today's secret ingredient?
BEER!!!
my infamous Beer-B-Q Baked Beans:
what you'll need:
2 cans of "pork and beans" BBQ sauce (your fave. I like to use 'head hunters') 1 bottle of beer (I've used everything from high life to stella. I've found the beer that had the BEST flavor was Sam Adams) Worcestershire sauce brown sugar chopped red onion 2 cloves minced garlic red pepper flakes yellow mustard chopped hot links (optional)
small-medium sized sauce pan that can go from the stove to the oven or grill.
drizzle just enough oil in the pan to coat the bottom, heat it up. sautee the garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes. This all depends on your taste, so if you want it spicy add a lot, if you just want a nice hint of heat in the background add a little. if you're going to add the hotlinks, do it here. crack open the bottle of beer. Pour half of it in the pan. Enjoy the other half as you cook. add a few dashes of worcestershire sauce and a small handful of brown sugar. stir until thoroughly mixed. next add the two cans of pork and beans. drain one can- dump the other can as is. squeeze on just a bit of yellow mustard. add about 1/4 cup BBQ sauce. Less if you use the really thick "cheap" kind. again, stir until mixed. It's going to look really watery, do not be alarmed!! the sugars in the beer and the brown sugar plus the starch from the beans will thicken as it cooks.
take it off the stove. now this is the best part... take a handful of brown sugar and evenly sprinkle over the top of the beans, and repeat. cover pan with foil and stab some holes in it.
toss pan on the grill or in a 425 oven for at least 30 minutes. an hour is best. DO NOT stir the beans. the whole point of putting the sugar on top was to create a crispy, caramelized skin. the last 10 min of cooking remove foil- if cooking in the oven turn the broiler on for about 5 min to really make that sugar on top crisp up.
allow beans to cool off for about 5-10 minutes for the sugar to cool down.
freakin good. The sweetness of the brown sugar and the spiciness from the red pepper flakes with the background taste of beer.
it's a good fucking thing indeed.
-------------------- We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience.
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