A pal asked me the other day if I had a good recipe for baked beans. Had to think just a bit. I don’t have anything written down, for sure. I’ve made beans that I was pretty happy with and a few batches that were less than stellar but I don’t think there have been many times that the end product was identical with any other batch. I made some of Alton Brown’s Boston Baked Beans recipe once but was underwhelmed. They were fine, but I’ve made better. There is someone associated with the union I belong to that brings some beans out every time there is a picnic of some sort. Those are truly exceptional beans. Nope, don’t have the recipe. One of those you have to be kin to get. Close kin.
So this is one of those write it down as you go recipes, don’t expect the quantities to be exact-ballpark estimates are plenty close enough for this kind of work.
Fry some bacon, today I used three slices, halved. Cook the grease out of them, then take them out of the pan before they crisp up because they are going to bake for a while in the oven yet.
I took just a few ounces of chorizo this time and fried that up. Leaving the sausage in the pan, I added a small onion diced up, and some diced bell peppers. These were some of the slices I froze earlier in the year. About cup or so. Cook the veggies until they soften, then add a can of your favorite beans. I used the Bush brand beans-the kind that has a dog always conniving to sell the recipe. This was a 28oz can. The skillet is a 10 incher, just for scale.
Now comes the rest of the story. I mixed in a small bowl some BBQ sauce, a good squirt of Dijon mustard, a tablespoon or two of brown sugar, and a wee splash of cider vinegar. Stir that into the beans.
Layer the bacon you set aside atop the beans and put them in a medium oven for an hour or so. Set the temp to ~325-350. Let them cook down until the bacon on top looks brown. Don’t be afraid to use a paper towel to sop up any grease that floats to the top, or just stir it in when you serve the beans. There is enough in this recipe to feed four if one of them isn’t me.