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Homemade Maple Bacon Baked Beans in the Instant Pot

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Baked beans are a classic side dish for good reason. This recipe flavors delicious baked beans with maple and bacon. They start with dried beans and can still be made in a couple of hours with the help of a pressure cooker.

looking across a bowl of homemade maple baked beans with pressure cooker in background.

Maple bacon baked beans are the perfect side dish to BBQ, fried fish, burgers and more.  This is a great way to get a tasty and belly filling side dish put together that can feed a crowd. 

You start with dried beans and end up with a hearty dish people will want seconds of. Plus due to the magic of the pressure cooker, there is no soaking required!

Saving time making baked beans in an electric pressure cooker

It is rare that you go to a cookout or carry-in that doesn’t involve some sort of baked beans. They are a hearty and flavorful side dish.

To make them from scratch can take quite a bit of time though. You have to soak the beans, cook the beans, flavor the beans and then let it all cook together until the flavors have melded and the sauce has thickened.

Luckily you can speed up the process by using an instant pot! There is no soaking of the beans and the cooking goes much more quickly.

cutting board filled with chopped bacon, onions and green pepper in front of instant pot for maple baked beans.

That’s right, you can have from scratch beans starting with a very economical bag of dried beans and turn it into flavorful baked beans in just a couple of hours. The best part is, most of that time is hands off!

Just dump the rinsed and sorted beans into the pot and fill it up to the 2/3 full line with water. Then let the pressure cooker take those hard dry beans and turn them into velvety cooked beans quick as can be.

The magic doesn’t stop there.  After draining the beans, use the saute feature to cook up some bacon.

This allows you to make this whole dish with only one pressure cooker insert to clean! Crumble the bacon and use a little of the grease to soften the onions and peppers.

Now add the beans back to the pot and build the sauce. All of those layers of flavor are going to make the final result so good.

looking across a bowl of homemade maple baked beans with pressure cooker in background.

Maple and bacon are the perfect flavor combination for baked beans

When building the sauce, you have a number of options.  You could go classic ketchup based sauce with plenty of brown sugar and you would have delicious beans.     

Baked beans are also delicious without ketchup or with very little. That helps the flavor of the maple syrup and bacon to shine through even more.

This time I thought it would be fun to go somewhere in the middle.  So the sauce it technically ketchup based, but that is not the full flavor profile.     

I used a bit of our favorite BBQ sauce to add a roundness to the ketchup.  Plus it does a lot of the seasoning work for you.     

The maple syrup adds that warm sweet depth of flavor.  The bacon adds that salty smokiness and the two work together in sweet harmony.       

In the end you have a thicker sauce that is loaded with flavor, none of which are overpowering. It is just enticing you to take another bite.

White serving bowl filled with maple bacon baked beans in front of instant pot.

What if I am not feeding a crowd?

You can easily cut the recipe in half.  Just follow the same basic directions of cooking the beans and building the sauce only in smaller quantities. 

Better yet, go ahead and make the whole batch.  As with a lot of things, the leftovers can be even better than they were on the first day.

I have had great luck freezing baked beans and cowboy beans as well.  Just portion them out into meal sized containers and warm them up as needed. 

That will help get delicious homemade baked beans on the table on a busy weeknight without a problem. Easy peasy!

More great instant pot bean recipes:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, but still want to make great baked beans, my friend at Dance Around the Kitchen has a great recipe for baked beans from scratch. They are made the old-fashioned way without a pressure cooker.

looking across a bowl of homemade maple baked beans with pressure cooker in background.

Homemade Maple Bacon Baked Beans in the Instant Pot

Carlee
Baked beans are a classic side dish for good reason. This recipe flavors delicious baked beans with maple and bacon. They start with dried beans and can still be made in a couple of hours with the help of a pressure cooker.
4.64 from 11 ratings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes
Course Side Dishes
Cuisine American
Servings 24 Servings
Calories 164 kcal

Ingredients
 

  • 2 pounds dry navy beans pinto or great northern beans
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ pound bacon
  • 1 onion diced
  • 1 bell pepper diced
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 cup barbecue sauce
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 3 Tablespoons spicy brown mustard
  • ¼ cup apple cinder vinegar
  • ¾ cup maple syrup

Instructions
 

  • Rinse the beans, then put in a 6 or 8 quart instant pot insert. Fill to the 2/3 full mark with water. Add salt and baking soda.
    2 pounds dry navy beans, 2 teaspoons salt, ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • Cook on high pressure for 25 minutes.  Let pressure release naturally for 15 minutes, then quick release.
  • Drain beans in strainer and set aside.
  • Chop bacon into small pieces. Turn instant pot to saute and add bacon to the pot.  Cook until it starts getting crispy, stirring frequently.
    ½ pound bacon
  • Drain most of the grease, leaving about 1 Tablespoon. Add diced onion and pepper, cooking until tender.
    1 onion, 1 bell pepper
  • Add water, scraping the bottom of the pan to get all of the bits up. 
    ¼ cup water
  • Add bbq sauce, ketchup, mustard, vinegar and syrup. Stir to combine. 
    1 cup barbecue sauce, ½ cup ketchup, 3 Tablespoons spicy brown mustard, ¼ cup apple cinder vinegar, ¾ cup maple syrup
  • Add beans and stir to coat.
  • Turn instant pot to slow cook and cook for at least 1/2 hour. 

Notes

Pinto or great northern beans also work in this recipe.
Adding the baking soda to the water with the beans helps to soften the beans while they cook.
 

Nutrition

Serving: 1ServingCalories: 164kcalCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 8gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 525mgFiber: 4gSugar: 12g
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Recipe Rating




Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies

Friday 4th of October 2019

These sound great! And, it just feels like the right weather to have a nice side dish of beans!

Julie's Creative Lifestyle

Friday 13th of September 2019

Making beans in the IP is so fast and easy Carlee. :) Your recipe looks so good and I bet tastes delicious! I will have to try making them in my IP sometime. Thanks for the recipe and have a Happy Friday and weekend!

Carlee

Saturday 14th of September 2019

Thank you, Julie!

Andrea Nine

Friday 13th of September 2019

I love me some savory beans, these look sooo yummy and hearty! Have a great weekend!

Carlee

Saturday 14th of September 2019

They are so good and the IP makes it so much faster!