Best Instant Pot Baked Beans
Best Instant Pot Baked Beans Recipe: Skip the overnight bean soaking and make Pressure Cooker Baked Beans in less than an hour!
Best Instant Pot Baked Beans Recipe
I know, I know… Anytime you title something “the best” you are drawing a line in the sand. It’s certainly not something I do lightly.
However, after experimenting with many instant pot bean recipes, and specifically baked beans recipes, I feel like I can say with some authority that this is the BEST baked bean recipe we’ve ever made.
Why is this Pressure Cooker Baked Beans Recipe the Best?
- Economy – When you make baked beans from scratch, you can either start with canned pinto or navy beans… Or really make them from scratch and start with dried beans. Canned beans tend to cost 3-4 times what you would pay for an equal amount of cooked dried beans.
- Ease – The reason why people still choose canned beans over dried beans, is that normally you have to plan ahead when cooking dried beans. For the absolute best texture, the beans should be soaked overnight. However, did you know you can put dried beans straight into the Instant Pot, unsoaked, and cook them in less than half an hour?! The texture turns out just as if they have soaked overnight.
- Intensity – Not only will the texture turn out perfectly soft and silky, pressure cooking the beans with this specific blend of bacon, onions, garlic, peppers, and spices infuses the beans with deep flavor. So they taste as if they’ve been baking for hours.
That’s right… You can make melt-in-your-mouth tangy-sweet and smoky beans that start with dried beans in less than one hour.
And all your friends will ask for the recipe.
You’re welcome.
How to Make Baked Beans In the Instant Pot
The key the making the Best Instant Pot Baked Beans Recipe is to cook the beans twice.
Don’t be tempted to dump all the ingredients in at once. Most successful pressure cooking methods are not the same as using a slow-cooker.
- Therefore, pressure cook the beans in just salted water first, to create the soak effect and partially cook them.
- Then take the beans out of the Instant Pot and sauté the bacon and veggies.
- Once the remaining ingredients are in the pressure cooker, stir the beans back in and cook a short time longer.
Get the Full (Printable) Best Instant Pot Baked Beans Recipe Below!
This twice-cooked method also protects the peppers and onions from cooking into mush.
It’s nice to have a little variation in texture in each bite!
Best Pressure Cooker Bake Beans Key Ingredients
- Dried Pinto Beans
- Thick-Cut Bacon
- Onions, Peppers, Garlic
- BBQ Sauce
- Mustard
- Brown Sugar
- Liquid Smoke
There are a a few other pantry-staple ingredients involved.
However, the ingredients above give you the biggest bang for your buck in the flavor department.
It’s best not to skimp them!
More Of Our Best Instant Pot Recipes
- Bang Bang Shrimp Pasta
- Sweet Soy Chicken Thighs
- Perfect Butter Chicken Curry
- Healthy Chinese Sesame Chicken
Best Instant Pot Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried pinto beans (or navy beans)
- 9 1/4 cups water, divided
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped thick-cut bacon, about 6 slices
- 1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup barbecue sauce
- 3 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Place the pinto beans, 8 cups of water, and salt in the Instant Pot. Lock the lid into place and set on Pressure Cook High for 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, turn the Instant Pot off and perform a Quick Release. Once the steam valve button drops it is safe to open the Instant Pot. Pour the cooked beans into a large colander and drain.
- Set the Instant Pot on Sauté. Add the bacon. Stir and brown for about 5 minutes. Once the bacon is crispy, add in the chopped onions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook another 3-4 minutes to soften the vegetables.
- Then pour in the beans, barbecue sauce, mustard, tomato paste, brown sugar, liquid smoke, cinnamon, and remaining 1 ¼ cups water. Stir well to coat the beans. Lock the lid into place again. Set on Pressure Cook High for 10 minutes.
- Once finished, perform a second Quick Release. Once the valve button drops, open the Instant Pot, stir and serve!
Video
Nutrition
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Burn, burn, burn! Three times trying and each time instant pot gives me a burn error. Ingredients seem good though. I end up finishing on the stove for an hour
Hi Mark,
Oh no! Can you tell me what size/model of Instant Pot you have? That might help me figure out what happened…
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Hi Sommer! I love your recipes, thank you for the inspiration. Can this recipe be baked in the oven or put in the crockpot?
Hi Lesley,
Thank you so much! Yes, absolutely! In the slow cooker dried beans will take 8-10 hours cooked on low. :)
I agree – these are the best baked beans! Even before the instant pot I was always searching for the perfect recipe but never found it. These were great! I did puree the veggies in the the processor before sautéing them since I have some family members who don’t like “chunky veggies” in things.
Thanks for a great recipe!!
These beans are amazing, I’ve made several times! I follow Weight Watchers and choose to use sugar free bbq and a brown sugar alternative for less points. I’ve also added leftover ham or tomato sauce if I have it.
Right now I’m in middle of making these beans omg they smell so good I hope they come out right because I hate liquid smoke and cinnamon so instead I added smoked paprika and no cin think they will be ok like that?thanks for this recipe
This is a fabulous recipe! I made it without the bacon for a vegan version, and left out the brown sugar. Everyone loved it!
Wow, these beans were SO good!! We’re only a house of two, but we ate the whole batch over the course of a few days. Terrific w/the barbecue ribs, awesome w/hot dogs, excellent with meatloaf. The only change was to omit liquid smoke – didn’t have any – and subbed some leftover momo sauce from the Tibetan takeaway. Speesy-spicy!! YUM!
Next time, I’m making a batch and a half! We like them for an easy lunch, too. Thanks for the easy and complete directions/recipe.
The beans tasted great and thankfully were done after the initial time in the Instant pot. But, I think the beans really don’t need 10 more minutes under pressure which was good.
Awesome and Easy! I left out the bacon and substituted 2 tsp smoked paprika for liquid smoke.
It is a good recipe. I did not have liquid smoke, so I used chipotle pepper. It was spicy but good. I only gave it 4 stars because the pinto beans I used were not completely soft but were “al dente.” Maybe needed a little more salt or a little more time during the initial bean cooking.
Hi I made this tonight for the family and they all loved it.. I have passed it on to some friends just getting started with instapots. My problem arose when I was in the last 10 minute cook cycle. My instapot shut down announcing burning food. When I depressurized and opened it it wasn’t burning. Wonder if it needs more liquid?
Hi Deborah,
Yes, that’s the trick with Instant Pots… Depending on the size and model, sometimes you do need to add a little more liquid to a recipe. Sorry about that!
Do you think this recipe could double in a 6 quart without being too much? I am hoping to make a giant batch of this for labor day.
The reason I would like to double it is because i tried it earlier this year and I agree- These are the BEST BAKED BEANS EVER!
Hi Christy,
I’m so glad you like it! I might try making 1.5 batches instead of a double batch, just to be sure there are not issues.
Thank you for the recipe. Wonderful flavor! My beans were just a little harder than we like, though. Would you suggest adding 5 minutes to the initial bean cook time, or adding more time to the second cook?
This is the 2nd time I have made this recipe and it is now my go to way of making baked
beans! My additions are I grill bratwurst and cut it into small pieces, add sriracha, Worcester, and some Maple syrup. Excellent!
What size instant pot are you using? Do you think I could double this recipe in a 6 quart pot?
Hi Kevin,
I’m so glad you like them! Your add-ins sound fabulous!! :)
I tried this and got a burn notice during the second bake of the beans. I was able to cook them on sauté for a while until the flavors came together but they turned out just okay. I’d like to try again. Any tips for avoiding the burn notice?
Hi Lisa,
This seems to happen when people have a different sized instant pot than mine. I’ve found this article really helpful: https://www.crunchycreamysweet.com/instant-pot-burn-message/
Like camp beans. Super easy to make and I didn’t have to heat up my kitchen.
Our favorite side dish for summer BBQs!! thanks for the recipe
I’ll be taking these to all my summer BBQ’s!
This is seriously the best way to make baked beans!! Soooo yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Best recipe I found…Just made a few adjustments, some due to ingredients on hand, some due to personal preference:
Instead of dried beans, used canned pintos, and picked it up after the dried beans are cooked first time. Only had one can, so cut everything in about half (next time will Luise 2 cans and same amounts).
Sub’ed ketchup for tomato paste, yellow mustard for spicy brown, and worchestershire (sp?) for liquid smoke. Turned out really good – its like the difference between homemade sloppy joes and canned. :-)
Looks like a tasty recipe, but it is not correct that there would only be 1 gm of fat per serving if there is a cup of bacon. Bacon contains an average of 42 gms of fat per 100 gms of bacon. assuming that 1 cup volume is at approximately 200 gms, there would be 84 gms of fat in the recipe, which divide by 12 would be 8 gms of fat per serving. It is also impossible that there would be only 1 mg of cholesterol as there would be an average of 220 mgs in 200 gms of bacon, or 18 mgs per serving. Not that it’s not tasty, but just sayin’. Cheers
Hi Jay,
We ran the recipe through an exterior recipe calculator (not just the automated built-in calculator for our site) and have adjusted the recipe… However, the facts still come out lower than you suggest. Hope this helps! :)
Made this today to serve with barbecued burgers for dinner. Excellent recipe! So easy and the flavor was terrific. Everyone raved about them. Thank you!
This is my new go-to BBQ side dish!
LOVE this recipe! Making this weekend to have with burgers!
These look and sound delicious! I am making them this week! Hubby is going to love them!!
I followed directions to the T for a 4th of July celebration in my community, Ft Myers florida..
My baked beans were gone in minutes while other baked bean dishes went in touched.