Picnics mean Baked Beans. These beans bring sweet and spicy (if you like) together in a pleasing simmer for summer.
Baked Beans
- 1 pound navy beans (can also use kidney beans, black beans, red beans, or a mix if you’d like a variety)
- 64 ounces chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/2 pound bacon, diced
- 1 Walla Walla sweet onion, diced
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups apple juice
- 1 – 12 ounce can of tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Liquid Smoke
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon Dijon or yellow mustard
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 minced jalapeno (optional)
- Sea salt
- Coarse ground pepper
Rinse the beans and remove any that look bad. Set aside.
Pour the broth in a pot. Bring to a boil, then add the beans, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover the pot with a lid tipped so steam can escape, and simmer the beans for 1 1/2 hours.
Once the beans are done cooking, fry bacon in a large, shallow pot – one that’s oven safe. Cast iron Dutch oven works great for this.
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
When bacon has fully cooked, take it out of the pan and place it on a plate lined with a couple of paper towels to drain. Set aside. Drain excess grease from the pan.
Fry the onion in the same bacon pan until translucent. Add the garlic. Cook for about a minute longer, reduce heat to medium-low, and add the apple juice, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, Liquid Smoke, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar, jalapeno (if desired), salt, and pepper. Stir everything together.
Remove one cup of the broth from the pot of beans and set aside. Strain the beans from the broth they were cooked in. Gently stir the beans and the one cup of the broth into the Dutch oven with the other ingredients. Add the cooked bacon. Welcome back to the party, bacon.
If you’d like to spice things up, add jalapeño.
Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender. Serve hot or make in advance, chill, and serve cold.