Bourbon and Bacon Baked Beans

Love your heart
According to the American Heart Association eating beans as part of a heart healthy diet and lifestyle may help improve your blood cholesterol, a leading cause of heart disease. Adding beans to your diet may help keep you feeling full longer.

What a great side dish for Barbeque. I demonstrated this recipe in a BBQ cooking class and it was a hit. To make it your favorite recipe for baked beans see my tips. There is also a vegetarian option.

Bush Beans are a wiser choice

Serves 8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
Â¼ cup ketchup
Â½ cup packed brown sugar
Â½ cup bourbon
5 strips good quality bacon
3- 15 ounce cans pork and beans, drained

Instructions:

In a skillet, fry 2 strips of bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and crumble. Add onions to hot grease, sautÃ© until soft. Add garlic, mustard, cumin, chili powder and sautÃ© for 5 minutes.

Add Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, brown sugar and bourbon. Cook for 3 more minutes.

Pour beans into a baking dish and add garlic mixture and crumbled bacon, mix together.

Top with remaining bacon and cook covered at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until thickened.

Terriâ€™s Tips:

To develop more flavors slow cook at 300 degrees for 2 hours. Check after one hour to make sure beans are not dry. If they are add about Â½ cup water or more if needed.

Drain canned beans in a colander and rinse with water to remove some of the excess salt; or buy canned beans with no salt added if they have them at your store.

Add any combination of the following to change it up a bit:

1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely minced
1/2 pound ground beef or ground sausage, cooked
Top with 4-6 ounces grated cheddar cheese

Make a vegetarian option: Leave out the bacon and buy Bush Bean vegetarian option