Best Ever Baked Beans

Listen, nobody’s going to judge you for starting with canned beans when the end result tastes like this.

Five pounds of pork and beans get loaded up with molasses, barbecue sauce, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, chopped onion, celery, and red bell pepper.

Lay bacon strips across the top, slide the whole thing into the smoker, and let wood smoke do what it does best for two and a half hours.

The beans come out sticky, sweet, smoky, and impossibly savory with bacon rendered crisp on top.

This is the side dish that steals the spotlight at every cookout.

Pro Tips

• Use a sturdy ovenproof container or a disposable aluminum pan. The smoker gets messy, and you don’t want to scrub your good Dutch oven.
• Thick-cut bacon works best. Thin bacon crisps up too fast and turns brittle before the beans have time to absorb the smoke.
• Stir once about halfway through if the edges are cooking faster than the center.
• These reheat beautifully, so make the full batch even if you’re feeding a smaller crew. Leftover smoked baked beans are a gift.