The Best Canned Baked Beans Come From This Beloved Brand

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Slow-cooked and simmered in spices, canned baked beans make a filling side at a family cookout. But this pantry staple is also an awesome ingredient for bulking up chilis and cassoulets, dolloping onto baked potatoes, or even topping tacos and nachos. There are several varieties of canned baked beans available at the grocery store, but there's one beloved brand that we believe is the best. Via some judicious taste-testing and an analysis of customer reviews, it was Bush's Best baked beans that took the top spot in our ranking of eight canned baked bean brands.

Bush's Best carries many baked bean flavors, including the original, flavored with bacon and brown sugar; country style, which has a thicker sauce; and honey sweet, which is sweetened with both brown sugar and honey. You can also grab a can that's flecked with onions, a smoky barbecue variety, and a Boston option made with molasses and pork sauce. We tried the Bush's Best maple and cured bacon flavor, prepared with navy beans, cured bacon, bacon fat, and maple syrup. They had a sweet, smoky, and savory taste and a good texture, boasting over 3,000 5-star reviews on the Walmart website, with one shopper playfully stating, "Let's just say these beans are the culinary equivalent of a silk pajama set. They are comfortable, they are classic, and yes, they will absolutely make you feel a little... confident."

The cured bacon in Bush's maple baked beans slightly boosts its protein content, bringing it up to 7 grams per 130-gram serving (in contrast, Bush's vegetarian beans contain 6 grams of protein per serving). However, an ingredient that makes baked beans even more filling and protein-rich is a measure of ground beef. This Southern dish is called "cowboy beans" and differs from a classic chili because it has a higher ratio of beans to beef, making it cheaper and fiber-forward. You could also add your canned baked beans to this recipe for hamburger baked bean casserole instead of using plain ones to lend the dish an extra layer of complex flavor. 

That said, if you simply want to upgrade the taste without adding more bulk, gochujang is the unexpected Korean ingredient your baked beans need. A spoonful stirred through a store-bought can lends both sweetness and a hint of spice, but you could just as easily add a dollop to a pot of homemade beans as they simmer away on the stovetop, if you're a fan of cooking from scratch. As the gochujang cooks with the beans, it suffuses them with heat and sweetness while elevating their umami-ness