Virginia Baked Beans?
I have been slowly working on this Virginia Baked Beans recipe for a few years now. I knew I got it right when my husband stopped asking me to buy the canned stuff. I love that my Yankee-born and bred husband is starting to appreciate southern food.
We’ve been together 25 years so these things are a big deal. I call these Virginia Baked Beans because, well, I’m from Virginia and this is my recipe. I’m a smart one, huh? I’m pretty picky about my baked beans. They gotta have that right mix of sweet and smoky. I think you are really going to like this combination of flavors if you give it a try.
Ingredients:
½ pound bacon
1 medium onion, diced
3 (16 oz.) cans pork & beans (undrained)
3 tbsp. mustard (yellow, spicy brown or dijon if you’re feelin’ fancy)
¾ cup maple-flavored syrup (or the real stuff)
2/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a skillet, fry bacon until crispy, then crumble bacon. Don’t toss the bacon drippings. You should have about a 1/4 cup of drippings left in the pan if your bacon was fatty enough. 
Finely chop the onions and saute them (over medium heat) in the bacon drippings until onion is clear (it will brown up a little too from frying in the bacon fat). If you used very lean bacon (which I don’t recommend) then you may have to add a tablespoon or so of oil. But the bacon fat is really what adds the flavor here.
Now mix all the remaining ingredients together (including crumbled bacon.) Stir throughly. Pour into a 9×13 baking dish.
Cover with aluminum foil and put into preheated oven for about an hour (until brown and bubbly.)
If you like your beans to be a little less sauce-y (which I do), take the aluminum foil off and bake for about another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will thicken the sauce up. Depending on your oven, it may take up to another 45 minutes. Just be sure to stir beans occasionally.
Stir before serving.
Cook’s note: If your bacon produced a large amount of grease then you may need to set aside some of it for later use. You really don’t want more than about a 1/4 cup of bacon grease for this recipe. Anything more and it will be greasy baked beans.
Enjoy!
Virginia Baked Beans
Ingredients
- ½ pound bacon
- 1 medium onion
- 3 16 oz cans pork and beans undrained
- 3 tbsp mustard yellow or dijon
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 2/3 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- In a skillet, fry bacon until crispy, then crumble bacon.
- Don’t toss the bacon drippings.
- You should have about a 1/4 cup of drippings left in the pan if your bacon was fatty enough.
- Finely chop the onions and saute them over medium heat in the bacon drippings until onion is clear (it will brown up a little too from frying in the bacon fat).
- If you used very lean bacon (which I don’t recommend) then you may have to add a tablespoon or so of oil.
- But the bacon fat is really what adds the flavor here.
- At this point I will add in a little salt & pepper.
- Now mix all the remaining ingredients together and add the onions (with bacon fat) and crumbled bacon and pour into a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and bake covered (with aluminum foil) for about an hour (until brown and bubbly).
- If you like your beans to be a little less sauce-y (which I do), take the aluminum foil off and bake for about another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- This will thicken up the sauce a bit.
- Depending on your oven, this could take up to 45 minutes.
- Just be sure to stir the beans occasionally.
- The longer you cook it, the thicker it will get.
- Stir before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Veronica Gantley says
February 19, 2011 at 5:57 pmThis looks really good. It brings me home.
Cheryl says
February 21, 2011 at 12:52 am::Sigh:: I love baked beans. They look so, so very good and make me think of all things summer. Thank you for starting the season early for us!
Belle says
February 25, 2013 at 4:36 pmLove the recipes. Keep them coming 🙂
Kathy says
June 9, 2013 at 12:40 amI added a chopped bell pepper to this recipe, oh so good!!!!
Ann says
July 2, 2013 at 6:44 pmWe have made these for years. Sometime I brown hamburger or hotdogs and add that to the dish before baking. Delish!
Anonymous says
October 25, 2014 at 12:23 amCan I use this recipe but use a crock pot instead of the oven?
How long do you recommend it being in the crock pot for?
Teresa says
February 9, 2016 at 4:10 pmThis was a fantastic recipe! Made this for my husband who is a southerner and my parents. They loved the beans. I also cooked them longer without the foil to thicken them up .
Tricialen Len says
April 27, 2016 at 11:29 pmI have been making these beans for 40 years! Never fail…always delicious!
April Chancellor says
July 21, 2016 at 8:50 pmBest baked beans I've ever had! Everyone who has tried them, LOVED them!
Brandie (The Country Cook) says
July 22, 2016 at 1:12 pmThanks April, so glad everyone loves them as much as we do!
Ginger cooper says
June 30, 2018 at 3:04 pmGood recipe you came up with, I have been making baked beans for 40 years using all the same ingredients you used except I use Grandma Brown’s baked beans instead of pork and beans! I would never be able to write down my recipe though because I never measured anything…