Crockpot Bourbon Baked Beans

With BBQ season upon us I wanted to share a fun recipe I made recently.  Chris is a baked beans fan through and through, often times there's no option of grilling burgers without them.  Something about it being sacrilegious or something?  And people say I have the flare for the dramatics, just talk to Chris about burgers without baked beans and tell me who the Emmy goes to.  Anyways, we were invited to a cookout at our friends Rob and Emily's place and instead of the standard canned beans I decided lets do it up and try from scratch!  I found this recipe on Pinterest from one of my favorite blogs and with Bourbon in the title I pretty much knew Chris would like it. 

You'll have to forgive my little scatterbrain because I have no end result photos!  How I let that happen I have no idea but its too late now!

Crockpot Bourbon Baked Beans
(this makes almost 8 to 10 side servings)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. dry navy beans
- 10 slices thick cut bacon, chopped
- 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 c. water
- 3/4 c. preferred barbecue sauce
- 1 c. loosely packed brown sugar
- 1/4 c. ketchup
- 2 Tbsp. molasses
- 1 c. bourbon
- 1 1/2 mustard
- 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:
- The night before cover beans in a bowl with water.  Drain the following morning.

- In a large pot of water, bring beans to a boil.  Let simmer for 30-40 minutes then drain.
- While beans are cooking, heat a large pan over medium heat, add bacon and cook until crispy.
- Remove bacon from pan onto a paper toweled plate.  Leave rendered fat in pan and reduce heat to medium low.

You could actually chop this up a little more when it cools these were a little large.

- Add onion and cook until soft (8-10 min).  Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds and turn off heat.

- In the crockpot, add water, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, molasses, bourbon, mustard, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce then whisk to combine.

- Add beans, onions (plus bacon fat) and bacon to the crockpot.

- Cover, cook on low for 10-12 hours, stirring occasionally.
- After time is up, turn crockpot to warm setting or turn it off completely and let sit for 30 minutes to 2 hours.  This helps the sauce thicken up a bit.
-These are known to be thicker and more flavorful the next day.
- Serve warm and enjoy!

I didn't really love these, I'm not a huge bourbon fan so maybe that's why.  You can definitely taste the bourbon, that's for sure!  And I'm told the bourbon taste gets stronger over time in the fridge.  Chris, Rob and Emily all liked them though so maybe its a "me problem".  Anyways these take a little more thought beforehand since the beans need to soak and they cook in the crock for 10 plus hours.  I imagine you could maybe take a short cut and use canned beans just drain the liquid and rinse before adding.  This recipe could easily be halved for a smaller batch which I would highly recommend if only cooking for a small group as we had plenty of leftovers!

Well off to Wake Forest for Andrea's graduation!  Chris is already asking if we can go back to the place we had chicken and waffles.  In a recent conversation he listed discovering chicken and waffles and asking me to marry him as life changing events.  Again, I ask you who the Emmy goes to?  Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!
Steph