Elevated Beanie Weenie Casserole Recipe

If you haven't heard of beanie weenies before, it might be because you refer to them by their other name: Beans and franks (or franks and beans). It's also possible that you've never heard of them at all, the dish being one of America's many long-forgotten comfort foods. Loved by both outdoorsy campers and backyard barbecue aficionados alike, the dish combines sliced hot dogs and canned baked beans to make a saucy, creamy, tangy all-in-one meal or side dish that packs on the protein with hardly any effort at all. It's the perfect way to use up leftover hot dogs with pantry staples you may already have on hand, and it infuses any can of baked beans with meaty flavor.

Nostalgia aside, beanie weenies aren't exactly a glamorous dish. To elevate a basic beanie weenie recipe, I swapped the hot dogs for andouille sausage and added bell pepper, which, combined with bourbon and barbecue sauce, makes for a smoky, deeply savory, hearty, and comforting casserole with Cajun-inspired flavor. The casserole comes together on the stove and finishes in the oven, baking into layers of flavor with a homemade cornbread crust topping that makes the bean-filled side dish a full and satisfying meal.

To start this casserole, you'll need oil, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, onion, garlic, and either andouille or smoked sausage. From there, you'll also need two cans of beans. I recommend using kidney and great northern beans, which each offer a tender bean with a buttery texture when cooked, but you can also use pinto, black, or navy beans. Grab a little bit of decent bourbon (don't use your nicest bottle here), barbecue sauce, beef broth, salt, and pepper. For the cornbread topping, grab cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and melted butter.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Heat the oil in a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat.

Add the sausage and brown it on both sides, for about 6 minutes.

Add the bell peppers and onion and cook to soften, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir.

Add the beans, bourbon, BBQ sauce, beef broth, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and stir. Simmer for 10-15 minutes while preparing the cornbread topping.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt.

In a second bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, and butter together until smooth.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour, stirring until fully incorporated.

Smooth the cornbread batter across the casserole as much as possible. The layer will be very thin across the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cornbread is golden brown and spongy.

Remove from the oven and serve.

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You can make this elevated beanie weenie recipe in a casserole dish, but it may be harder to do so than making it entirely in an oven-proof skillet. Because the filling is partially cooked before going into the oven, it is cumbersome to transfer it from the skillet to the casserole dish. While you can simply make the filling in a skillet and carefully transfer it to the dish, you can also use an easier method to prepare this in a casserole dish, especially if you are short on skillet space.

To make this casserole without needing to pour too many ingredients into the dish at once, brown the sausage first and transfer it, then repeat with the peppers, garlic, and onions, and finally reduce the bourbon, barbecue sauce, and beef broth and pour over the cooked ingredients and beans in the dish. Don't be tempted to throw everything into the casserole dish uncooked, because the sausage won't brown, the bourbon won't reduce during the short cook time, and you'll be left with a bitter, undercooked filling.

A cornbread topping can be a little mystifying to make because of how scant the batter looks before you bake it. Believe it or not, even though the batter is only ¼-inch or so thick, the cornbread will bake into a thick 1-inch topping (or thicker for smaller skillets). Spread the cornbread batter as thin as possible without mixing it entirely into the filling so that the cornbread bakes into a thin, even top layer. For bigger skillets, this may still not quite reach the sides, but you can adjust the recipe as needed based on your skillet size.

If you are using a particularly wide skillet or casserole dish, you can double the cornbread topping recipe to cover the entire top of the casserole. This casserole is designed for 8- to 10-inch cast iron skillets and 9 x 13 casserole dishes. If your dish is larger, you may want to double the recipe — just be sure to spread the cornbread thin over the bean layer so that your cornbread doesn't overpower the dish.

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