Easy Southern Baked Beans With Ground Beef Recipe

Who wouldn’t love an amazing and easy side dish that you can throw together in minutes and that tastes AMAZING?! A bean recipe that’s perfect for summer cookouts or winter dinners! These baked beans are a super easy recipe that is a hearty side dish that you’ll find yourself making over and over again. It’s perfect for a weeknight meal, a potluck, or even family gatherings. The addition of ground beef to this baked bean casserole really adds to their amazingness! These are my favorite beans and it’s the recipe from my childhood.

So, what do we need to make these meaty baked beans? Just a few simple ingredients and we will be off to the races!

• 2 28-oz cans of baked beans (I get the brown sugar added kind)
• 1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar – Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar both work equally well. If I have it on hand, I will use the dark brown sugar first, but either light or dark works perfectly.
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 Tablespoons brown mustard – feel free to get spicy brown mustard if you like your beans to have a little kick! Dijon mustard (which will give more of a sweet flavor) or yellow mustard will work beautifully too. Pretty much any kind of mustard you have on hand will work perfectly.
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

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Here are some of my favorite kitchen gadgets and pots and pans that will help you make this easy baked beans recipe!

• 9×13 baking casserole dish – I have this dish and I adore it because it comes with a lid that fits it. No more fooling with aluminum foil or plastic wrap! Plus it keeps the smells of your dish inside the dish and not in your refrigerator as foil and plastic wrap do!
• Large non-stick skillet – I like this one because it comes with a lid. If I’m going to buy a pan or pot I like to have as many options to use it as possible!
• Oven Mitts – This is a heavy and hot dish! Make sure you have good oven mitts to protect your hands!
• Flat Whisk – I adore this OXO Good Grips Flat Whisk. If I couldn’t have anything else in the kitchen, THIS is the gadget I’d keep. It’s the best whisk I’ve ever had and the flat part of the design is such a game-changer for making things in the pan! I could not recommend this more! This is the only brand I’ve ever had, and I’m a big fan of all the OXO products.
• Woven Basket Serving Trays – This is a basket to hold your glass pan. It holds your hot pan for you while you transport it to the table, and then serves as a trivet to keep your hot dish from burning the table as well.
• Can Opener – It took me a long time to find a hand-held can opener that I really liked. This is it! Again, it’s the OXO Good Grips brand, and I love it. I find a big can opener too bulky and it takes up too much countertop space.

Preheat your oven to 375*. This will go quickly, as it’s a super-fast recipe to assemble!!

In a large skillet, brown your ground beef over medium-high heat and drain off the excess grease.

Step 3

While ground beef is browning, in a medium-sized bowl, combine mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar.

Step 4

In your 9×13 baking dish, combine beans, ground beef, and ketchup brown sugar mixture.

Step 5

Mix all ingredients well until combined. (If you don’t have a big 9×13 casserole dish, these will also bake really well in a large dutch oven!)

Step 6

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil for the first 20 minutes and remove the foil for the final 25 minutes.

The beans are done when they are bubbling on the sides.

So, what kind of dishes pair well with these delicious baked beans? And what kind of main dish goes best with hearty baked beans?

Anything you’d like! They are perfect for classic hamburgers and hot dogs at a cookout. It’s perfect for BBQ dinners! And pulled pork sandwiches! Beyond that, I love them with grilled chicken, pork chops, and even steaks! Did you know in England the British commonly eat baked beans for breakfast? I’ve never had that, but let me tell you, I’m HERE FOR THAT! Doesn’t that sound so good??!!

If you wanted a fancier look, you could always make the bean mixture in a large bowl and then put the bean mixture into individual ramekins to bake them and serve them on the side of your dish in individual portions.

Store your leftover baked beans in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Heat them up or eat them cold. They are delicious either way!

Did you know you can freeze baked beans? You sure can! If I have a ton of leftovers, I’ll freeze them in an aluminum foil pan (usually an 8×8 like these) so that I don’t have a dish tied up in the freezer, and it’s ready to throw in the oven on the night I need it for dinner.

If you only have 1-2 servings of the beans left, you can just freeze them in a freezer-safe ziplock bag. I like to keep the quart-size freezer bags handy for occasions just like this. It makes for a perfect lunch or side dish for two and you don’t waste the last bit of leftovers!

Here are a few posts all about how to freeze baked beans:

• Insanely Good Recipes – “Can You Freeze Baked Beans?”
• Greedy Gourmet – “Can You Freeze Baked Beans?”
• Does It Go Bad? – “Freezing Baked Beans”

For sure! If you prefer no meat at all, these are still super delicious baked beans!

Absolutely! This would still be amazing with ground turkey, pork, or chicken! Maybe even some smoked sausage! YUMMO!

For sure!!! Feel free to saute up some chopped green pepper (or red bell peppers!) and onions with the ground beef and add them to the mix. They add a delicious flavor to the baked beans!

You absolutely can! I like the caramelization you get on the top when you bake the beans, but they are equally delicious in the slow cooker. Go ahead and brown your ground beef first, combine all the ingredients in your slow cooker and then let them warm in the crockpot on low for 2-4 hours.

These are delicious as barbeque beans! If I’m making them that way, I use 3/4 cup barbecue sauce (I use bottled if I don’t have any homemade bbq sauce handy) and 1/4 cup ketchup. Add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and a few dashes of liquid smoke for great flavor. The liquid smoke gives you the smoky flavors you want in a barbecue baked bean. Also, if I’m going with the barbeque flavor, I usually add chopped onions and green peppers to the ground beef mixture. Delicious!! I would consider the beans more of a “Cowboy Beans” recipe by the time you put in those additions.

You can. I don’t think you’d get the same flavor. I’ve never tried it. I love using the canned baked beans as my base because I’m starting with the small beans and they already have some flavor infused. Kidney beans and black beans could be added in addition to the canned beans for sure and would work well nicely. I just don’t think I would totally omit the canned baked beans.

Definitely! As it is, there really is not any spicy spice (heat-wise) in this recipe. You can always add some red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper for a milder heat. If you are looking for a medium heat level you could add in some Tabasco sauce or some Texas Pete sauce to kick it up a notch. If you want to really get spicy, toss in some chili peppers or jalapeno peppers.

I adore baked beans. And baked beans with hamburger meat in them? YES PLEASE! These easy baked beans are a great recipe to have in your side dish repertoire! I love that they are so versatile and that you can totally change the recipe up for whatever the occasion calls for. Try these out and let me know what you did and if you love them!!

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