Kick Up The Heat On Baked Beans With This Affordable Canned Ingredient

The next time you're looking to give your go-to baked bean recipe an extra kick, reach for a can of pickled jalapeños. Just a few spoonfuls of these briny little peppers can bring all the spice, tang, and crunch that baked beans otherwise lack. Most jalapeños you buy from the store are preserved in a vinegar-based brine. This gives the jalapeños some acidity along with heat, which together do really well to cut through the richness and sweetness of a tomato-laden sauce. 

Even better, canned jalapeños are inexpensive (you can easily grab a can for $1 to $2), and you don't need a lot to make an impact, either. For a standard 15-ounce can of baked beans, about two tablespoons of canned jalapeños should suffice. Chop them roughly and add to the pot of baked beans. You can add more jalapeños if you enjoy spice, but it's best to do so slowly and taste as you go.

If you're worried this is going to make your baked beans too spicy, don't — there is a good reason canned jalapeños work so well in dishes like this. To put it simply, the pickling process softens the peppers and makes them taste more mild than fresh jalapeños. And in general, jalapeños aren't as spicy as they used to be because many modern varieties have been bred to have less heat. So if you like things to be spicy but without blowing your head off, this is an easy upgrade.

There's something to be said about the stage at which you add the jalapeños to your baked beans. Adding them early before heating the beans will allow the peppers to cook down a little. This will soften them and let their flavor spread throughout the sauce. Alternatively, you could add a few at the end, or even scatter them over the final dish when you serve, but this is a different experience. The jalapeños will have much more bite and will create a more noticeable contrast. 

It isn't just about the peppers though; don't forget to use the best part of canned pickled jalapeños — the brine. The liquid the jalapeños are preserved in can do a lot here, just don't tip too much in at once as most recipes contain a lot of salt and vinegar, so use it sparingly toward the end of cooking your baked beans. The vinegar will work to sharpen the tomato sauce even more, and the salt will add a little extra seasoning, so together they can make baked beans taste much more vibrant. If your canned baked beans, or the baked bean recipe you're using, is heavy on brown sugar, molasses, or barbecue sauce then this acidity will especially go a long way.

Use jalapeños strategically, however, and you can get three different benefits from just one inexpensive can. Add a spoonful of peppers early on to get a mellow heat throughout the whole baked bean sauce, pour a splash of the acidic brine in for some balance, and finally, sprinkle a few more peppers on top as garnish for little bursts of pickled jalapeños in every bite.