Slow Cooker Bourbon Baked Beans Recipe

"These are the best baked beans! If you've never made beans in a slow cooker you will know how easy and stress-free it is, you do however need a little patience to wait until they are done and ready to eat The flavors of bourbon, maple syrup, brown sugar, molasses, BBQ sauce intensify during the long cooking time making an incredible depth of flavors, these are sweet but with a bit of heat, robust yet smooth and SOOOO good! Since there is a long cooking time DO NOT USE CANNED BEANS or you will have mushy soft beans! Yield about 9-10 (1-cup) servings"

Step by Step Method

Step 1

Rinse and sort the dry beans in a colander over the sink.

Step 2

Add beans to a large pot and cover with 9-10 cups water. Let the beans soak about 8 hours (For a time-saver use the 1 hour rapid soak method. Bring beans and 8 cups water to a boil. Allow beans to boil rapidly for 3 minutes, uncovered. Shut the heat off, cover the pot, and let stand for 1 hour -- either the overnight soak method or the 1 hour rapid soak method, drain soaking water and rinse beans well under running water in a colander over the sink.

Step 3

Transfer the soaked beans back to the pot. Cover with 6 cups water, and allow to simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes, or until quite tender but not really soft (only cook about 75% of the way as they will be transferred to a slow cooker where they'll cook for 12 hours so you don't want them or need them to be totally done and very soft or they shouldn't be overly hard either --taste a few beans, you'll know when you bite into them).

Step 4

While beans are simmering, combine chopped onion with all remaining ingredients in the slow cooker until very well combined

Step 5

After beans are about done cooking 75% drain then add them to the slow cooker. Stir until combined with all the ingredients.

Step 6

Cover and cook on low heat for about 10 hours (start checking at about 8 hours), or until beans are tender, the sauce has thickened and reduced dramatically, the flavor is concentrated (If after 10 hours your sauce is still liquidy or on the thin side, remove the lid, increase the heat to the highest setting, and cook uncovered until thickened to desired level (please note all slow cookers cook differently so you may need more of less cooking time).