Trisha's Baked Bean Casserole

Here's a little twist on your average baked beans recipe. I saw Trisha Yearwood making it on her cooking show, and figured I'd give it a try. It's absolutely screams "summer barbecue" and it's perfect for your next cookout. It's basically a just regular baked beans recipe with the addition of ground beef and bell peppers. How can this not be good? Serve it as a side dish with your pulled pork sandwiches, or your barbecued ribs or chicken, or even serve it as a meal all by itself. It's certainly hearty enough to stand on its own! It's pretty much the perfect thing to serve with a big piece of cornbread while sitting around a campfire roasting sausages on skewers. If you're not a fan of ground beef, then by all means, just make my Favorite Baked Beans, but this one is definitely worth trying! So good!!!!

Cooking spray
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped
Two 16-ounce cans pork and beans
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
6 to 8 slices bacon, cut into pieces and cooked

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9- by 13- by 2-inch casserole dish with cooking spray.

In a large saucepan, brown the ground beef, onions and bell peppers. Add the pork and beans, barbecue sauce, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar to the mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle the bacon over the top of the casserole. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake for an additional 10 minutes. Let the casserole stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Tips:

I used my cast iron pan to cook everything, and it didn't seem necessary to transfer it to a 9x13 pan, so I just put the cover on it and put the whole pan in the oven. I'm all for less dishes, so this was an aha moment, thank you very much.

I cooked the bacon first, and then used the bacon drippings the cook the onions, peppers, and ground beef. Yes, yes, I know I could reduce the amount of fat by draining off the excess, but I could also just have a salad too. Know what I mean??