Sweet and Spicy Baked Beans

Step 1

Soak beans overnight.

Step 2

Prior to cooking, change the water and transfer beans to a large stockpot. Top the beans off with enough water so that they are covered. Add salt to the pot and bring the beans to a boil. Cover the pot and let the beans cook for 1 full hour.

Step 3

While the beans are cooking on the stove, preheat your oven to 300 degrees F and combine the sauce ingredients (listed above) together in a small bowl. Set the sauce aside until ready to use.

Step 4

Drain the beans. Make sure to reserve the cooking water. There should be about 4 cups of water leftover from the beans. It's ok if it doesn't equal 4 cups exactly, you can top it off with tap water to bring it to 4 cups.

Step 5

In a large dutch oven, heat the bacon grease or butter over a medium flame and add the onions, bell peppers and jalapeños. Saute them for 1-2 minutes, until the onions are clear. Add the sauce and 2 cups of the reserved water from the beans, stir and let everything simmer.

Step 6

Add the drained beans to the dutch oven and stir until the beans are fully coated in sauce. Top the beans and sauce off with the remaining 2 cups of cooking water, stir one more time, and cover the dutch oven.

Step 7

Transfer the dutch oven to the oven and bake for 2 hours. Stir the beans every 30-40 minutes or so. The beans should remain moist but you can add a small amount of boiling water to keep the beans from drying out, if needed. Once the 2 hours is up, uncover the beans and bake them for another 30 minutes.

Step 8

Let the beans cool slightly before serving.