Kansas City Style Barbecue Baked Beans

Kansas City Style Barbecue Baked Beans incorporate all of the flavors of Kansas City barbecue – sweet, spicy, tangy, and just a little bit smokey. Could there be a more perfect side dish for this weekend’s big game? It doesn’t matter who you’re going to cheer for, these beans will be a favorite for both sides. For more authentic barbecue flavor, stir in a bit of your barbecued meat – pulled pork, brisket, or diced sausage.

My game day menu not only includes these beans, but I’m also serving Burnt Ends (aka Meat Candy), Vinegar Based Cole Slaw, Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad, and Tangy Green Bean Potato Salad. When the food is this good, the game doesn’t seem as important. Do you agree?

What Makes Kansas City Style Barbecue Different?

‘Secret’s in the sauce.’ Extra points if you know and recognize the movie quote!

Kansas City is proud of its thick, rich, and sweet tomato, molasses, and brown sugar-based sauce. Not only do they slather their mouthwatering smoked meats with it, but it’s also added to the baked beans. If you’ve never added molasses to baked beans,  then you’re in for a treat. These beans get a double dose of molasses from adding both KC barbecue sauce (with molasses) and a bit more molasses just for good measure.

Kansas City is also known for barbecuing almost any meat – beef, pork, chicken, sausage, and turkey unlike Texas barbecue, which typically is beef, or Memphis, whose specialty is pork ribs.

Pitmasters in Kansas City use a dry rub to flavor the meat and then slowly smoke it to perfection, slathering the sweet barbecue sauce on towards the end. The dry rub mimics a lot of the same flavors that are in the sauce. The rub is not aggressively spicy, like a Texas dry rub. It’s also less smokey, salty, and herbaceous than a Memphis rub.

Brown sugar, sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, mustard powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne are traditional ingredients in a KC rub. It goes equally well on beef, pork, or poultry. You can find some great rubs in the grocery store or online. It takes about 5 minutes to whip one up at home.

My take on Kansas City Style Barbecue Baked Beans uses canned baked beans to start rather than soaking and cooking dry pinto beans, which makes this recipe incredibly easy. It also incorporates both Kansas City-style sauce and dry rub for real authenticity.

What Ingredients Are Needed?

• Canned baked beans – I like using Bush’s, but any canned baked beans will work.
• Dark brown sugar
• Dark molasses
• Barbecue dry rub – use your favorite or make your own.
• Barbecue sauce – I used KC Masterpiece. Kansas City bbq sauce is sweeter than other types, so keep that in mind when choosing your sauce.
• Ketchup
• Apple cider vinegar – this helps balance the sweetness of the barbecue sauce, brown sugar, and molasses.
• Yellow mustard
• Bacon – for a smokey flavor. You could also use a cup of chopped barbecued meat. You will want the rendered fat from the bacon to saute the onions and garlic.
• Onions and garlic – mince the vegetables finely so that they ‘melt’ into the sauce.

Steps To Make This Recipe

1. Preheat the oven and spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Cook the bacon until crisp and use the rendered fat to saute the onions and garlic.
3. Stir together the beans, the onion and garlic mixture, dry rub, barbecue sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, mustard, vinegar, and ketchup in a bowl.
4. Pour into the casserole dish and bake in the oven until the sauce has reduced and is bubbly.

Tips And Variations

• Saute the onions and garlic until they’re very soft and caramelized. You want the vegetables to melt into the sauce of the beans and aren’t visible.
• Spraying the casserole dish with cooking spray will save a ton of time on cleanup.
• Because we’re starting with canned beans, you can adjust the cooking time to suit your needs or preferences. I like to bake the beans in the oven until the sauce thickens, but for ‘saucier’ results, the beans can be baked just until the flavors blend and the beans are hot.
• Toss in minced bell pepper, corn, or diced tomatoes to up the nutritional content.
• Increase the heat by adding minced jalapeno or hot sauce.
• French’s Crispy Fried Onions or crushed, buttery crackers make a delicious topping if you like a bit of crunch.

Please consider a few of our other barbecue mains and sides:

Mains

• Oven Barbecued Pulled Pork
• Spicy Sweet Chicken Kabobs
• Spicy Grilled Jerk Chicken
• Grilled Tequila Lime Chicken
• Grilled Piri Piri Chicken
• Grilled Barbecue Pork Chops
• Fall Of The Bone Baby Back Ribs
• Grilled Chili Lime Shrimp

Sides

• Grandma’s Pickled Vegetable Salad
• Tropical Slaw With Pineapple
• Classic Macaroni And Cheese
• Southern Potato Salad
• Southern Cornbread Salad
• Texas Pea Salad

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