This is a very clever idea from A Taste of Cowboy Kent Rollins. So clever, in fact, that I’m still wondering why I never thought of this. Most of us love baked beans as a substantial side dish for a comfort-food dinner. Here Kent takes us to the now-obvious next step: add some meat to make this a complete one-dish meal.
Kent notes that all you need to round out the meal is some corn bread or biscuits. Out on the range, Kent doesn’t make a lot of salads for his cowboys, but you could use one here, too.
The ingredients here call for canned pork and beans, store-bought barbeque sauce and packaged chili seasoning. Usually in this blog, we write about making everything from scratch. If you are a cowboy cook using a chuck wagon like Kent, you just can’t do that. If you are on a camping trip or out in the mountains in a cabin far from stores, then this is just the kind of recipe that will get you through your happy, energetic week.
One-Stop Barbeque Bean Bake
Yield: serves 6 to 8
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds ground beef
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
- 1 to 2 jalapenos, diced
- 2 (15-ounce) cans pork and beans, drained
- 1 cup store-bought barbeque sauce or Sweet Heat Barbeque Sauce (see page 59 in your copy of the book!)
- 1 (7-ounce) can green chilies
- 1 (1.25-ounce) package chili seasoning
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-x-13-inchI casserole dish.
In a 12-inch cast iron skillet, begin browning the meat over medium-high heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste while cooking. When the meat is about halfway done, add the onions and jalapenos and continue cooking until the meat has fully browned and the onions are tender. Drain the excess grease.
Pour the mixture into the casserole dish and stir in the remaining ingredients. Taste the mixture, because you may want to add more barbecue sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, or mustard to suit your taste buds.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the casserole is bubbling. Serve hot.
Source: A Taste of Cowboy by Kent Rollins [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015]