Bourbon and Coke Baked Beans: This 'secret ingredient' side turns out classic flavor

About the recipe

Your guests may not be able to identify the “secret ingredients” in these baked beans, but they’ll love to learn that bourbon and Coca-Cola are in there. Turn it into a main course by serving with cornbread.

Turn this into a vegetarian or vegan dish by using vegetarian baked beans, eliminating the ground beef, and stirring in 12 ounces of meat substitute crumbles in the last 20 minutes of baking time.

Recipe courtesy of Michael McMackin.

Serves: 10

Hands On Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

2 (28-ounce) cans baked beans or pork and beans

1 (16-ounce) jar salsa

1 onion, chopped

5 tablespoons mustard, plus more to taste

3 tablespoons bourbon

3 tablespoons Coca-Cola

3 tablespoons ketchup, plus more to taste

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Tabasco sauce

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until no longer pink. Drain off any rendered fat and liquid. 

In a 2 1/2-quart baking dish, combine the browned beef with the beans, salsa, onion, mustard, bourbon, Coca-Cola, ketchup and brown sugar. Season to taste with the Tabasco, salt, pepper and additional ketchup and mustard. Stir well, cover and bake until the onions are translucent and the sauce is bubbly, about 2 hours. Serve hot.

Nutrition

Per 1-cup serving: 310 calories (percent of calories from fat, 30), 17 grams protein, 39 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams fiber, 11 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 34 milligrams cholesterol, 1,007 milligrams sodium.