Root Beer adds a little spice and some sweetness to these baked beans with ground beef and bacon. Sure to be a cookout favorite.
Can you believe it’s almost Memorial Day? The cookout/grilling season is getting ready to kick into high gear. And no cookout should be without baked beans.
One thing I really love to do, as I think a lot of southerners do, is cook with soft drinks. Cokes we call them. In the south we don’t really say soda or pop. Everything is a coke. Except maybe root beer. I’m not sure root beer ever gets called coke.
But root beer is an all together different kind of soft drink and it is actually the only soft drink I don’t like to drink. I’m really not fond of its spicy taste. Which is weird I know since I love spice.
There’s just something about the spice of root beer that is not appealing to me.
I do however like to cook with root beer. I love Root Beer Glazed Chicken and now I have a Root Beer Baked Bean recipe to add to my repertoire.
The spice of root beer works wonderfully as a flavoring for food, lending a little spice and some definite sweetness.
One day I’m thinking about having an all soft drink inspired meal. Maybe some 7-up Biscuits, Dr. Pepper Ribs, Root Beer Baked Beans, a Cheerwine Cocktail, and of course Coca Cola Cake. Fun!!!
Note: The root beer adds quite a bit of liquid to the beans so you need to cook them uncovered for a long time to get nice and thick.
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Root Beer Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 4 bacon slices
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3 (16-ounce) cans pork and beans,, undrained
- 3/4 cup root beer
- 1/2 cup hickory-smoked barbecue sauce
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish.
- Brown ground beef in a skillet, breaking it into small pieces with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Drain and set aside.
- Wipe skillet clean and cook bacon until crisp. Set bacon aside and crumble when cool.
- Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat. Saute onion in bacon fat until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Mix together all ingredients including crumbled bacon and place in baking dish.
- Bake uncovered for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Are you a baked bean lover? Try these Baked Beans with Smoked Sausage. They are incredible!
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Just a little history! We have been using root beer among a lot of other ingreidents for about 4 years, now. Evidently, back maybe in the fifties at least, my inlaw’s family was using it in beans. When we were going through their old papers, my husband ran across a recipe that had it in our normal family recipe. It must have just gotten left out sometime along the way and no one missed it. But, it is a great addition now, and we don’t have to add soo much brown sugar or molasses to get them sweet enough. It does take a little longer to cook, please don’t use the diet version, not the same. We do like them to sit a little bit to thicken up as they cool, runny baked beans are not appetizing.
Very interesting Tricia! Didn’t know using root beer in beans went that far back.
Do you think these would be good in the crockpot or does it really need to be baked?
They won’t thicken up in the crockpot like they do in the oven since no evaporation can occur. If you cut back on the root beer some, they shouldn’t be too soupy though. And I think you can purchase root beer extract online which you could try adding a few drops of for more flavor.
My husband loves root beer. I am not a fan of drinking it either but I can imagine the wonderful depth and flavor it adds. These baked beans look wonderful!
Love this idea!! Root beer sounds like an awesome flavor for sweet ‘n savory baked beans!
Wow! Those are some good looking beans. I love the consistency and of course what a cool twist by using root beer. I definitely look forward to giving the recipe a try this summer.
I really like spicy root beer and there’s a brewery down the street. Looks like I’ll be picking some up so I can make this this weekend. 🙂
You don’t like root beer?!?! It’s my fav! I could live without all other “cokes” for the rest of my life 🙂
These baked beans sound delicious! I love baked beans and I love root beer, so I’m fairly certain these will be my new favorites!
Interesting recipe!
These baked beans look delicious. I would never have thought of adding root beer which would give it a distinctive flavor. Thanks for sharing, we just bought a new grill and Washington weather is warming up! 🙂
The root beer really does add a nice flavor! You take a little longer to warm up in Washington than we do in South Carolina. It felt like summer here last week. Happy grilling!
These look so good- love the flavours!