Experience the ultimate fall side dish: slow-cooked apple butter baked beans with bacon. Perfect for bonfires, tailgating, game days, and family feasts.
– 1 lb bacon – 3lb 7 oz can baked bean – 1 yellow onion, chopped – 1-2 apples, peeled and diced – ½ lb (half of a 16 ounce jar) apple butter, or up to the whole jar for sweeter beans. – 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, or more to taste.
Crisp the bacon and reserve the grease. Chop bacon. In a crock pot, combine beans, onion, apple, apple butter, half the chopped bacon, and 2-3 tablespoons of bacon oil.
Mix it all together by stirring it. For three to four hours, cook on high. You can also let it cook for 6 hours on low. Take off the lid and stir everything around.
Taste it after you add the cider vinegar. Before you stir it, the sauce will look a little thin. But as you stir it and let it sit with the lid off, it will get thicker.
For the last half hour of cooking, I like to take off the lid. Serve the beans with the rest of the bacon on top.