavor, but you can omit it. You can also use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth.
We haven’t tested it this way, but based on research, yes! To slow cook, follow Step 2 (cooking the bacon and onions) and Step 3 (mixing up the sauce) in the recipe below. Then, place all the ingredients in a crock pot and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours or HIGH for 2-3 hours.
Also, note that you can double this recipe in a 6 quart slow cooker, but that may add about 1 hour more of cook time.
Easy Homemade Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon (diced)
- 1 small onion (finely diced; just over 1 cup per batch)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup ketchup ((preferably organic))
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 16-ounce cans navy beans (drained and rinsed; or 3 cups cooks beans per batch)
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Cook the Bacon & Onions: In a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, cook the chopped bacon for about 8-10 minutes, until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl lined with a paper towel. Drain off grease, leaving enough to cover the bottom of the pan. In the same skillet, sauté the diced onion in the bacon grease until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic during the last 30-60 seconds of cook time. Set aside.
- Make the Sauce: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together chicken broth, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, yellow mustard, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper.
- Combine: Stir the drained navy beans, cooked bacon, and sautéed onions into the sauce until well combined.
- Bake: Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake uncovered for 40-50 minutes, stirring once or twice, until bubbly and thickened.
- Cool & Serve: Let cool slightly and taste and adjust seasoning before serving. The sauce will thicken as it sits.
Freezer Instructions
Notes/Tips
- Storing Beans:
-
- Fridge: Once cool, store beans in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. Reheat by warming on the stovetop or in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Add a splash of water or broth if the sauce has thickened too much.
- Freezer: Store cooled beans in an airtight container or ziploc bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge or reheat straight from frozen in a saute pan or saucepan over low heat.
- Make-Ahead Tip: These beans freeze best before baking. Assemble the mixture, freeze, then thaw overnight and bake when ready to serve.
- If the bacon grease starts to pop, lower the heat to medium-low.
- Cook the onions until soft and translucent—avoid browning them.
- Slow Cooker Adaptation: We haven’t tested it this way, but based on research, you can make this in the crock pot. Follow Step 2 (cooking the bacon and onions) and Step 3 (mixing up the sauce) in the recipe. Then, place all the ingredients in a crock pot and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours or HIGH for 2-3 hours. Also, note that you can double this recipe in a 6 quart slow cooker, but that may add about 1 hour more of cook time.
Nutrition
Photos and video by Whitney Reist of Sweet Cayenne.
Recipe Contributor: Rachel Walters
Pastry Chef Rachel Walters developed and rigorously tested this recipe for Thriving Home.
Rachel grew up in northern Michigan with a family that loved to cook and bake. She attended a career center for culinary and baking and pastry arts in high school and went to college at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. She graduated in August 2023 with a Bachelor’s in Food Business Management and Baking and Pastry Arts. She’s worked in numerous restaurants and has developed recipes for Thriving Home for years now.
In her free time, she loves to read, listen to true crime podcasts, go on walks, travel, and spend time with her husband.
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