Spicy Baked Beans
Spicy Baked Beans have just the right kick with a little sprinkling of cayenne pepper over top. I seem to collect a lot of interesting and different recipes for baked beans and corn. I think I have about 10 different versions for each one! This one is fantastic.
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The secret ingredient in this batch is the cayenne pepper you sprinkle over the top of the beans before laying bacon pieces over top of all. Oh my, it has a nice kick. This recipe won’t really work without it because it has a lot of brown sugar and honey. The cayenne pepper puts these baked beans over the top with a delicious and wonderful taste.
I got this recipe from our former pastor, Mike Simmons, when we lived in Cedar Hill, Texas. He brought this casserole to a 4th of July picnic one day and I knew I just had to have the recipe. I think you will find these baked beans a wonderful addition to your casserole collection, great for potlucks and barbecues, and really easy to throw together.
It’s also a little more economical than the calico bean versions. I took this huge double batch to a big party today with several hundred people and it was one of the first bean casseroles to be cleaned out!
When I first made this recipe in October 2012, my pictures were taken on a cheap iPhone 3 camera so they were a little on the blurry side. Plus the lighting was quite poor. I recently remade this recipe for a spring BBQ at our church (April 2015), and retook the pictures so they more adequately display how delicious this recipe really is.
I will also suggest one main change to the original recipe. First of all, you must use enough cayenne pepper to balance out the sugar and honey in the recipe. Even still, I used 6 cans of baked beans and still found that a cup of brown sugar made this recipe too sweet. I’ve reduced the recipe to only 1/2 cup brown sugar and think that now the sugar will not overwhelm the rest of the casserole.
This baked beans recipe is loaded with flavor from bacon, onions, honey and cayenne pepper which makes this a go-to baked beans recipe everyone always loves. This was the first baked beans casserole cleaned out when I brought it to a church-wide picnic a couple of weeks ago. It is always a delight whenever I serve it. Hope you enjoy it too.
Spicy Baked Beans are incredibly good.
Here’s what Spicy Baked Beans look like just out of the oven. I made a double batch.
The cayenne pepper adds just enough kick to make these beans special.
Here’s what I did.
I used these ingredients, although I ended up using 6 cans of beans.
Start by partially cooking the bacon. Drain on paper towels until ready. Pour the beans into a large mixing bowl. Add onions, brown sugar, ketchup, cooked bacon pieces, garlic powder and honey.
Stir ingredients together.
Grease a 10×15″ glass baking dish. Pour bean mixture into prepared dish. Now add the secret ingredient: cayenne pepper. Sprinkle cayenne pepper over top.
There is really an art to how much of the cayenne pepper you sprinkle on top. For a single batch it’s about a half teaspoon. Use too much and no one can eat it…not enough and you don’t balance the sweet taste from the honey and brown sugar. I sprinkle a little more than just a light coating. I hope this picture shows the detail enough for you to see how much I put on top of the beans.
Layer the remaining partially cooked bacon over top of the casserole.
Cover casserole with lid or foil. Bake 2-3 hours at 350 until the beans are thickened but not dried out.
Spicy Baked Beans are a great side dish to bring to potlucks, summer holiday parties, or backyard barbecues. Everyone loves these beans, especially if you get the cayenne pepper just right.
Don’t Spicy Baked Beans look terrific?
Here’s the recipe.
SPICY BAKED BEANS
(Recipe adapted from Mike Simmons, Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Cedar Hill, TX)
Spicy Baked Beans
Equipment
- 1 10x15" glass baking dish
- 1 large skillet to cook the bacon
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 sharp knife to cut vegetables
Ingredients
- 96 oz. cans baked beans (six 16-ounce cans)
- 16 oz. thick sliced bacon enough to cover top of casserole
- 16 oz. Ketchup
- 1 /2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 4 tbsp. honey
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Instructions
- Place beans in a large greased casserole dish.
- Precook the bacon until almost done.
- Cut about half of the bacon into 1-2 inch pieces and mix in with beans.
- Stir ketchup, brown sugar, onion, honey and garlic powder into beans.
- Sprinkle carefully with cayenne pepper over top of casserole. (This is what gives the casserole a little kick).
- Then layer the remaining bacon over top of casserole.
- Bake, covered, in a 350° oven for 2 hours or longer until no longer soupy, but NOT dried out.
Notes
© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen
Nutrition
- 6 16-oz. cans [url href=”http://www.bushbeans.com/en_US/index.jsp” target=”_blank” title=”bush’s baked beans”]Bush’s[/url] Baked Beans
- Enough bacon to cover top of casserole (I use about 16-oz. [url href=”http://www.wrightbrand.com/” target=”_blank” title=”wright bacon”]Wright’s[/url] thick sliced bacon)
- 16-oz. [url href=”http://www.hunts.com/” target=”_blank” title=”hunts ketchup”]Hunts[/url] Ketchup
- 1 /2 cup brown sugar
- ½ onion chopped
- About ½ tsp. red pepper (cayenne)
- 4 tbsp. honey
- ½ tsp. garlic powder
- Place beans in a large greased casserole dish.
- Precook the bacon until almost done.
- Cut about half of the bacon into 1-2 inch pieces and mix in with beans.
- Stir ketchup, brown sugar, onion, honey and garlic powder into beans.
- Sprinkle carefully with cayenne pepper over top of casserole. (This is what gives the casserole a little kick).
- Then layer the remaining bacon over top of casserole.
- Bake, covered, in a 350° oven for 2 hours or longer until no longer soupy, but NOT dried out.
If you like your baked beans with a little kick to them, then Spicy Baked Beans is the recipe for you!
Spicy Baked Beans are easy because you can get everything in your dish and put it in your oven for a few hours. This can also probably be made in the crockpot just as well.
You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!
Spicy Baked Beans
Equipment
- 1 10×15" glass baking dish
- 1 large skillet to cook the bacon
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 sharp knife to cut vegetables
Ingredients
- 96 oz. cans baked beans (six 16-ounce cans)
- 16 oz. thick sliced bacon enough to cover top of casserole
- 16 oz. Ketchup
- 1 /2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 4 tbsp. honey
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Instructions
- Place beans in a large greased casserole dish.
- Precook the bacon until almost done.
- Cut about half of the bacon into 1-2 inch pieces and mix in with beans.
- Stir ketchup, brown sugar, onion, honey and garlic powder into beans.
- Sprinkle carefully with cayenne pepper over top of casserole. (This is what gives the casserole a little kick).
- Then layer the remaining bacon over top of casserole.
- Bake, covered, in a 350° oven for 2 hours or longer until no longer soupy, but NOT dried out.
7 Comments
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Jeannette Breeze
April 16, 2015 at 2:40 pm
Can I make it without bacon?
Teresa
April 16, 2015 at 3:04 pm
You can, Jeannette, but you will lose a lot of the savory taste. You may also have to cut back more on the sugar so it isn’t too sweet. Check your baked beans, too, to make sure they’re not cooked with salt pork or bacon. Thanks for stopping by.
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