Barbecue Baked Beans for a Crowd

Baked beans is one dish I firmly iden­tify with my mom. Any fam­ily reunion she’d make a huge batch, pack them up in a dutch oven, and stick them in a bed of coals to ful­fill their fla­vor­ful goodness.

Her orig­i­nal recipe included reg­u­lar pork ‘n beans and plenty of green pep­pers. I remem­ber lov­ing the beans and hat­ing the peppers.….so I wasn’t too opposed to leav­ing them out of this updated ver­sion. You know. For the kids sake. There is noth­ing green in these beans, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t deli­cious! And if no pep­pers seems like sac­ri­lege, then go ahead and put them in with the onions and ground beef. I stopped using reg­u­lar pork ‘n beans and started using Bush’s Orig­i­nal Baked Beans when Chef had a cou­ple dozen #10 cans left over from a catered func­tion and I love it so much more.

Another great potluck/picnic choice as it can be made the day ahead and put in the oven an hour before serv­ing.

BBQ Baked Beans for a Crowd

serves 25–easily cut to 12, just use 2 28 oz. cans of bushes baked beans, and only 1 can of kid­ney beans. Halve the remain­ing ingredients.

1 pound ground beef

1 1/2 large onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 #10 can Bush’s Orig­i­nal Baked Beans (117 oz. size)

2 cans kid­ney beans (14 oz. size)–drained and rinsed

1 can black beans (14 oz. size)–drained and rinsed

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup molasses

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 table­spoons pre­pared mustard

1 table­spoon cider vinegar

1 1/2 table­spoons Worces­ter­shire sauce

1/2 tea­spoon Wright’s Hick­ory Fla­vor­ing (liq­uid smoke)

1 tea­spoon Cholula Hot Sauce

1 tea­spoon kosher salt

1/2 tea­spoon black pepper

Brown the ground beef in a skil­let. Drain the grease and add the onion. Cook until onion is ten­der. Set aside.

In a large, oven-safe cast iron pot, pour in the cans of beans. Add the ham­burger. Add the remain­ing ingre­di­ents. Mix care­fully; beans will smoosh if over stirred. Put on a tight fit­ting lid and bake in a 275 degree F oven for 1– 1/2 hours.

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• Oven Roasted Vegetables
• Roast­ing Tomatoes
• Yukon-Turnip Gratin