Say Goodbye To Bland Baked Beans With One Swicy Ingredient

Baked beans can go one of two ways. They're either deliciously creamy and packed with flavor or they're completely bland. If you get the good kind, they can really complement a heavy plate of smoked brisket or scrambled eggs, but if baked beans are dry and tasteless, they'll probably end up getting pushed aside and forgotten about. If you want to make sure that your baked beans end up sweet, smoky, and slightly spicy, then there's one ingredient you need to try out: hot honey.

Hot honey has taken the culinary world by storm in recent years. The lightly spiced condiment, which was popularized by the release of Mike's Hot Honey in 2010, is available in almost every pizzeria across America now and is often added to a range of other dishes like chicken wings, roasted vegetables, and breakfast sandwiches. When you use it on baked beans, it adds a mild heat and touch of sweetness that's balanced but robust; it's a little kick that keeps things interesting.

Incorporating it is also incredibly simple. All you need to do is drizzle some of your favorite hot honey into the beans before they're cooked and stir it through alongside all the other ingredients. You'll want to use about 2 tablespoons of hot honey for every 1 cup of beans. 

Some sautéed aromatics, like garlic and onion, are essential to good baked beans recipes, and a lot of cooks like to add additional condiments like ketchup, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Bacon, sausage, and salami also work well with in this dish, adding a robust, meaty flavor. If you're a big fan of spice, you could layer on the heat with some jalapeños, ancho chile, or chili powder. If you lean the opposite way, reach for some brown sugar. As for other seasonings, think salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, and chipotle powder.

Hot honey beans will pair well with a lot of dishes. Try scooping them onto a piece of wholegrain toast, or add them to your next plate of barbecue. You can also bulk them up with tomatoes, cheese, and veggies. If you don't have hot honey in your kitchen yet, Björn's Sweet and Spicy Colorado Honey won our ranking of 16 hot honey brands, so we suggest buying that one if you can get your hands on it. You can also easily make hot honey at home; the fastest way to make homemade hot honey is by simply combining some chili flakes with honey, warming the mixture gently on the stove, and then letting it cool before using it.