These baked black beans with smoky bacon are a great side dish for BBQs, potlucks, and other summer get-togethers! Canned black beans make this recipe so easy. The beans cook in a sweet and smoky sauce made with a generous amount of bacon, chili powder, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar. Serve these beans with all of your favorite BBQ dishes.
Baked Black Beans with Canned Beans
Despite everything I know about dry beans, I can never quite get organized enough to use them in recipes. Let’s face it, cooking with dried beans takes planning and a serious time commitment, and I’m not into either right now. So I’m happy to use good-quality canned beans instead, which is how I came up with this easy baked beans recipe.
These baked beans taste like they cooked all day, but they’re ready in just over an hour! They’re the perfect summer side dish recipe for all the warm-weather main dishes.
Ingredients
- Thick-cut bacon
- Diced bell pepper
- Chopped onion
- Minced garlic
- Chili powder
- Dried oregano
- Ground mustard
- Kosher salt
- Brown sugar
- Black pepper
- Apple cider vinegar
- Molasses
- Canned black beans
Recipe Steps
Except for a little bit of veggie chopping, this recipe is mostly a dump-and-stir operation. It starts on the stovetop where all the smoky bacon, onion, garlic, and bell pepper cook together in a large pan or Dutch oven.
Apple cider vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, chili powder, and a few other pantry spices make up the sauce.
Drain the beans and then add them before the whole pot goes in the oven, where it bubbles and reduces for an hour or so.
Thanks to the black bean shortcut there’s no waiting around for three to four hours for this side-dish deliciousness. After about an hour in the oven, they’re ready to serve.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- This recipe works will all kinds of beans, so switch them out for pinto beans or white beans. Even chickpeas or lentils would work, although the last two aren’t the usual suspects in baked beans.
- You can add other ingredients to dress it up – try adding some chopped cilantro or parsley, chopped jalapeno, or ground cumin to up the smoky factor.
- These baked black beans keep really well, so if you have leftovers, pop them in an airtight container and keep them in the fridge. They will keep for several days.
- The first time I made a big batch of these wonderful beans, they were even better the next day after all the flavors married together overnight in the fridge. I may or may not have heated some the next morning and piled them on a tortilla with a fried egg. It was delicious.
- You can also make the dish ahead. Do everything a day in advance but don’t bake them. Cover them and refrigerate them instead. When you’re ready to bake them pop them in the oven – you may need to add a little extra cooking time.
I hope you love this black bean recipe! It’s a nice change from classic baked beans, and the flavors go with all the summer main dishes. Enjoy!
Happy Cooking,
More Recipes with Black Beans
- Black Bean Enchilada Pie
- Poblano Black Bean Rice Bowl with Chicken
- Black Bean Enchiladas
- Easy Black Bean Soup
📣 Do you love this recipe? I would love to know! Leave a comment below the recipe, along with your recipe star rating.
PrintBaked Black Beans
Baked black beans are a great summer side and so easy to make with canned beans. They’re easy to prep and then simmer in the oven – serve them with all of your favorite summer main dishes.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dishes
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 6 slices thick cut bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 (15-oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F degrees.
- In a dutch oven or large oven-safe pot, cook the bacon over medium heat until it starts to brown. Add the bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Cook the vegetables until they soften for about five or so minutes.
- Add the chili powder, dried oregano, ground mustard, salt, pepper, and brown sugar. Stir it all together and cook another two minutes.
- Add the apple cider vinegar, molasses, and black beans. Stir everything to combine and then add water until it just covers the beans (about a 1/2 cup depending on the size of your pot).
- Transfer the pot, uncovered, to the preheated oven. bake the beans for approximately one hour, or until the sauce has thickened.
Notes
Recipe adapted from: New York Times
Nutrition
- Calories: 270
- Sugar: 19.5g
- Sodium: 876.4mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 2.9g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.4g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 38.7g
- Fiber: 8.3g
- Protein: 9.6g
- Cholesterol: 13.8mg
Keywords: baked black beans, baked beans with canned beans, easy baked beans
The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.
Post and photos updated from the archives. First published in May 2016.
Rob says
I used this recipe as a base and did a 20 minutes stovetop version. Rave reviews! I’m always modding recipes but am sure if i actually followed the instructions (subbing something for the molasses) it would be awesome. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
April Anderson says
Glad you liked it! Thank you for the rating, too 🙂
Deylah says
What do you recommend I use, if I have no molasses on hand?
April Anderson says
You can sub the same amount of maple syrup – or you could try the same amount of honey. I haven’t tried these subs but it will change the flavor – hope that helps.
Beth says
This was absolutely delicious! I only put a dash of chili powder in as I live with heat phobic people. I used about 2/3 a pack of bacon (not thick slice) and drained most of the grease or before gong on to the next step. The final dish was heavenly. I recommend people double the recipe if they are going to make this!
★★★★★
April says
So glad you liked it!
Lonnie says
Really liked this recipe! The blend of flavors is stellar – I’ve served them both warm and cold and they are delicious!
★★★★★
Stephanie says
Using the slow cooker simplifies cooking with dried beans. I like to soak the dried beans anywhere from 12-24 hours to improve digestibility, then drain and cook in slow cooker 8 hours low. Then drain the water, add the rest of the baked bean ingredients and cook low 4-8 hours. You can also take the beans out of the slow cooker and use stovetop, or freeze in batches for future use. It takes some planning ahead but you can soak all day or overnight, cook beans all day or overnight, then have cooked beans ready to go. 1 1/2 cups of beans equals one 15 oz can. Thanks for a great recipe.
Carol says
I am also of the mind to use dried beans as well. I find that the soaking is not so time consuming and flavour is so much better. After making huge batches and having some to put in freezer, as well, I am convinced that it is worth the effort to make the beauty beans from scratch.
Marc says
I was dismayed to find out that I didn’t have any canned pinto beans in my pantry and the ribs were coming out in 75min. This recipe saved our dinner and we really enjoyed it. My only comment is beware of the molasses you use. Ours left a bitter after taste. I’m reasonably sure that our Wholesome’s Organic Molasses was to blame. It’s good for some things, but not the best choice for this recipe.
★★★★
Molly says
These have a really good smoky flavor – thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Patty says
Excellent recipe My friends all loved it. Thank you
April says
Thanks so much for letting me know, Patty – your comment made my day 🙂
Vivian | stayaliveandcooking says
This looks like such a delicious side dish! Lately I’ve been eating beans more and more (instead of meat/potatoes/rice/pasta e.g.) and I’m surprised at how versatile they actually are. Great share, will remember this one! 😀