It wouldn’t be summer without plenty of baked bean recipes to enjoy! Baked beans are perfect summer cookout food! They are easy to make, delicious, good for feeding a crowd and pair excellently with any of your favorite grilling foods like chicken, pork chops, burgers, ribs or hot dogs.
Let’s kick summer off right, what do you say? Try making some of this amazing baked bean recipes for your summer cookouts this year.
Sweet & Smoky Chorizo Baked Beans with Jerky
The key to a perfect baked bean recipe is to find the balance between sweet and savory. First, we start with chorizo for that zesty, savory and spicy kick. Then – substituting bacon – we toss in some chopped up jerky to be the Ying to the chorizo’s Yang. Duke’s jerky gives this concoction that sweetness and saltiness that sends it over the edge. For us, no dish does it better than this! We used Duke’s Jerky in this recipe, but feel free to use a package of your favorite!
Of course, we don’t forget the other elements that make baked beans so wonderful. Round off this dish with paprika, liquid smoke, molasses, cumin and all the other flavors and spices you have come to love from these backyard beans.
Baked Beans & Cornbread Skillet
Baked beans and cornbread are two delicious southern classics. Who doesn’t love a bowl of creamy, smoky baked beans or a big piece of flaky cornbread? So what if we put them together?! The recipe starts off simple as a classic baked bean recipe using 4 1/2 cups of Randall Great Northern Beans. Bacon, onion, tomato paste, mustard and cumin help give the beans a little depth of smoky and zesty flavor, but we hit it with a little apple cider vinegar for a little extra bite.
Then things get a little crazy! Mix and pour your favorite cornbread mixture over the beans in a skillet of casserole dish. Toss it in the over to cook the beans and solidify flavor while a fluffy and flaky crust of cornbread forms on the outside. Once it’s done, scoop cut, grab, whatever way you have to do to try a bite of these deliciously unique baked beans.
Dr. Pepper Baked Beans
Cooking with soda? You better believe it! Sugar and Soul uses Dr. Pepper as one of the key ingredients in this baked bean recipe. Not only does the soda add a ton of flavor (23 to be precise if you believe the folks at Dr. Pepper), but as it cooks down it becomes thick and helps bind all the ingredients together. She also recommends adding some pulled pork or bacon for a smack of salt and extra flavor.
The original recipe calls for cannellini beans, but a couple jars (or one big jar) of our great northern beans will do the trick just fine. This recipe takes less than an hour to make, so it is a great baked bean recipe to have on hand for short notice cooking.
Want more?
These recipes here should get you through a lot of weekend get-togethers this summer. For all the others – and any other occasion when friends, family and good food come together – make sure to get a copy of our Cookbooks.
