Super Bowl Baked Beans. Seriously Delicious.

The food – I mean football – event of the year is coming up! It’s Super Bowl time! Okay, I meant food and we all know it. Busted. I love Super Bowl because it always means great food! My family refers to our game-watching-fun-Sunday-afternoon-food as “football food”. It’s great stuff – bacon-wrapped shrimp, wings, barbecue pork, sliders – yum! But you need some side dishes, too. The perfect side? These. Baked Beans. I’m not usually wild about baked beans but I can’t get enough of these baked beans!

This is my mother-in-law’s recipe and I got special permission to share this never-before-shared recipe!  YES, it’s that good! What’s different? Well, there are some secret ingredients involved. There is also a bacon tip that will change the way you cook bacon forever! I got this handy bacon cooker as a gift a few years ago and it’s the only way I cook bacon now.

Many recipes that include bacon are better if the bacon is semi-cooked before you add it. This is definitely the case for these baked beans. Cooking the bacon for a few minutes gets rid of excess grease and tops the beans with delicious crisp bacon. (Just watch people scoop up their serving with as many pieces of bacon as they can manage!).

I seriously love this ceramic bacon cooker. I put a paper towel over the bacon/cooker and cook in the microwave for about 3 minutes. Super easy cleanup (pour out the grease and throw it in the dishwasher) and a perfect way to cook bacon. You can cook it for eating too – crisp, no excess grease and delicious!

So this is what I did. Top with a paper towel and cook in the microwave. I cooked the bacon 3 minutes (8 strips at a time) for this recipe since I wanted it only partly cooked (to cut down on excess grease). Normally it’s about 30 seconds for each bacon strip you’ve added. It holds about 8 strips, so it would be about 4 minutes to cook bacon fully. It varies based on microwave strength so keep an eye on it.

(I am including my highlighted amazon affiliate link below so you can have the bacon cooker in your kitchen, too  – no price difference for you but if you buy through my link, they drop a buck or two into my account so I can keep blogging! ☺️)

Awesome Bacon Cooker

Here’s the recipe:

Mom’s Baked Beans

2 cans 28 oz. Van  Camp Beans

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup pineapple preserves  (yup, secret ingredient #1)

2 Tablespoons yellow mustard

1 small onion, chopped

6 slices cooked bacon, cut up (not a secret ingredient, but YUM!)

4 cinnamon sticks (secret ingredient #2)

Mix all ingredients except bacon and cinnamon sticks and pour into baking dish that’s been sprayed with Pam. Place bacon on top and  bake for one hour at 350 degrees.  Take out of the oven. Place cinnamon sticks in cooked beans, Let sit in beans for up to 30 minutes, moving to a difference spot after 10 – 15 minutes. Take out cinnamon sticks and throw them away.

Another great thing about this recipe? You can make it the night before, put it in the refrigerator overnight and bake it just before your Super Bowl party. Easy. Convenient. Delicious.

You’ve got the perfect side dish now. Perfect for beautiful summer barbecues and perfect for cold windy days. And perfect for Super Bowl! Have fun!

Dive into the best baked beans you’ll ever taste!