Smoked Baked Beans (With Optional Bourbon)

Your summer barbecue party isn’t complete without a side of these smoked baked beans! After cooking low and slow in the most incredible BBQ sauce with loads of bacon, these baked beans balance just the right spicy, sweet and smoky notes. You’ll never go back to canned baked beans after one bite.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients
• Step-by-Step Instructions
• Serving Ideas
• Recipe FAQs
• Expert Tips
• Perfect Pairing
• Enjoy More Summer Side Dishes
• 📖 Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

That sweet and spicy sauce: Most baked bean recipes call for BBQ sauce, so a lot of people default to a store-bought version, which isn’t nearly as good as homemade. Instead, we make our own BBQ sauce for these beans, and it takes very little time and effort for vastly superior results. 

The perfect touch of smoke: Between the bacon, optional bourbon and cooking method, the smoky notes add a complex, deep flavor that will make you declare these the best baked beans of all time.

Serves a huge crowd: Summer barbecue parties usually mean big crowds, and this recipe can comfortably serve 12 people. If you don’t need quite that much, you can either enjoy plenty of leftovers or cut the recipe in half. Plus, this is one easy side dish.

Doubles as an oven recipe: Don’t have a smoker or maybe it’s too full with other meat? You can bake these beans in the oven like the traditional method. They won’t be quite as smoky, but they’re still delicious, especially with the homemade sauce.

Related: For more grilling side dishes, try this smoked mac and cheese or smoked mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

To set you up for success, let’s chat about a few ingredient notes. 

Navy beans: This is the type of bean traditionally used. If you can’t find them, white cannellini beans make a nice substitute. Some people also like to add black beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans. Using a variety of beans is totally fine.

Bacon: Get a thick-cut bacon. It’s more substantial to better hold up to smoking. I often get classic applewood-smoked bacon, but other flavors, like a black pepper bacon, would also work nicely. 

Coffee: This may seem weird, but the homemade barbecue sauce we make is based on my coffee-bourbon BBQ sauce. Coffee is the main liquid we use for the sauce, and it adds some roasted notes. I prefer a medium or dark roast, but a light roast also works.

Spice mixture: For our spice mixture, we use a combination of chipotle chili powder, mustard powder, smoked paprika and cumin. It gives it just the right kick. However, if you’d like a spicier sauce, feel free to add more chili powder or even cayenne pepper to taste.

Bourbon: This is optional, but I love the flavor it adds. It’s not over the top — it just gives it a little something extra. Make sure you use something you’d actually drink.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: We begin by setting the smoker to 225 degrees with a water pan if it isn’t already smoking some meat. As the smoker heats up, we cut the slices of bacon into 2-inch pieces and cook them in a large cast-iron skillet until the fat renders. The edges will start to crisp up, but the middle of the bacon will remain mostly translucent (photo 1).

Step 2: Once the bacon fat renders, we remove it from the cast-iron pan with a slotted spoon to reserve on a paper towel-lined plate and cook the diced onion and garlic in the bacon grease over medium heat (photo 2).

Step 3: After the onions soften, we turn off the heat and stir in the tomato sauce and tomato paste to make one cohesive mixture. We then stir in the other liquid ingredients, sweeteners and spices (photo 3). This includes apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, dark brown sugar, molasses, coffee and Worcestershire sauce.

Step 4: With the sauce prepared, now we stir in the drained navy beans until they’re well-coated and place the bacon pieces on top of the beans (photo 4). We want the bacon on top for more smoke exposure, which is why we don’t simply stir in the pieces with the beans.

Step 5: Now we’re ready to smoke. We put the beans in a 225-degree smoker for a three-hour cooking time (photo 5). This cooks beautifully alongside another smoked meat.

Step 6: After smoking, we stir the bourbon into the bean mixture (photo 6). If the beans finish before your main dish, you can keep it warm in a 200-degree oven or even a slow cooker on the warm setting.

There you have it — the most perfect smoked baked beans! You'll love the depth and complexity the smoke flavor gives this delicious side dish.

Serving Ideas

Need some accompaniments? Here are some complementary recipes that will go perfectly with our beans.

To start, we need some appetizers. Since you already have the smoker fired up, try this smoked queso and smoked jalapeño poppers. They're always crowd favorites.

For our main course, let's go with another smoked meat. Some of my favorites are pellet grill ribs, smoked whole chicken, smoked burgers, smoked beef brisket or beer can chicken for the ultimate summer dinner. A nice smoked pork butt is also great, especially with the bourbon and bacon.

If you'd like even more ideas, see this guide on what to eat with baked beans.

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

Don’t add the bourbon before smoking: We don’t want the bourbon to cook out. Adding the bourbon at the end gives us a stronger flavor for the perfect finishing touch.

Drain the canned beans: Let’s not dilute our sauce with bean juice. Make sure to drain well before adding the beans to the sauce.

Don’t fully cook the bacon before smoking: We want the bacon to render off some fat but still be uncooked to allow the smoke to penetrate the meat and avoid overcooking.

Use a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet: Because this is an acidic dish, your cast-iron skillet should be well-seasoned to protect it. Alternatively, you can use a 9-inch-by13-inch disposable aluminum pan.

Keep the beans uncovered: We want that wonderful smoke infusion, so covering our baked beans would inhibit that. Skip the foil covering for the entire smoke time. These beans are saucy enough that they won’t dry out.

Perfect Pairing

Of course, you’ll want to keep in mind the main meat of the meal. With a heavier meat, such as a brisket, a porter or stout will stand up to the bold, rich flavor, and you’ll love how the roasted notes match the smoke. For a lighter meat, such as a chicken, an amber ale isn’t as heavy on the palate, and you’ll savor the caramel-like malt with the brown sugar, molasses and maple syrup.

For a wine, I love a syrah for your bigger meats, and an earthy pinot noir is perfect with a lighter dish. Both show off rich berry flavors that complement the bean’s sauce and have some nice acidity. The syrah comes with a bigger mouthfeel, which makes it better suited for a bold meat.

If you prefer a cocktail, there’s a reason I add bourbon to this recipe, and it’s because those caramel, smoky notes pair perfectly with the sauce. Try my Boston sour, peach mint julep, cherry bourbon smash or blueberry bourbon smash.

When you need the perfect side dish for your summer barbecue, I hope you try this smoked baked beans recipe. Everyone will rave about these beans.

Cheers!

Enjoy More Summer Side Dishes

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