Better Than Best Baked Beans!

Total Time: 4 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 20
• 1 lb bacon
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 (28 ounce) cans baked beans, any flavor, i use bushes
• 1/4 cup ketchup (more or less to taste)
• 2 cups chunky salsa, i use chi chi's or pace (mild, medium or hot to taste, i use hot)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar or 2 tablespoons honey or 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin (to taste, i free sprinkle it and add more to taste as it slo cooks)
• 1 tablespoon red chili pepper flakes, or to taste

Recipe

• 1 fry bacon in frying pan.
• 2 i cut into bite sized pieces with scissors before frying.
• 3 as bacon fries, chop onions.
• 4 when bacon is finished, remove from pan,drain and wrap in paper towels to absorb grease.
• 5 saute onions in bacon fat til translucent.
• 6 pour into strainer, but not necessary to rinse or pat with paper towel.
• 7 for me, straining is enough.
• 8 pour canned beans into 6 qt crockpot.
• 9 stir in bacon, onions, ketchup, salsa, brown sugar and cumin, mixing very well.
• 10 stir often.
• 11 cook on high for 3 hours, then switch to low for another two hours, well ahead of serving as it tastes even better the longer you allow the flavors to blend together.
• 12 if i'm making them for a party, i make them early morning for that night or even the night before, cooking overnight in the crockpot.
• 13 they will stay hot for a long time and you can just turn the crockpot back on a couple hours before serving.
• 14 i taste them often as they're cooking and add more salsa and/or cumin to taste.
• 15 we like to taste the cumin, but if you don't that's ok.
• 16 recipe is easily halved or doubled.
• 17 i never measure anything- i add all ingredients for our taste preferences.
• 18 freezes very well and you can reheat in microwave or in crockpot once thawed.
• 19 leftovers are great the next day!