This baked beans recipe tastes so similar to Heinz it’s almost scary. Except homemade baked beans don’t have underlying tones of artificial flavour, and the sauce isn’t slimy which I really hate about canned baked beans!
These British baked beans can be made with dried or canned beans. Quick and easy, very economical and utterly addictive!
Heinz baked beans recipe
So there’s no misunderstanding, let me explain upfront that this recipe is for British style baked beans which comes in a semi-clear tomato sauce and is traditionally served for breakfast. It’s completely different to Southern Baked Beans which is a Southern food staple and comes with a darker, more intense flavoured sweet/savoury sauce.
Specifically, this recipe today is a copycat of Heinz baked beans. A British export, firmly adopted by Aussies as a breakfast-lunch-dinner staple.
Crack open a can, tip it over toast and microwave – that was the standard method.
Heating it up in a saucepan was the posh method. Add a slice of cheese – now that was getting real fancy!
I think we have the evolution of cooking shows and rise and rise of the internet to thank for the discovery of homemade versions of canned food favourites. And for me, homemade baked beans was one of the greatest eye openers. How simple it is. And how much tastier it is.
And as someone who always had an issue with the sliminess of the Heinz baked beans sauce, discovering homemade baked beans was revolutionary! 😂
What you need to make baked beans from scratch
Here’s what you need to make baked beans from scratch:
Canned vs dried beans
You can make this baked beans recipe with dried or canned beans. The base recipe uses dried beans because:
you can’t get canned navy beans / haricot beans here in Australia, you can only get dried (as far as I am aware); and
cooked dried beans taste better, and you can control the texture. Canned beans are always bloated from sitting in liquid, so they’re on the soft side.
Beans used for Baked Beans
Navy beans, also known as Haricot Beans, are the beans used in commercially produced canned baked beans. They are white beans that are slightly smaller than Cannellini beans.
However, any small to medium beans will work just fine here. They don’t even need to be white!
Chicken vs vegetable stock/broth
Chicken stock gives the sauce a better flavour because it has more complex flavours than vegetable stock because it’s made from meat. It doesn’t make this dish taste “chicken-like” or meaty once cooked.
However, vegetable stock does work fine but for best results, I recommend using homemade vegetable stock (it’s the easiest of all stocks to make, and really worth doing homemade).
How to make baked beans from scratch
It is literally a “mix it all in the pot and simmer” job.
The only thing to do at the end is to add cornflour/cornstarch to thicken the sauce. This needs to be done at the end because excess stirring or prolonged cooking over heat makes cornflour lose its thickening powers (in case you were wondering why cornflour is always added at the end of recipes!!)
How to serve baked beans
Traditionally thought of as a side for breakfast (think a big English breakfast with poached, fried or scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages and toast) or piled onto toast (try adding CHEESE!). But there’s so much more we can do with baked beans to make it an economical, seriously delicious meal! Here are a few suggestions:
Chicken and beans – sprinkle chicken (or any chops, or sausages) with salt and pepper. Pan fry in butter. Serve with baked beans on the side which will act as the “sauce” as well as the starch for dinner;
Sausage and beans – either slice smoked sausages, squeeze the filling out of sausage casings or use ground sausage. Cook it in a pot, add baked beans, stir through spinach = dinner in a pot!
Stuff baked potatoes (add cheese to this too!)
As a side for any dinner – serve it as the starch on a dinner plate. Beans are low in GI so they’ll keep you fuller for longer!
Emergency nachos – pile over corn chips and add a ton of cheese. How can you go wrong??
Stuff an omelette – yep, really. Make an omelette and stuff it with cheesy baked beans!
Breads for dunking
Here are a few bread options – for toasting, dunking, mopping! The first 3 breads are all ideal for slicing > toasting > smothering with baked beans.
For me personally, I like to serve it in a bowl with bread for dunking. The whole “smother toast” thing doesn’t do it for me because I like to eat toast with my hands (well, put another way, I hate using a knife and fork for toast).
And if you pile baked beans over toast, eating it with your hands is messy business.
So I prefer the bowl method – spoon + bread for dunking. Practical and effective! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Watch how to make this baked beans recipe – and see how truly similar it is to Heinz baked beans!
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Homemade Heinz Baked Beans
Ingredients
Beans – choose ONE (Note 1):
- 2 cups (14 oz) dried Navy beans (aka Haricot) or other white beans
- 3 x 400g/14oz cans harricot/navy beans, cannellini or any white beans , drained
Baked beans:
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium, OR homemade vegetable stock (Note 2)
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 6 tbsp ketchup or Aussie/British tomato sauce (Note 3)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or more onion powder)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (or more garlic powder)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Sauce thickening:
- 8 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
Cook dried beans:
- No need to do these steps if using canned beans, start with Step 1 under "Baked Beans" below.
- Soak beans in a big bowl of water for 8 – 24 hrs, then drain.
- Skim foam – Place beans in a large pot of water over high heat. Bring to a simmer, then skim off foam.
- Simmer Reduce heat so it's simmering gently (medium or medium low). Partially cover with lid (leaving a crack for steam to escape), then cook for 1 – 1.5 hrs until just tender. (Start checking at 45 min). Beans should be still slightly firm on inside (they're cooked more in the sauce). Drain, use per recipe.
Baked Beans:
- Mix – Place all Baked Beans ingredients in a pot (except beans) and stir, then add beans.
- Simmer – Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes, without the lid. Stir every now and then so the beans don't catch on the bottom of the pot.
Thicken sauce:
- Mix cornflour with water. Pour into pot while stirring, then cook for 2 minutes until sauce thickens – it will thicken quickly. (Note 3)
- Check for salt: Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Serve it the traditional way – piled over hot buttered toast. Or ladle into bowls, eat with a spoon and dunk in hot crusty bread! Popular breads – simple crusty Artisan bread, Irish Soda Bread (No yeast) and No Yeast Sandwich Bread
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published May 2014. Updated with more streamlined, better recipe (skipped unnecessary extras that didn’t add to the end result), new photos, new video and Life of Dozer section added in May 2020!
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Lina says
Hi. Beans are excellent. Can I put them in jars and process the so they don’t require refrigeration. Best, Lina
Steve Jowett says
I have made these quite a few times. They are way better than store bought canned beans. Thank you!
Brett Walker says
I cooked my Navy Beans for 20 minutes in a pressure cooker to shorten the cooking time. What a delightful recipe. This is a keeper.
Monica says
Hi Nagi,
I love this recipe, and I grew up eating Heinz and bachelors beans. Do you have a different recipe for the batches Beans?
I followed your instructions, exactly, and I even gave the cook time extra, but for the life of me, I cannot soften the beans, and I feel like my sauce has dried out a little. Any tips?
Thanks Monica 💕
Omi says
Hi. You need to soak beans overnight with baking soda and water.
Lydia says
Did you get a response or anywhere with softening the beans? I’m having the same issue. I used tinned beans but they’re so hard
Monica says
Hi Again,
That was supposed to read, do you have another recipe for batchelors baked beans ?
Thanks, Monica
Dorothy Readman says
Can these be stored in sterilised jars instead of freezer
Brittany says
These are fantastic. I just canned a bunch using this recipe (but without thickening the sauce) and the usda bean canning instructions. The beans released starch and thickened the sauce while pressure canning and they taste just like Heinz but at a fraction of the price!
Cynthia Armstrong says
I made this recipe as written. It is delicious!! The directions are clear and complete. Thank you for putting in the dried bean alternative.
JustDoingThisNow says
This recipe bangs! Better than Heinz! Poured over jacket potato, perfect. I was able to halve everything, as it was just for me and the toddler, and it worked well. Ta very much Nagi!
anna says
Can you freeze them?
Marcia says
Heinz are now €1.75 a tin in Spain so I just made these, wow they’re yummy and a real taste of home (UK).
Bob Alfa says
Thank you for this great stuff.
Will be making it now and promise to report my success.
Ruby says
Made this today and it is delicious. Heinz beans are now $4 a can here, so it saves a bundle to cook them from scratch.
Charles says
Made this recipe twice now. Once with Navy beans and another time with Great Northern. The great northerns fell apart a little more but still tasted great. This recipe is just like the Heinz back in Australia.
Nichola says
This was amazing. I did it in the Instant Pot – put all the ingredients as listed and put on high pressure for an hour with 10mins release. They turned out perfectly.
Ren says
This is pretty close to the canned Heinz. I was really impressed. So good, in fact better than canned. I do not believe these freeze well though. It changed the texture and flavor. Bonus points that it is really easy to make.
Carol says
Just had these for lunch, delicious, made with dried beans as that’s all we can get here in Greece. Just wondering if I could make these in my slow cooker
Ash says
Just made this! Love it so much! I cut back the sugar to just 1 tablespoon as I was worried it might come out too sweet. Then when I tasted it, I realized you were right about 3 tablespoons. Never mind, I will add more sugar for each batch that I heat up haha.
Also love the fact that this is all made using dried beans, no canned food chemicals.
Plus so much more economical than buying canned ones!
Hywel says
Very pleased with this recipe as it is quite similar to the original Heinz beans. Added 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar instead of the 3 tbsp and thought it was sweet enough. Thank you Nagi for the wonderful recipe. -Hywel
Maree English says
They do taste just like Heinz baked beans, really lovely.
I followed the recipe exactly, ingredients wise, but decided to skip precooking my soaked beans, big mistake, will definitely pre cook them next time, it’s taking me ages to get them on the soft side, but they taste great.
Laila says
I am so making this for my Heinz-beans-addicted English hubby and our equally addicted kiddos. Heinz beans are like 4-leaf clovers here in the U.S. and crazy expensive. One can is $3.29 USD compared to a can of American style baked beans (sugary sweet, blech!) for 0.79.
Vaughn says
Just made another pot of these to divide into individual servings to freeze. After seeing a can of Heinz beans at the market for $4.99 USD I about had a heart attack. These are delicious and IMO taste better.
Paul. says
Cooked this today 😋
I’m in love…😊