Baked Beans (Kens)

This right here is the recipe that gets requested at every cookout, every tailgate, every family reunion. There’s a reason for that.

Six pounds of canned beans get half-drained and piled into a crockpot with browned ground beef, a full pound of crispy bacon, and a sauce that doesn’t hold back: ketchup, yellow mustard, brown sugar, maple syrup, liquid smoke, garlic powder, ginger, and as much hot sauce as you can handle.

Everything is technically cooked when it goes in, but six hours on low transforms it. The flavors meld, the sauce thickens, and the whole pot turns into something deeply smoky, sweet, meaty, and addictive.

Ken says to spice it up to your taste with cayenne and habanero powder. Take his advice.

Pro Tips

• Drain only half the liquid from the beans. That starchy bean broth helps the sauce thicken during the long cook.
• Brown the ground beef and cook the bacon before adding to the crockpot. Raw meat in a slow cooker with beans doesn’t develop the same flavor.
• This scales easily. Double it for a big crowd and use a roasting pan if your crockpot can’t hold it all.