The next outdoor picnic you host is guaranteed to be a hit with Texas-style baked beans. They will still turn out fantastic without a smoker, but if you can get a decent hickory or pecan fire going, do so. Use a bottle of Lone Star beer to create the beans, and while they’re cooking, indulge in one yourself for the full Texas experience.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter, or as needed
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced, or more to taste
- 1 pound bacon, diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
- 3 medium jalapeno peppers, minced, or to taste
- 1 cup beer, or more to taste
- 1 cup barbecue sauce
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- 6 cups cooked pinto beans
- 1 pinch garlic salt, or to taste
- cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté onion and garlic in hot oil until onion begins to soften, 5 to 7 minutes. Add bacon, bell pepper, and jalapeños; cook and stir until bacon is browned, 7 to 10 minutes.
- Stir beer, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, and molasses together in a large bowl. Stir in pinto beans, bacon-onion mixture, garlic salt, and pepper. Pour bean mixture into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake in the preheated oven until bubbling and browned, about 45 minutes.
- To bake beans on a wood smoker, preheat the smoker to between 250 and 275 degrees F (120 and 135 degrees C). Pour bean mixture into a greased 9×13-inch foil pan. Cook in the smoker for 30 minutes. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and continue cooking for 2 to 3 hours. Uncover and transfer beans to an oven preheated to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10 minutes to brown the beans.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 548 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 84 g |
| Cholesterol | 28 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 13 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1161 mg |
| Sugars | 42 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These are so good! I did go easy on the jalapenos as they can be hot or mild. – can always add more.
I cut this recipe in half proportionally except I had only a little more than 6 oz of bacon. We thought the flavor was great – may cut back a little on sugar next time. After 45 minute in the oven they were still soupy and I could see fat from bacon on bottom-so I put them in for 15 more. I then took them out, let them cool, snd put them in the refrigerator for 7 hours til dinner. I reheated in saucepan on the stove. The only other deviation I did was to rinse and drain the beans. Next time I will either crisp the bacon first or pour off the extra grease before adding beans and sauce as I suspect the grease was the culprit. We enjoyed these beans over hotdogs!
Very Good, everyone loved it. It is now my go-to for a barbecue.
This recipe turned me into a bean snob! I used to think Bush’s beans were great… never again! Everyone that has these loves it!
Best baked beans ever! My son made these for a party in his smoker and I was hooked!
4.5 stars. Delicious. one kid couldn’t stay away, BEFORE they were baked. I took away half a star because adding the onions, peppers and bacon to the same pan with oil, does not crisp up the bacon. We ended up putting the whole bacon, pepper, onion, garlic mixture on a sheet pan and baking it, to crisp up the bacon. But Delicious!!!
OMG these baked beans were fantastic! There are a couple of things I did differently and a few I’ll do differently the next time I make them. Used canned pinto beans – 4 cans, rinsed, was perfect. We have a Big Green Egg, so definitely wanted to smoke this. I have a cast iron pot and used it to fry up the veggies and bacon. Spooned off the extra oil/fat after frying. Didn’t use an additional dish – added the beans and sauces to the veggies in the pot. Pot went from stove to smoker to oven. Also don’t like super sweet beans so halved the brown sugar. The bacon took forever to brown so next time I’ll start with frying the diced bacon and add the veggies later without having to add additional oil. Our guests raved at the results! Awesome recipe!
I followed the recipe exactly. It had great flavor but sauce was thin and greasy from the bacon. Next time I will brown and drain the bacon first. Was able to fix it with a few tablespoons of double concentrated tube tomato paste and a few more drops of liquid smoke.
Used 3 cans mixed beans piñata
Excellent recipe. I’m not averse to adding as much sugar, salt, or fat as necessary, but I found that 2/3 the amount of brown sugar was plenty. I’m sure it depends on the type of BBQ sauce you use; I used Stubb’s Original. Also cut back on the beer to keep the sauce thicker.
Great taste. I replaced jalapeno with green pepper for milder heat.
Wow, definitely one of the best BBQ beans I’ve had. I used Joes BBQ sauce from Kansas City, used 2 cans of black beans, 3 cans of Pinto beans, and put a couple dashes of liquid smoke. I was afraid it was going to be too sweet but after adding the jalapeños it toned down.
The beans were a hit. I made them in the oven and not the smoker, but the taste was still amazing. Great recipe!
I didn’t make changes, really, but I made twice, once with light brown sugar and a tangy bbq sauce, and I really preferred those. Second time I used just a regular bbq sauce and dark brown sugar and they were a little sweet. Next time light sugar and spicy bbq.
Best recipe for beans I’ve ever had
Easy to make, great favor
I’ve made this recipe as written, and I’ve also added various meats–bacon, ground beef, smoked sausage–DELICIOUS! I made this at a couple big bbq’s, including my son’s graduation party–everyone asked for the recipe. I’ll make this again and again.
Made this recipe to accompany a smoked beef brisket and served it to family and friends. It was a HUGE hit with all. It’s got some good spice to it using 2 whole jalapeño’s (did not deseed or devein) so some folks felt it had a little too much “kick”. Some changes I made were that I used a 4 bean blend of pinto’s, black, kidney and great northern since that is what I had on hand and it brought a great flavor to the dish as well as nice color diversity. I received many compliments on that feature alone. Also, I chose to cook the bacon separately from all the vegetables and then incorporate all the ingredients at the end prior to baking. This allowed the bacon to crisp much easier and allows you to remove any additional bacon fat if you don”t want all of it in the final product. I chose to remove about 1/4 of the bacon drippings prior to adding the bacon to the beans and it was awesome! This won’t replace my usual KC style sweet baked beans that is generations old but it will be my go-to for a Texas spin on beans when doing traditional Texas style BBQ.
The flavor was very good, for these baked beans. I left the bacon out, because I had some people that were vegetarians, that would be eating them; I could have substituted soy bacon, however, for the amount of beans, I was making, the cost would have been very high. They turned out good without the bacon.
Made this pretty much like the recipe says, but can’t afford that much bacon for one dish. Used about 4 thick slices instead. Still the flavor of this was very good. Really enjoyed that!! But did have a little problem….. In the interest of time, I used canned pinto beans. Golly, I would have cooked those beans another hour or so! They just weren’t as tender as we would have liked. Could still eat the beans, but we chewed awhile. Think this would be terrific with remains of a fresh cooked pot of home cooked beans, seasoned while cooking with ham.
Huge hit. I made my own beans (from dried) so I could control the salt; I used one pound, not sure how the translates to cups when cooked. Followed the recipe exactly, with a few small exceptions… I added a bit of liquid smoke in lieu of smoking, and put a splash of bourbon in them for extra flavor. I also cooked the bacon first, and added the peppers/onions in the last 5 minutes or so. Why cook them in oil when you have all of that flavorful bacon grease to cook them in?