Baked Beans with Brown Sugar Recipe

Barbecue meats need a great side dish.

It is time for cookouts and time to get the grill fired up. If you have not already, what are you waiting for? Last weekend we enjoyed two wonderful, eventful days and ended it with my ever-loving BBQ ribs with my rub and mopping sauce. For sides, I bought corn fresh from Florida, created a pork and bean casserole and made a mac salad that was out of sight. I'll share that one later but today, I am telling you how I made my new favorite baked beans plus plugging a favorite brand I grew up enjoying.

I have always supported local and regional companies whenever I can. If they make it and I need it, I will pretty much buy the product that is made as close to home as possible. I just enjoy buying local produce, sausage and meats from southern Alabama and anything else that is produced in our state rather than support outside sources. It is the right thing to do. Many of you know how I feel about supporting our local seafood industry and I do the same with spice mixes, seasonings and hot sauces as well as everything else I can.

Vintage ALAGA Ad

100 years ago, ALAGA Syrup Company found the secret formula for the “Sweetness of the South” when the original cane syrup recipe was created in 1906. ALAGA syrup was born out of love, and the “feeling of family” when a Georgia boy met and married an Alabama girl. ALAGA Syrup-Whitfield Foods Inc. is proud to co-pack for some of the finest companies in America right in the heart of Alabama, in Montgomery. In addition to producing ALAGA, Yellow Label and Plow Boy brands are also under their product line. The ALAGA line includes Original Cane Flavored Syrup; the famous Bear Pancake and Waffle Maple, Butter Maple and Sugar Free Syrups; Pancake and Waffle Real Cane Syrup and Light Corn Syrup.

My new favorite

Another “hot” new product is their “Sweet Hot Alabama” ALAGA Hot Sauce. Taking a Louisiana tradition, they made it even better by adding just the right amount of Alabama’s ALAGA Original Cane Syrup. And I can attest, it is one fine hot sauce folks. ALAGA Hot Sauce is perfect for hot wings, vegetable dips, casseroles and all your grilling needs. It certainly adds an enjoyable depth in my version of baked beans I am sharing today.  Enjoy!

Southern Baked Beans 
with Bacon Onion Jam
serves 8-10

3 thick slices smoked bacon (like Conecuh brand), chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped sweet onion, divided
1/2 cup chopped sweet green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped sweet red bell pepper
1 tablespoon southern bourbon
1/3 cup brown sugar, divided or 1/4 cup Alaga Plow Boy Syrup
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ALAGA Southern Seasoning Hot Sauce
2 -11 oz cans pork and beans with liquid
1 -15 oz can southern white beans or pintos, drained and rinsed

Heat a small skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the bacon and cook until brown. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon. Strain all but 2 tablespoons of bacon renderings from the skillet, add 1 cup of chopped sweet onion and the green bell pepper. Stir to coat in the oil and reduce heat to medium low heat. Lightly salt and pepper the mixture and stir in 1 teaspoon of the brown sugar along with the bourbon. Allow to cook about 30 minutes or until onions are golden brown stirring every so often. Remove from heat, stir in the bacon and add to a medium bowl.


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 2-quart casserole with oil or cooking spray.

To the caramelized bacon onion mixture, add the remaining sweet onion, remaining brown sugar, the chopped red pepper, mustard, ketchup, liquid smoke, Alaga Hot Sauce and stir to mix. Fold in the pork and beans.

Add the white beans to the casserole and spoon in the pork and bean mixture. Carefully fold to blend. Place in the oven and cook 40 minutes. Stir the baked beans and cook another 20 minutes. Remove and let set about 5 minutes before serving.