Smoked Beans with Bourbon

Fry the chopped bacon in a skillet over medium heat until the fat is mostly rendered out. Without draining, add the onions and jalapenos. Continue cooking until onions are translucent. Stir in the brown sugar until everything is nicely caramelized. Transfer to a Dutch oven. Stir in all of the other ingredients except the bourbon.

Place the Dutch oven, with the lid off, in your preheated smoker. If you have a vertical smoker put the beans right under your smoking meat so the juices drip down into your beans. Doing this with different types of meat just adds a little variety to your recipe. Cook in the smoker for about 2 hours. When your beans are almost done, add some bourbon to taste (1-2 tablespoons or so). Take the beans out of the smoker and let them cool and thicken a little before serving.

If you don’t have a smoker, or just want to cook some beans when you don’t have your smoker going, just dump all your ingredients in a crock pot and add a couple drops of liquid smoke.