How to Make Baked Beans
This is one of my oldest and favorite recipes, and if you’ve ever wondered how to make baked beans, then this is the recipe for you. It’s a vintage recipe, for sure, taken from one of my mother’s old church cookbooks. It’s about as good as good can get! These baked beans are meaty, saucy, sweet, tangy, and oh-so-good!
I love baked beans, but I don’t love making them from dried beans. Instead, I take a few shortcuts using canned baked beans. A few other ingredients, some tasty ground turkey, and before long, you’ve got cooked-all-day-flavor ready to eat in under an hour.
How to make baked beans
This recipe for baked beans is so versatile! You bake them in a 9×13-inch baking dish so they make enough to feed a small crowd. I love them for summer BBQs, homey winter meals, and every other time during the year. They’re a great pick for potlucks and holiday parties, because you can keep them warm in a Crock Pot or slow cooker.
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I have such great memories of these baked beans. My mother would make them when I was growing up, and I’d serve them to my own kids. I would even make an extra batch to send with them when they went back to college.
Looking for perfect baked beans? This is my favorite recipe, and I’m sure it’ll become one of yours, too!
Why I love this recipe
- It’s meaty, saucy, sweet, tangy, and loaded with flavor.
- This is an easy recipe to make, and you get a slowly cooked all-day flavor in under an hour.
- These baked beans are the perfect side dish, but they’re also a meaty main dish, and they taste even better the next day!
Gather these ingredients
- Ground turkey – You’ll need 1 pound of lean ground turkey.
- Onion – Use white or yellow onion.
- Bell pepper – I like orange or yellow bell peppers in this recipe. Remove the seeds and finely chop them.
- Canned baked beans – You’ll need 2 22-ounce cans. Use your favorite brand of baked beans.
- Barbecue sauce
- Ketchup
- Yellow mustard
- Worcestershire sauce
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Bacon – You’ll need 6-8 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon.
How to make the best baked beans
- Preheat your oven to 350-F and spray a 9×13-inch casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Cook the ground turkey, diced onion, and chopped bell pepper in a large skillet for about 5 minutes or until the turkey is no longer pink inside. Break it up with a meat chopper as you cook.
- Add the canned baked beans, barbecue sauce, ketchup, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar to the skillet and mix well.
- Simmer the meat and bean mixture for about 5 minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared 9×13-inch baking dish and sprinkle the crumbled bacon over the top.
- Cover with foil and bake for about 35 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Tips & substitutions
- You can use other ground meats in this baked beans recipe. Try it with ground beef, pork, chicken, or even sausage.
- To make ahead of time, prepare the dish up to baking it, then pop it into the fridge. Just bake before serving, but you’ll need to add a few minutes to the baking time if it goes from the fridge to the oven.
- Use your favorite barbecue sauce in this recipe, but if your sauce is sweet, reduce the sugar by half until you can taste the beans. Add more of the brown sugar if you like your baked beans on the sweet side.
Serving suggestions
These easy baked beans go with everything! I love them as a side with sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, and anything grilled. They’re fabulous with pulled pork and anything off the smoker.
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can also freeze these baked beans. Package them in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for up to a month.
Check out these awesome bean recipes while you’re here
Get the Recipe:
How to make Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 sweet orange or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped
- 2 22 oz. cans of Grillin’ Beans
- ½ cup barbecue sauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- 2 Tbsp. yellow mustard
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 4 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 6-8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 9×13 pan or casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large frying pan, brown the ground turkey, onion and pepper for about 5 minutes.
- Add the pork and beans and all of the other ingredients (except bacon). Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the prepared mixture to the 9×13 dish. Crumble the bacon on top and cover with foil.
- Bake for 35 minutes; remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes. Serve & enjoy!
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Hi Sandy…..My sister just called last night to say we are having a family get together at her house sometime in April and would I make bake beans. Two of my three sisters and I are always in cooking competition. The third sister don’t like to cook so she just enjoys our hard enjoyable work I have not make bake beans as of yet so I got on Reluctant Entertainer to find a recipe for bake beans to WOW them and the other family members. I found two and I am going to make and test this one first. I want the two sisters going to their lawn chairs with a plate of food feeling defeated as they eat my bake beans.
I will enjoy their hotdogs and hamburgers. Just wondering If I can use sausage or chorizo instead of turkey
For sure!
Great idea to kick up the typical can of beans. I love the addition of ground turkey.
Looks so spicy and rustic!
We are on the same wavelength, Sandy! It’s just not the Fourth of July without tasty, smoky baked beans in my book and they’re always fun to serve and enjoy during cookouts. I’ll be sharing my recipe (using a dark beer reduction which makes them wildly wicked…look out Bobby Flay, LOL!) on Friday. Just posted Sweet Honey Corn Pudding with a gluten-free option using an all-natural homemade sweet cornbread mix to avoid food additives in packaged mixes. I hope you’ll try it for your gluten-free guests. Terrific go-with dishes for summertime BBQs is where it is at! Thanks for sharing your yummy baked bean recipe! xo
Those look so good, I love baked beans!
Baked beans are a summertime favorite, I can never get enough of them! Thanks for this great recipe.
YUM! I love baked beans. I’ll have to try this recipe. I haven’t often fancied up baked beans but have a great BBQ bean and sausage dish that’s always a hit… http://troyerslovinglife.blogspot.com/2010/07/5th-of-julyand-recipe.html
We love Bush’s Beans around here! Thanks for the recipe!
Baked beans are a tradition in the South!!! Love ’em!!!
Great recipe! Baked Beans are always a staple at our cookouts and summer get-togethers!
We’re having a family gathering this weekend – hot dogs, sausages, potatoe salad and BAKED BEANS on the menu. I’ll give this recipe a try (without the turkey for those vegans in the crowd). Looks yummy.
The gathering is to get the two families together for my daughter and her fiance – a “Meet the Families” event!!