4-Ingredient Simple Baked Beans (Uses Canned Beans!)
With a combination of sweetness and smoky flavor, this super simple homemade baked bean recipe is the perfect side dish!
These easy baked beans are the kind of dish that disappears fast at summer barbecues, family gatherings, and summer cookouts. With just a few cans of beans, some crispy strips of bacon, and a little bbq sauce, you’ve got the best baked beans recipe around!
This method uses the stove top, but you can also throw everything in the crock pot and let it simmer for a few hours. Either way, you’ll end up with flavorful, tender beans in a rich, sweet heat sauce. It’s an easy way to turn simple pantry staples into a side dish everyone will ask for next time.
What’s in 4 ingredient baked beans?
Simple ingredients make for simple goodness — here’s the big 4 ingredients with notes on substitutions.
- Canned Beans: The base of the classic recipe for baked beans is white beans. You can use small white beans, cannellini beans, navy beans, or Great Northern beans. If you want to mix it up, you can try a bean mixture including kidney beans, black beans, or pinto beans! If you wan to use dry beans, you can. Just make sure they’re cooked first!
- Bacon: Bacon adds flavor and texture to the recipe. You can omit it entirely for a vegetarian take, or you can use any kind of bacon you like. My family actually prefers turkey bacon, which is what you see in the pictures!
- Barbecue Sauce: One of the easiest ways to play with flavor is to change out your barbecue sauce. We love Stubbs at our house because of the smoky flavor. Feel free to use your favorite brand!
- Brown Sugar: Bringing sweetness to the mix, you can sub brown sugar with white sugar or coconut sugar. You can also just leave it out, especially if you’re using a very sweet barbecue sauce.
Making easy baked beans
Start by draining your canned beans and rinsing them. This keeps the final produce from having too much liquid. You will also need to chop your slices of bacon.
Place all the ingredients in a large pot. Heat the beans over medium heat until they begin to bubble, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Enjoy your beans warm. You can garnish the whole thing with parsley and cracked black pepper!
Make it a Meal
With a few additions, you can turn these simple baked beans into a meal!
- Add hot dogs: Cut up hot dogs turn this in to a main dish. Add a vegetable to round this one out!
- Add ground beef: Brown up some ground beef and stir it in to make hobo stew. Serve with rolls for a complete dinner.
- Serve it as a side with ranch chicken or BBQ chicken sliders!
FAQs
For the best texture and flavor, it’s a good idea to drain and rinse the beans before mixing them with the sauce. This helps keep the dish from getting too salty or watery.
Definitely! These beans taste even better the next day once the flavors have blended. Just store them in the fridge and reheat in the oven or microwave before serving.
Leftover baked beans can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Let them cool to room temperature before putting them in the fridge. You can also freeze them for up to 2 months.
Ingredients
- 3-4 strips bacon, cooked
- 2 15.5 oz cans white beans (or cannellini, great northern, or navy beans)
- 1 cup barbecue sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Chop the bacon into small pieces.
- Drain and rinse the beans.
- Add all ingredients to a large saucepan.
- Bring to low boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve beans warm.
