Dr. Pepper Baked Beans with Bacon

These homemade Dr. Pepper baked beans with bacon start with simple canned beans and turn into a sweet, salty, glazy, delicious side dish. Easy stovetop-to-oven preparation, all in one skillet.

One long term goal I’ve had for this blog is to fill in any recipe “gaps” so that this site is a useful resource for as many occasions and meals as possible.

Even after eight years of blogging full time, my recipe library is still missing things like an Easter ham (although I have a crock pot green bean casserole recipe to go with it!) and prime rib (although I have the mashed potatoes with heavy cream to go with it!).

A gap that I’m filling in today is cast iron baked beans, with this Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe. It’s one of my very favorite ribs side dishes, or just about anything else.

After a lot of time spent researching how to make baked beans with bacon, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s three main ways to make them:

1.) Buy the ready-to-eat canned kind and heat them up. Personally, I don’t prefer these. There’s also a 1a.) where people will buy canned prepared baked beans and then “doctor them up” by adding bacon and other things, but I’ll pass.

2.) Make them completely from scratch, using dried beans. To be honest, I don’t have much experience cooking with dried beans except for my recipe for ham and bean soup, as I prefer using canned beans for things like leftover turkey chili and taco soup slow cooker.

3.) Start with plain, canned beans and add all of the ingredients to make them into sweet, salty, glazy, delicious baked beans. This is what I’m doing with this Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe.

What is in this Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe?

• canned beans – I used Great Northern beans for these Dr. Pepper beans, but just about any canned bean can be a blank slate for baked beans, including cannellini, pinto and navy beans.
• bacon – no need to cook the bacon in the oven first for these Dr. pepper beans with bacon, we’ll be cooking it right in the skillet! Real pork bacon is best here (and in bacon grease gravy), so save the turkey bacon for breakast, and check out my tutorials on how to cook turkey bacon in the oven and turkey bacon air fryer.
• onion – half of an onion; yellow or white is best. But red onion would also work for cast iron baked beans if you have it.
• garlic – two cloves, mince them up!
• Dr. Pepper – or any type of cola, like root beer or Coca Cola.
• molasses – this adds sweetness to this Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe and make the beans glazy.
• ketchup – this adds a bit of acidity and umami to the skillet baked beans.
• light brown sugar – you can’t have baked beans without brown sugar!
• apple cider vinegar – the acidity helps balance the sweetness in this Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe.
• Worcestershire sauce – this adds a distinct umami flavor that really can’t be replicated! It’s also key in my creamy chicken stroganoff and mini shepherd’s pies.
• spices – you’ll need ground mustard, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper.

How to make Dr. Pepper beans:

Grab a skillet (I like to use cast iron for baked beans, as well as honey orange chicken and blistered shishitos) and cook some chopped bacon until it crisps up, then transfer the bacon to a paper towel to drain.

Use some of the bacon drippings to cook chopped onion, and then a little garlic for these skillet baked beans.

Then, you’ll be stirring in everything that makes the sauce for these Dr. Pepper beans – Dr. Pepper, molasses, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, ground mustard, Worcestershire, salt, pepper and cayenne.

You’ll also be adding the beans at this step. Simmer the Dr. Pepper beans mixture on the stovetop until everything is reduced by about a third. This gives the cast iron baked beans a head start on getting tender, and the liquid starts to reduce to a sauce.

Stir in the cooked bacon, then transfer the skillet to the oven and bake 1 hour. Whip up some steak lettuce wraps or a smoked salmon BLT for dinner while you bake the beans.

You can stir the Dr. Pepper baked beans once, halfway through, if you remember, but it’s not necessary! At the end of the hour, the sauce should be thick, glazy and delicious.

What main dish should I serve with these easy baked beans with bacon?

My favorite entree to go with this Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe is baby back ribs, like my root beer ribs or slow cooker baby back ribs (don’t forget the dry rub for ribs). Country style pork ribs oven are another great (cheap!) option.

These Dr. Pepper beans are also delicious served with chicken, like drumsticks marinated in buttermilk chicken marinade, breasts marinated in Greek marinade for chicken, or buttermilk chicken tenders.

Cast iron baked beans also make a great side dish for burgers, like my umami burger recipe or bloody mary burger, or hot dogs like my Sonoran hot dog recipe.

This Dr. Pepper baked beans recipe is also so good when paired with a simple salmon sandwich.