Skillet Smoky Beans with Bacon
Canned baked beans, bacon, and enough mustard and paprika to make them taste like they cooked all day.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 10 oz
- cal / oz
- 33
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Thick-cut bacon | 4 slices | chopped at home, carried in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow onion | 1 small | diced at home to save a cutting board |
| Canned baked beans | 2 cans, 15 oz each | do not drain |
| Ketchup | 1/4 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Yellow mustard | 1 tbsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp |
Method
- Set a cast iron skillet on a grate over steady coals, or on a stove at medium. Big flames will burn the sauce before the beans are hot.
- Cook the bacon until the fat renders and the edges firm up, about 6 minutes. Leave the fat in the pan.
- Add the onion and cook until it goes soft and translucent, another 5 minutes.
- Pour in both cans of beans with their liquid. Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and paprika.
- Simmer 20 to 25 minutes, scraping the bottom every few minutes so nothing sticks. It is done when the sauce coats the spoon instead of running off it.
- Pull the pan off the heat and let it sit five minutes. It thickens more as it cools.
This is a car-camping side, not a pack-in meal. Two cans of beans and a cooler item are heavy, and there is no way around that. What you get for the weight is a pot that feeds six off one burner and holds heat long enough that it is still warm when the grilled food finally comes off.
The cooking is mostly about heat control. Brown sugar and ketchup scorch fast, so the pan wants coals or a moderate flame, never a tall fire. Cast iron helps because it evens out hot spots, and the browned crust you scrape off the bottom is where most of the flavor ends up. Twenty minutes of slow simmer is what turns canned beans into something that tastes cooked rather than opened.
Packing
Bacon and onion go in sealed containers in the cooler, chopped before you leave. The cans, ketchup, sugar, mustard, and paprika ride in the food bin. Premix the sugar and paprika into a small jar if you want fewer things to open in the dark.
Variations
- A splash of cider vinegar at the end cuts the sweetness if the sauce reads like dessert.
- Swap the bacon for a can of Vienna sausage or diced summer sausage and it becomes shelf-stable end to end.
- Leftovers thicken overnight in the cooler. Reheat with a splash of water and put them next to eggs.
https://camprecipes.com/cast-iron-smoky-baked-beans-with-bacon